State of the Review pot

State of the Review An Analysis of Online Reviews & Reviewer Behavior for the Restaurant Industry by Reputology.com Copyright 2012 by Reputology Smashwords Edition The purpose of the report is to help businesses better understand trends in online reviews and how it is impacting their business. In case you are wondering, the data comes from 1,500+ reviews for 350+ business locations that we’ve been monitoring. Before we delve deep into the details, let’s establish some baseline facts: The average restaurant receives about 1 new review every week. Though the majority of reviewers give good ratings, on average, over 1 in 3 of those reviews is lukewarm if not flat out negative, i.e. 3 stars or less. As you probably expect, Yelp is the review directory that generates most of the reviews at 53%. That said, the other half is coming from the other review sites, like Google + Local, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, etc. Independents Get 185% More Reviews, Chains May Suffer One of the biggest differences is the average number of reviews received by restaurant chains versus those received by “independents” (defined in this study as having 4 locations or less). It’s unclear why the magnitude of the discrepancy is as large as it is, nearly double. But the fact that independents get more seems reasonable because reviewers are trying to help other diners get information about previously unknown local businesses. And they might not feel this same need for the chains. The difference in average ratings is actually comparable (with independents edging chains by 0.16 stars), but the difference in sheer review volume is problematic for restaurant chains because the algorithms on directories favor businesses with more reviews and more diners are going online to find a place to eat. There may be also algorithm biases towards businesses that receive more 5 stars, and this distribution data shows chains are less likely to “Wow” their customers (6% less 5 stars) and more likely to disappoint (2% more 1 stars). See below. Opportunity in Google + Local The review distribution by directory looks similar. But there is a noticeable difference in the percentage of reviews received from Google + Local. Specifically, the percentage for independents is more than double that for chains (13% vs 6%). It’s unclear why this is, but potentially, if Google is able to chip away at the traffic going to Yelp and TripAdvisor, this could prove to be a benefit for independents. Restaurant Type & Cuisine Also Impacts Reviewer Behavior… To read the entire “State of the Review” report, you can download it FREE at Reputology.com/state_of_the_review. . probably expect, Yelp is the review directory that generates most of the reviews at 53%. That said, the other half is coming from the other review sites, like. Reviewer Behavior… To read the entire State of the Review report, you can download it FREE at Reputology.com /state_ of_ the_ review.