It goes without saying that most new restaurant discoveries happen online. From influencer postings to "best Italian restaurants near me" Google searches, the internet is the go-to place for discovering new restaurants.

And while that's probably not surprising to you, just how influential the internet is for restaurant discovery may take you by surprise.

We've compiled 10 extremely compelling statistics that highlight how essential online restaurant reputation management is to the success of your restaurants, and include some optimization hacks for each.

10 Quick Insights You Need To Know

1. 95% of people read online reviews before making a purchase.
2. 86% feel that online business reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family.
3. Roughly 90% of consumers are more likely to frequent a business if the business responds to all reviews, both positive and negative.
4. Google reviews (46%) was the most popular place for users to check restaurant ratings online, more popular than Yelp (23%), TripAdvisor (9%) and OpenTable (6%).
5. 43% of people won't go to a restaurant if its rating is below 3-3.5 stars.
6. 53% of diners aren't likely to write reviews after their experience.
7. 88% of consumers would use a business that replies to all of its reviews, compared to just 47% who would use a business that doesn't respond to reviews at all.
8. 49% of consumers need at least a four-star rating before using a business.
9. A 1-star rating increase can give a business an approximate 5-9% increase in revenue.
10. Consumers are likely to spend 31% more at a business with excellent reviews.

The Online Reputation Management Deep Dive

For those of you looking to gain a deeper understanding of each statistic, and how restaurants can set their online reputation management strategy up for success, let's do a deep dive of each statistic together.

95% of people read online reviews before making a purchase (Status Labs)

Think about the last new restaurant you dined at. Did online reviews factor into your decision to pay it a visit? According to this above statistic, almost every person in modern day society uses online reviews to guide their purchase decisions—or for the restaurant industry—their dining decisions.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

Make sure you have an online presence at each of the major restaurant review sites including Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, and more. Your audience is using online to make decisions, and in order to be in the running, you need to have a robust online presence—and one that is very positive (more on that later).

86% feel that online business reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family (Status Labs)

There's a reason the influencer marketing industry is growing at a rapid rate. As it turns out, people trust online human reviews just as much as they do their friends or family. So if your online reviews aren't in great shape, expect your restaurant to face some challenges.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

While the FTC recently ruled it's no longer legal to incentivize guests to leave you reviews through discounts or free food, there are still things you can do to encourage them including:

1. Use of "Request for review" cards with printed receipts.
2. Receipt QR codes that link directly to Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc.
3. Email or text request with digital receipt.
4. A good old fashioned "please consider leaving a review to help us" request.

Roughly 90% of consumers are more likely to frequent a business if the business responds to all reviews, both positive and negative (Status Labs)

Responding to online reviews is an area most restaurants could stand to improve upon. While some restaurants respond to the negative reviews, most are inconsistent at best, and don't always address it the right way.

For a step-by-step guide on successfully responding to negative reviews, check this out.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

The bottom line is that it's a best practice to respond to ALL online reviews—both negative and positive ones. Easier said than done, right? It's not like you have a restaurant to run or anything.

That's where online reputation management platforms like Akira can really take a load off your shoulders while transforming your entire online reputation. Akira aggregates all of your feedback and reviews into one viewing source, and then uses AI to prioritize and even craft human-like responses for you.

Google reviews (46%) was the most popular place for users to check restaurant ratings online, more popular than Yelp (23%), TripAdvisor (9%) and OpenTable (6%) (Toast)

Google is the reigning king of the review world—so is priority #1 when it comes to restaurant reputation management. Three things you may or may not realize about Google:

1. There is no direct way to contact a guest: If a guest leaves a review, and you'd like to get in touch with them about it, you can't. The only thing you can do is ask them to contact you when you respond to it.
2. There's no easy way to manage multiple locations: If you are a larger restaurant chain or have more than one location, you need to manage each individual listing which becomes incredibly tedious.
3. Google automatically updates your listing: Google's algorithm automatically updates business listings in an effort to keep them accurate. The problem? Sometimes they make them inaccurate.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

Online listing optimization and multiple restaurant review management is where Akira thrives. It solves all of the above problems by allowing you to:

• Easily streamline and manage multi-channel feedback and reviews
• Aggregate and respond to feedback & reviews
• Optimize your online listing

To see exactly how Akira helps you accomplish the above, check this out.

43% of people won't go to a restaurant if its rating is below 3-3.5 stars (Toast)

Here's where the online review world starts to get scary. Since we all know customers who had a bad experience are far more likely to leave reviews than those who had a good one, the bad reviews can really hurt you.

This is exactly why you need a plan to combat them, through addressing the head on. Mistakes happen, but it's how you handle the mistakes that matter. It used to be that handling these mistakes offline would suffice, but you now need to ensure you're also handling them online by leaving a thoughtful response.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

Address every online negative review thoughtfully and respectfully. Take full responsibility (when applicable) and ask the guest to contact you offline so you can resolve it. The hope is you can reach a resolution, and the guest may consider updating their review to a positive one.

53% of diners aren't likely to write reviews after their experience (Toast)

Let's face it—people love to complain. And even if it's the loud minority, they can look like the majority IF your loyal guests aren't contributing to your restaurant's online reputation.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

We listed above some ways to encourage guests to leave reviews. But in order for that to work, you need to do two things:

1. Foster an environment of operational excellence. And while this isn't a subject matter we're experts on, we certainly know what it looks like (Carmy from The Bear, anyone?).
2. Ask, ask, ask (in the least annoying way possibly). If a guest explicitly mentions their positive experience, let them know how much you'd appreciate a review. Then, send a personal, non-spammy email or text follow-up the day after their dining experience as a reminder.

88% of consumers would use a business that replies to all of its reviews, compared to just 47% who would use a business that doesn't respond to reviews at all (Reputation X)

This statistic was surprising, even to our team. We are firm believers that a best practice is to respond to every review you receive—positive or negative—but seeing just how much of an impact it has on potential business is astounding.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

For one-location restaurants, staying on top of every review across all the different review channels is hard. And for multiple-location restaurant concepts? It's damned near impossible—unless you have Akira.

Akira centralizes all customer feedback from various channels into a single, easy-to-manage inbox. It also provides you with real-time notifications, streamlines your response process, and helps you respond faster with AI-powered response generation and personalized templates.

49% of consumers need at least a four-star rating before using a business (Reputation X)

Reaching a 4-star restaurant review level is the goal of every restaurant. The path to getting there can be tricky. It takes a lot of the above tactics of responding to and asking for reviews, but that's only part of it.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

In order to achieve the elusive 4+ stars on review sites, you need a holistic view of your restaurant reputation management performance. At Akira, we have the Location Scorecard that helps you to identify high-level trends, sentiment, and consistency analysis. Basically? Know if you're trending in the right directions as well as where and how you can improve on your quest for 4 stars.

A one-star rating increase can give a business an approximate 5-9% increase in revenue (Bloom Intelligence) & consumers are likely to spend 31% more at a business with excellent reviews (Bloom Intelligence)

The last two statistics go hand-in-hand. Restaurants with excellent reviews have better retention, lifetime value, and entice customers to spend more. Your restaurant's online reputation matters, and directly impacts your bottom line.

Online Reputation Management Optimization Hack:

Invest in an online reputation management tool that will help you optimize your entire online reputation, and help you to achieve long term growth and prosperity.

Final Thoughts: Your Restaurant's Online Reputation Can Make or Break You

A decade ago, restaurants might have been able to skirt by without paying close attention to their online reputation. This is no longer the case, as the 10 statistics above prove.

You can no longer rely on a piece-meal online reputation management strategy. It just doesn't cut it anymore in a world of endless, ever-expanding review channels. Don't go at it alone anymore. Invest in a tool that will make online reputation management a breeze all while maximizing your revenue potential.

Save Your Restaurant's Online Reputation Before It's Too Late