TL;DR
Pet parents research your facility long before they call, and reviews are the first impression they form — the tour before the tour. The majority of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and what they weigh most isn’t the star rating. Consistency across reviews ranks first, followed by what the reviewer describes and how recently the review was written. The clearest opportunity is response. Nearly nine in ten consumers expect businesses to reply. Replying to every review outperforms replying selectively. And templated responses put off half of all readers. Ask within 24 hours of pickup, coach for specifics rather than length, respond personally and fast, and build a presence beyond Google — the average consumer now checks six review sites.
A pet parent finds your facility during a Saturday morning Google search. They have a trip coming up, a dog who has never been boarded before, and approximately four minutes before the kids need breakfast and backpacks for school.
They’re not ready to call you. Not yet, anyway. There’s something they’ll do first…
They WILL read your reviews.
Welcome to the tour before the tour — the first real impression of your facility, formed entirely without your involvement. No handshake, no walkthrough, no chance to explain your protocols or introduce the staff. Just a one-timer’s account of what happened when they left their dog with you.
And here’s the thing: almost everyone takes that tour. According to BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses. Forty-one percent now say they always read them when browsing, up sharply from just a year earlier.
The question is not whether pet parents are reading your reviews. It is what they find when they do.
Why Reviews Carry More Weight in Pet Care
Every industry gets reviews. Few have stakes like these.
A Pew Research Center study shows nearly all pet owners describe their pets as family members. That’s not marketing sentiment — it changes how people shop. Choosing a boarding facility is closer to choosing childcare than to picking a restaurant, and prospective customers behave accordingly. They research thoroughly, scrutinize heavily, and are far less willing to take a chance on an unknown.
That caution shows up plainly in the numbers. Per BrightLocal’s study, nearly half of consumers — 47% — will not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and only 9% will consider one with five or fewer. For a facility still building a profile, that is not a soft preference. It is a wall.
The rating bar is climbing too, and quickly.
- 68% of consumers now say they will only use a business with four or more stars, up from 55% in 2025.
- 31% require 4.5 stars or better — nearly double the 17% who said so a year earlier.
A rating that was perfectly acceptable last year? It may very well read as substandard today.
What Pet Parents Actually Look For
Most operators assume the star rating carries the decision. It matters. But when BrightLocal asked which factors make a review feel trustworthy, the ranking wasn’t what you’d expect.
- Consistency, not perfection. The single most important factor is whether a review is backed up by others saying similar things. One glowing testimonial persuades almost nobody. A pattern does.
- What the reviewer actually said. The written description of the experience ranks ahead of the star rating itself.
- Recency. Roughly three-quarters of consumers only care about reviews from the last three months — and a growing share are looking at the last two weeks.
- A visible response from the owner. Fifth on the list, and by some distance the most actionable item on it. More on that shortly.
And here’s the one most operators get backwards: the least important factor on the entire list is whether a review is long and detailed. Short and happy works perfectly well. You’re not asking anyone to write an essay.
What Reviews Can Make People Do
Reviews move people. But they rarely move them straight to the phone.
Positive reviews make consumers substantially more likely to use a business, and negative ones push them away just as forcefully. None of that is surprising. What’s more useful is where they go next.
After reading positive reviews, the most common next step isn’t calling — it’s visiting the website. More than half do, and BrightLocal notes that figure has climbed dramatically since they last measured it in 2019. Only about a third are ready to act immediately. The rest keep researching: more reviews, social media, a drive past the building.
Your reviews earn the click. Your website has to close it. If a pet parent arrives from a glowing review and finds a site that’s dated, hard to navigate, or silent on vaccination requirements and daily routines, the review did its job and the website undid it.
The Response Opportunity
Here’s the finding worth acting on this week.
According to BrightLocal, nearly nine in 10 consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews. And responding works: a large majority say they’re more likely to use a business that replies to all of its reviews, while a significant share say they’re unlikely to use one that never replies at all.
Note the word “all.” Responding selectively performs noticeably worse. A business that replies only to praise, or only to complaints, gets far less credit than one treating every review as worth acknowledging.
Two things matter almost as much as responding in the first place.
- Speed. Most consumers expect to hear back within a week, and the share expecting a same-day reply tripled in a single year. Customers accustomed to instant replies on messaging apps read a three-week silence as indifference.
- Sincerity. Templated or generic replies actively put off half of all consumers. A copy-and-paste “Thank you for your feedback!” on twelve consecutive reviews reads worse than no reply at all. Name the dog. Reference the stay. Sound like the person who runs the place.
Where Your Reviews Live Now
Google is still the center of gravity, but the ground is shifting.
It’s still dominant, still first — but it’s no longer the only stop. The average consumer now consults multiple review sites when choosing a business.
The bigger development is artificial intelligence. BrightLocal found that use of ChatGPT and similar tools for local business recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% in twelve months. And most consumers now read AI-generated review summaries — the automated digests appearing above reviews on Google and elsewhere.
Roughly a quarter say they’d decide on that summary alone. Which means a meaningful share of prospective clients may never read an individual review of your facility. They’ll read a machine’s synthesis of all of them — and the themes running through your reviews increasingly determine what that machine says about you.
What to Do About It
None of this requires a new platform or a bigger budget. It requires a better habit.
- Ask — consistently. Most consumers who get asked to leave a review go ahead and write one, and willingness is rising year over year. The single biggest reason facilities have thin review profiles is that nobody is asking.
- Ask quickly. GatherUp’s Beyond the Stars survey found that two-thirds of consumers prefer to receive a review request the same day as their service. Request within 24 hours of pickup, while the relief of a happy reunion is still fresh.
- Remove the friction. Put your review link directly in follow-up texts and emails. Every extra click costs you reviews.
- Coach for specifics, not length. Asking a client to mention who cared for their dog produces a far more useful review than a generic request — and it doesn’t need to be long.
- Respond to every single review. Fast, personal, and in your own voice. This is the clearest opportunity on the list.
- Build beyond Google. Six platforms. That’s the new average. A strong Google profile paired with a neglected Facebook or Apple Maps listing creates exactly the inconsistency that makes a careful buyer hesitate.
The Question Behind Every Review
Every pet parent researching your facility is asking the same silent question that drives every other decision they make about your business.
Can I trust you with what I love most?
Your reviews answer that question before you ever get the chance to. The facilities that take them seriously — asking consistently, responding personally, keeping the profile current across every platform — are answering it well. Those treating reviews as something that happens to them are letting strangers answer it instead.
Is Your Review Profile Working for You?
Most pet care businesses have more review potential than they realize — happy clients who’d gladly leave feedback if asked, and profiles going unwatched on platforms nobody is checking.
IMPACT helps pet care businesses build review generation into their customer workflow, keep listings consistent across platforms, and make sure the feedback they’ve earned shows up where prospective clients actually look.
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FAQs
Do online reviews really affect whether someone books?
Oh yes. About 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses. The vast majority have made a purchase after reading them. In pet care specifically, where buyers are deciding who to trust with a family member, that research tends to be more thorough rather than less.
How important are recent reviews?
Very. Roughly three-quarters of consumers only care about reviews written in the last three months, and a growing share are looking at the last two weeks. A strong average built on two-year-old feedback does very little.
How many reviews do I need?
More than most operators expect. Nearly half of consumers won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews. Volume signals that other people have already taken the risk.
Do I need to respond to reviews?
Yes. All of them. Nearly nine in ten consumers expect a response, and businesses that reply to every review substantially outperform those that reply selectively — or not at all.
How quickly should I respond?
Faster than you probably think. Most consumers expect to hear back within a week, and the share wanting a same-day reply tripled year over year. Write it yourself — templated responses put off half of all consumers.
Do I need reviews on platforms other than Google?
Yes. The average consumer now consults six different review sites, and Google’s share of review reading fell from 83% to 71% in a single year. Google remains the most important, but it’s no longer the only stop.
Does AI change any of this?
It’s starting to. Use of ChatGPT and similar tools for local recommendations rose from 6% to 45% in a year, and most consumers now read AI-generated review summaries. Those systems synthesize your existing reviews, which makes the recurring themes in your profile more consequential, not less.