What Is Review Response Rate?
Review response rate is the percentage of your reviews that have a reply from the business. If a profile has 200 reviews and the owner has replied to 150 of them, the response rate is 75%. Google has said that replying to reviews shows customers you value their feedback, and the reply is visible to everyone reading the profile, so the rate is a practical measure of whether a location is actually being managed.
Last updated 2026-10-03
How to improve your review response rate
- Reply to every new review, positive and negative, not just the complaints.
- Set a response window (for example 48 hours) and assign an owner for each location.
- Use AI-drafted replies as a starting point so a short thank-you does not take ten minutes.
- Work through the backlog of unanswered reviews, newest first.
- Track the rate per location rather than as one company-wide figure.
How to calculate review response rate
Divide the number of reviews with an owner reply by the total number of reviews, then multiply by 100. For a more useful view, calculate it over a recent window such as the last 90 days, so old unanswered reviews do not drag down a location that is now doing well.
Pair the rate with response time: the average gap between a review being posted and the reply. A high rate with replies arriving weeks late tells a different story from a slightly lower rate with replies the same day.
Why it matters
Prospective customers read replies as evidence of how a business treats people when something goes wrong. A thoughtful reply to a critical review can reassure readers more than the review itself worries them.
For multi-location businesses the rate is also a management signal. A location with a low rate usually has no clear owner for reviews, which is cheaper to fix than the reviews it will go on to miss.
Common mistakes
- Replying only to negative reviews, which makes the profile look defensive.
- Letting the rate slide at one location while the network average hides it.
- Using an identical copy-pasted reply on every review, which readers notice.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good review response rate?
- There is no official benchmark. Most businesses aim to reply to close to every review, and treat anything under about 80% over the last 90 days as a gap worth closing.
- Does responding to reviews improve Google rankings?
- Google says replying to reviews shows customers you value their feedback, but it does not publish response rate as a ranking factor. The clearer benefit is trust: readers see that the business is attentive.
- Should I reply to positive reviews too?
- Yes. A short, specific thank-you takes little effort and shows that engagement is not reserved for complaints.
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