Marketing

Arby's, Chick-fil-A top QSRs in local brand visibility

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July 13, 2021

Local search marketing company, Chatmeter, released its latest report on the top 10 restaurant brands by online reputation and local brand visibility. The company's analysis combs through thousands of reviews, listings and rankings from the past year and found that QSRs, Arby's and Chick-fil-A topped the list, according to a news release.

Additionally, in the realm of off- and online customer experience, the key performance indicators that multi-location brands should be using to determine the effectiveness of their local SEO and reputation management strategies, include:

• An average local brand visibility (LBV) score of 62.
• An average of 81 for the highest-scoring LBV category brands.
• The highest average overall review ratings (4.3 stars) belonged to small brands with less than 50 stores.
• Positive customer sentiment in reviews grew nearly 10% as brand size decreased, including 65.8% positive at large brands, 74.7% at mid-sized and 83.1% at small brands.

The report digs deeper into customer reviews by taking a look at the sentiment around new or expanded experiences implemented as a result of COVID-19. Chatmeter found that experiences like "outdoor seating" and "curbside pickup" earned more positive feedback from customers than experiences that involved delivery or phones. The company said this shows the importance of brands continuously monitoring and analyzing reviews for customer experience insight.

"The pandemic has put restaurant brands through a lot the past 1½ years," Chatmeter CRO Cynthia Sener said in the release. "The brands at the top of this list have been working relentlessly to keep up with changing customer expectations. This report provides valuable insight into all the ways restaurant brands can improve the online to offline customer experience and drive brand loyalty."

The research was conducted by analyzing 75 restaurant organizations between March 2020 and March 2021.