How many local businesses actually reply to their online reviews? In July 2026 we analyzed the 2,000 most recent Google reviews across 10 New York City businesses — 7 restaurants and 3 dental practices, each with 50+ reviews and a rating between 3.0 and 4.5–4.8 stars. The businesses are anonymized here (R-A to R-G for restaurants, D-A to D-C for dental practices). The result is blunt: 9 of 10 respond to 21% of their reviews or less — and 5 of 10 respond to almost none (2% or less).
The headline numbers
- Median owner response rate: about 4%. Only one business in the set (a pizzeria) responded to more than half — 45%.
- 276 negative reviews sit unanswered across just these 10 businesses — each one a public complaint with no public reply, read by every prospective customer.
- Average rating: 4.36 stars. These are not failing businesses. They are good businesses leaving reputation on the table.
The complaints nobody answers
Unanswered negative reviews are not evenly distributed. The restaurant with a 0% response rate has 54 public complaints without a single reply. Even the best-rated business in our set — a café at 4.69 stars — responds to about 1% of reviews and carries 14 unanswered complaints. A high rating hides the risk; it does not remove it.
What actually drives the 1-star tail
Across all 10 businesses, the majority of reviewers praise the core product — the food, or the clinical treatment. The negative tail comes from operations around it:
- Restaurants: complaints cluster measurably on Friday to Sunday evenings between 5 and 9 pm — reservation chaos, long waits, front-of-house friction. In our experience this peak-hour pattern is the single most actionable finding for owners.
- Dental practices (3 of 3 in our set): clinically excellent, but front-desk experience and billing or insurance surprises drive the negative reviews. The money conversation, not the dentistry, decides the rating.
- Delivery: one restaurant in the set shows stellar dine-in reviews next to a majority-negative delivery record — same kitchen, two different reputations.
Why response rate matters
When potential customers see an owner replying thoughtfully to feedback — positive and negative — it commonly builds confidence before the first visit. A visible response to a complaint demonstrates accountability; silence lets the complaint stand as the last word. And with response rates this low, replying is also one of the cheapest ways to stand out locally: in this set, a business that simply answers its negative reviews would be doing more than 9 of its 10 peers.
Methodology
Data collected in July 2026: the 200 most recent public Google reviews per business (2,000 total), for 10 NYC businesses selected by category (restaurants, dental practices), review volume (50+) and rating band. Response rates measure public owner replies on Google. Businesses are anonymized; aggregated figures only. Analysis by Get Kandid, a review-intelligence service — we read every review a business has and turn it into a plain-English report.
FAQ
What is a good review response rate?
There is no official standard, but in this dataset the median was about 4% — so responding to even a quarter of reviews would put a business far ahead of its neighbors. We recommend prioritizing negative reviews first.
Do owners have to respond to every review?
No. Negative reviews and detailed feedback deserve replies first; short 5-star ratings can be acknowledged selectively. Consistency matters more than completeness.
How was this data collected?
Via public Google Maps review data (200 most recent reviews per business), analyzed with the same pipeline that powers the Get Kandid Report.
Want to know your own response rate, your unanswered-complaint backlog, and what your reviews actually say? Get your free Get Kandid report — no card, no call.