Star Ratings
Matter Just as Much as (If Not More Than) Online Reviews
Chris Campbell
When it comes to swaying consumers’ purchase decisions,
how persuasive are online reviews?
And how attractive -- or ugly -- do online
ratings make a local business look?
At a time when consumers can write Yelp reviews on
pretty much anything they buy –
- and others can then read about it
-- questions on the business impact of reviews and ratings
have become increasingly relevant.
Before choosing a restaurant, diners check out Yelp.
Before booking a hotel, travelers look up TripAdvisor.
Before selecting a doctor, patients take to Healthgrades
or RateMDs.
New research by ReviewTrackers set out to determine how
reviews and ratings
can directly influence purchases from local businesses
-- in this case, restaurants.
In a three-week survey of Internet users in the
U.S. with an age range of 25 to 54 years,
respondents were asked one question:
Would you eat at a restaurant with a 3-star rating?
More than one in three wouldn’t eat below
four stars.
35.3 percent of survey respondents said that a
3-star rating (or below) on a 5-star scale
on platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google would
dissuade them from choosing
to eat at a particular restaurant. That represents
approximately one in three diners in the US.
It’s worth noting that on Yelp, 67 percent of the 71
million reviews are 4- and 5-star reviews. The latest fact sheet released
by the company also indicates that the restaurant category
generates the second-highest number of reviews, behind
Yelp’s category for shopping.
Star ratings
matter.
While the remaining 64.7 percent of respondents in
ReviewTrackers’ survey are less picky
with where to eat, it remains clear that, for consumers
and businesses alike, star ratings matter -- and are of equal importance
as (if not greater than) the actual review text.
In his study “Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case
of Yelp.com,"
Harvard Business School researcher Michael Luca found
that a 1-star improvement on Yelp translated to anywhere from a 5 to 9
percent swing on revenues.
Furthermore, local and independent restaurants were more
affected by diner reviews
and ratings than chain restaurants.
Two Berkeley economists, meanwhile, discovered that the
tiniest Yelp rating change –
- a half-star improvement -- makes it 30
to 49 percent more likely that a restaurant will sell out
its seats during peak hours. “Because [the review
site] collects and aggregates the experiences
of a large number of patrons,” wrote researchers Michael
Anderson and Jeremy Magruder,
“Yelp provides a forum to solve asymmetric information
problems
about the quality of unfamiliar restaurants.”
A Cornell University study even goes so far as
to suggest that, in the eyes of consumers,
the numerical ratings are seen as an objective measure of
a business’ quality.
“Oftentimes, the online rating of a business is taken as
a proxy for its objective quality rating,”
wrote researchers Oussama Fadil and Jake Soloff.
“The underlying assumption is that by average ratings across
users of varying tastes
and preferences, dependencies upon said factors are
eliminated.”
Simply put: Star ratings matter because they serve as a
useful and convenient source of information when consumers are researching a
local business they’re not familiar with.
This is most evident in industries like foodservice and
hospitality, where consumers
increasingly depend on review and rating sites to
find places to eat.
As Luca summed up: “Restaurants are a classic example in
economics where the consumer
has to make a decision based on very little information.”
Who relies more on
reviews -- men or women?
Gender adds another interesting dimension to any
conversation about online reviews.
According to new research by SheSpeaks, an
online engagement platform,
as much as 38 percent of women said they trusted online
reviews,
with 57 percent willing to spend more money on
businesses
with positive reviews and high ratings.
When it comes to finding restaurants, however,
differences in how men and women perceive
and use reviews are less evident. In the ReviewTrackers
survey, approximately 38 percent
of male respondents said that they would
not eat at a place with less than a 4-star rating,
compared to only 33 percent of female respondents.
Build a
5-star reputation.
Online reviews and ratings undoubtedly have a major
impact on a business’ reputation
and, therefore, performance. This makes it critical for
marketers and business owners
to apply best practices in review management.
Claim your business listings. Asserting ownership of
your business listing on platforms like Yelp, Google and TripAdvisor
increases your visibility and enables you to more effectively listen
and respond to what customers are saying online.
Monitor all relevant review sites. Staying on top of
reviews and ratings allows you
to measure customer sentiment and provides you with
valuable data that your business
can use to make customer experience and service
improvements.
Respond to your customers. Management response to
reviews drives engagement
and demonstrates that your business values customer
feedback -- good and bad.
Generate more reviews. Build and strengthen your
online reputation by raising awareness
of your business’ presence on online review sites and
asking your happiest customers
to review your business.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250838
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