We read twenty coffee shops in the set someone searching around Savage is shown, and not one of them had answered any of its recent reviews. That is the only trade in this group where the data can say something about every business we looked at, and what it says is the same for all twenty. The three most-reviewed coffee listings in that set carry 1,259, 920 and 838 Google reviews — whole-listing counts, not recent ones.
Cafés, read as their own trade, look different in the parts we can see. Jensen's Cafe answered 10 of its last 10, on a listing holding 3,405 reviews. Casa Deli Restaurant answered 6 of its last 10, on 965. Those are the two answering the most of the twenty cafés we read; the rest of the twenty we did not name, and we know nothing about how they reply.
Food trucks hold the thinnest files of the six food and drink trades here, at a median of 36 reviews, against 1,258 for bars, 934.5 for restaurants, 256.5 for cafés, 255 for coffee shops and 116.5 for bakeries. Depth and answering turn out to be separate things. The Savage Tap answered 10 of its last 10 on a listing of 112 reviews. Mi Tierra Taqueria Food Truck answered 9 of its last 10 on 282. Ineffable Brewing Company answered 6 of its last 10 on 400. In the two deepest trades by median, restaurants and bars, the same business tops both lists: Whiskey Inferno Meat House & Craft Bar, at 2 of its last 10, on a listing of 1,928 reviews. Hy-Vee leads the bakeries at 3 of its last 10, on 3,362.
A typical business among the 40 we measured in what a searcher in Savage is shown answered 82% of its recent reviews. Median ratings in this group sit at 4.6 for restaurants, cafés and coffee shops, 4.65 for bakeries and food trucks, and 4.3 for bars. A median is one figure for a whole trade; it does not tell you which listing is which, and nothing on this page is ordered by stars.
What to do about it
Coffee shops give the plainest result on this page: twenty read, and not one had answered any of its recent reviews. If that is your trade, the starting point is not a plan, it is the most recent handful of reviews sitting on your own listing.
Where a listing carries hundreds — the biggest coffee listings in this set sit at 1,259, 920 and 838 — working back through the whole file is not the job, and it is not what these counts measure either. The reply figures here are drawn from each business's most recent reviews; the review totals are the whole listing. So take the recent end, answer those, and then hold the recent end rather than treating it as a single clear-out. Answer the ones that said something kind as well as the ones that raised a problem. And write each reply yourself instead of pasting one sentence under ten different names — a reply that repeats word for word says less than a short one that mentions what the person actually wrote.
Restaurants
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whiskey Inferno Meat House & Craft Bar | 2 of 10 | 1928 | 4.3 |
Cafés
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jensen's Cafe | 10 of 10 | 3405 | 4.6 |
| 2 | Casa Deli Restaurant | 6 of 10 | 965 | 4.8 |
Coffee shops
We read 20 coffee shops businesses here and not one had answered a single one of its ten most recent reviews. The first owner here who replies is the only one doing it.
Bars
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whiskey Inferno Meat House & Craft Bar | 2 of 10 | 1928 | 4.3 |
Bakeries
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hy-Vee | 3 of 10 | 3362 | 4.5 |
Food trucks
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Savage Tap | 10 of 10 | 112 | 4.9 |
| 2 | Mi Tierra Taqueria Food Truck | 9 of 10 | 282 | 4.8 |
| 3 | Ineffable Brewing Company | 6 of 10 | 400 | 4.6 |