The People Have Spoken: BrightLocal Reveals Review Ratings
When consumers search their small screens to decide where to shop, eat, buy groceries, or exercise, they often consult reviews. In fact, poor scores may send someone off to your competitors’ brands—never to return. We all know that UGC (user-generated content) and consumer reviews play a big role in decision-making today. The annual consumer review survey from BrightLocal found that 91% of consumers believe local reviews of multi-location brands impact overall brand perception.
The Brand Review Index from BrightLocal pits 52 of the USA’s biggest brands against each other based on their Google review ratings.
Among the giants in fast food, grocery retail, and gyms, the Index finds:
- Chick-fil-A tops the fast food vertical, with a median Google rating of 4.4.
- Meanwhile, McDonald’s and KFC sit within the bottom three out of 25 fast food brands.
- Trader Joe’s takes the grocery retail top spot with an impressive median rating of 4.7.
- Market leader Walmart sits at the bottom of the Index, with a median Google review score of just 3.9.
- Lifestyle fitness brands CrossFit, F45 Training, Orangetheory Fitness, and Pure Barre lead the gym vertical ahead of typical gym models such as Planet Fitness.
Analyzing the winning brands highlights common themes around brand identity, community, and the ever-lasting importance of customer service and experience.
We asked Sammy Paget, BrightLocal Research Manager, what brands can do to ensure better scores.
Create Communities
“The analyses of each tab’s top brands delve into why consumers would go out of their way to review a local grocery store, gym, or fast food restaurant. What we’ve found is that the winning brands have clear differentiators that set themselves apart from competitors in their field. In the case of the gym and fitness brands, those with a clear sense of community and belonging (CrossFit, F45 Training, and Pure Barre) create a sense of advocacy among their customers. For the top fast food and grocery brands, key themes are frequently discussed around the quality of food products and the overall shopping and dining experiences.”
Know Your “Reason” and Think Both Global and Local
“Brands should not be resting on their laurels (or relying on their brand name). It also highlights the importance of giving customers a reason to review you, recommend you to others, and return and shop with you.
The winning brands deliver value to their customers in different ways: while Aldi might win out on offering low prices and saving customers money, Publix creates a genuinely enjoyable shopping experience in terms of both customer service and store aesthetics, and Trader Joe’s customers love the unique products, and availability of specialist items.
Even though Five Guys customers note that the menu is more expensive than other burger chains (such as McDonald’s, which sits in the bottom three of fast food brands), reviewers frequently mention the quality and freshness of its food.
If a multi-location or franchise brand faces issues with review scores, having a master view of all locations and their reviews that highlight critical cities and states to work on is a game-changer.”
Today’s Street Fight is simply a skirmish among brands on the small screen (phones, tablets, etc.) and desktop for a share of wallet. To learn how you can win that battle (which has become fiercer), join us at Street Fight LIVE on November 7th.