Consumer Review Survey – Welcome to this year’s consumer

Welcome to this year’s consumer survey! We collect the latest trends in online business customer assessment and provide all the statistics you need to develop your online reputation management strategy for local businesses in 2019. This year’s Local Consumer Survey follows on from the 2017 survey and examines the trends in last year’s online evaluations of local businesses. While consumers can wait for a large number of reviews before they feel able to trust a business, it is unlikely that many consumers will have time to read the experiences of hundreds of colleagues before deciding where to eat. While the percentage of consumers in this age group are less likely to read local company reports, those who expect good results are less likely to do so. Interestingly, the percentage of consumers that need multiple online reviews to trust a business has increased. The main themes addressed in this year’s report are changes in consumer behaviour when reading opinions, an increase in the frequency of requests for advice and the true value of companies’ responses to their opinions. The latest survey of local search position factors showed a growing importance of rating signals, with Google’s number of native rankings being the third largest increase in expert interest. When we published this report in 2010, we could never have imagined how important online rankings are for companies: one of the fastest growing local rankings today. For the sixth time in a row, consumers are more likely to read reviews of restaurants and coffee shops. 59% of consumers wrote reviews for local businesses, 27% said they were willing to do so. Over the past year, the number of customers has decreased slightly, as many consumers rely on online reviews and personal recommendations. Whether you want to impress your local customers or prove your value to Google, it’s very important to implement a reputation management strategy that focuses on gathering a regular stream of new online rankings. This year, a higher percentage of respondents told us they didn’t leave a local business relationship.