Reviews, Reputation & Reality ⭐
What groomers really think about Google reviews and what the data reveals.
Happy Friday Daily Groomers,
This past week we asked you about something almost every groomer thinks about… but rarely systemizes:
Google reviews.
I’ll be honest.
I wasn’t sure how much people even cared.
Are reviews a priority? Are they an afterthought? Is it just “if they come, they come”?
Then a few folks replied to my email and absolutely cussed me out 😅
They thought I had personally left their business a review without ever stepping foot in their shop.
Which… I didn’t.
LOL… shoulda taken a second to read what the email was about…
But it told me something important:
You care.
A lot.
Even the idea of a review hits a nerve.
So we ran some polls.
And here’s what the data tells us:
How many Google reviews do you get per month?
- 0–1 reviews — 42%
- 2–5 reviews
- 6–10 reviews
- 10+ reviews
The biggest group?
Zero to one.
Some of your comments:
“We usually get about one a month.”
“I usually get 1 or 2 reviews per year.”
“I don’t ask for reviews — if they’re happy, customers will come back.”
“I depend more on word of mouth.”
That last one came up a lot.
Most Groomers Don’t Actually Ask
When we asked how you request reviews, the leading answer was:
👉 “I don’t ask.”
And it wasn’t defiant. It was honest.
“Trying to keep track of who I’ve asked takes too much time.”
“I wish my software would handle it.”
“I never ask. Don’t know why, just don’t.”
This isn’t laziness.
It’s bandwidth.
You’re hands-on with dogs all day.
Managing schedules.
Handling coat conversations.
Fielding last-minute cancellations.
Asking for reviews falls to the bottom of the list.
But Here’s The Real Tension…
We also asked:
What stresses you out more?
Half of you said:
👉 Dealing with bad reviews.
Not getting more reviews.
Bad ones.
And the language you used says everything:
“It scares me that it’s tied to my business forever.”
“They threaten you and say I’m going to post a bad review.”
“I emotionally wanted to fight back.”
“Recently let an employee go and got 1-star reviews.”
This isn’t about marketing.
It’s about reputation protection.
The Quiet Risk
If most groomers are getting 0–1 reviews per month…
That means it doesn’t take much to stand out.
Five consistent reviews a month = 60 per year.
Over three years? 180 fresh signals to Google.
Meanwhile, another shop might still be sitting on the same 40 reviews from 2019.
The quality of work may be identical.
The visibility won’t be.
And when someone searches:
“Dog groomer near me”
Google doesn’t see word of mouth.
It sees reviews.
The Shops That Feel Stable
The most stable shops tend to have:
✔️ Strong rebooking habits
✔️ Automated reminders
✔️ Consistent review generation
✔️ Professional responses to every review
When you have a steady stream of positive reviews, one bad one doesn’t feel like a threat to your identity.
It feels like a speed bump.
Volume creates emotional insulation.
My Take
This isn’t about chasing stars.
It’s about building insulation.
If you’re in the 0–1 per month group, you’re not behind.
You’re normal.
But normal doesn’t win search.
Systems do.
Even a simple shift… asking consistently, automating the request, responding to every review calmly…. can completely change how your shop looks online within a year.
And that compounds.
Strong shops don’t just groom well.
They’re visible.
For the love of grooming,
Alex
🛠️ Behind The Scenes Building Teddy
One thing almost every groomer complains about with their software?
Support.
Slow replies. No straight up answers. Waiting for features to actually work as advertised.
Right now, all of our Teddy customers literally have our personal cell numbers in a group chat.
When something breaks.
When they’re confused.
When they need help mid-day.
They text us. And it gets handled.
Is that scalable forever? Probably not in this exact format.
But the spirit behind it is.
Fast. Human. Accountable.
World-class support isn’t a feature. It’s a standard.
And that’s the north star we’re building toward.
