News

Survey finds customers expect review responses 'all the time'

October 26, 2018

It's a question on all restaurateurs' minds: Should your brand respond to customer reviews? According to the latest survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers this October, the answer is a fairly resounding "Yes!" 

Location marketing company, Uberall, Inc., conducted a study the first five days of October and found 65 percent of those polled say brands should, indeed, respond to customer reviews every time, whether the review is positive or negative. 

However, 18 percent thought it was only necessary when the review was positive, while a measly 10 percent said they should never respond, and even fewer — 6 percent — said brands should only respond to positive reviews. 

On top of that, a significant three out of four of those polled said those responses had better be personalized, with most of those saying the reviews should be "some" (78 percent) to "somewhat" (49 percent) personalized, while 29 percent said they should be "very personalized." Just 13 percent said "not very personalized" and 9 percent were okay with relatively generic "not very personalized" review responses. 

"People simply aren't going to be satisfied with a generic response," Uberall co-founder Josha Benner said in the release. "Some individualization is required to show that the brand cares about the customer. These results perfectly demonstrate why platforms like Google and Yelp spend so much energy on enforcing that businesses post personal responses versus generic, meaningless ones."

The pay-off for all that responsiveness on brands' parts is proven in the fact that of those surveyed, more than 80 percent said they would be likely to eat at locations that respond to customer reviews as well. 

Other findings include:

• 19 percent said they check reviews before each restaurant visit. 
• 57 percent check them occasionally. 
• 74 percent think online reviews are important.
• 6 percent said reviews are not important. 
• 39 percent said 4.0 and up is a positive review. 
• The largest percentage (40 percent) defined "positive" reviews as 4.0 and up.

"A plurality of people think a positive review has to be a 4.0 or up," said Benner. "This isn't a surprise. Brands need to keep this in mind when evaluating their online presence. If you have a location with a rating under 4.0, that's not good enough anymore."