From a survey conducted by the online reputation experts at RepUP, it emerges that in Italy,8 out of 10 restaurants neglect their online reputation and only 2% achieve the highest rating from customers.
The analysis conducted by the online reputation experts at RepUP examined over 175,000 establishments including restaurants, pizzerias, ice cream parlors, and bars across the country, dividing them based on their reputation ratings on the main review platforms.
To obtain an increasingly clear picture of the current market situation, RepUP analyzed the public profiles of 175,184 food service businesses (restaurants, bars, ice cream parlors, and pizzerias), comparing and cross-referencing the ratings each one has on various review platforms where they are listed, thus obtaining an average score for each venue on the list.
It is important to clarify that the rating of a venue comes from customer reviews and therefore represents an objective fact about the state of things. Based on this research, all establishments were divided into five categories, each corresponding to a value ranging from one to five stars.
This reveals that in Italy, venues with one star—meaning a disastrous online reputation—fortunately account for only 0.17% of the total, but those with a two-star rating make up 6.05% (that’s over 10,500 venues considered poor by their own customers).
However, the most interesting data concerns the three-star range, which means “average,” but beware: this is not considered a positive value on review platforms. In this range,79.80% of venues are found. This is a situation that deserves serious reflection because it is as if to say that, for customers, the majority of Italian venues only make a “passing grade,” which we know very well cannot be true. These numbers are largely the result of poor online reputation management. Negative reviews without responses, replies that come too late or with the wrong tone and are argumentative put off customers and trap the restaurant in the three-star limbo. The real leap in quality is seen when a venue enters the four-star rating band. In the sample analyzed by RepUP, about 12% of venues are considered “good” by customers, while only 2% achieve the top rating of 5 stars.
«These figures tell us that 14% of Italian establishments (four and five stars) are doing an excellent job managing their online reputation or, at the very least, alongside offering great service to their customers, have taken some action to encourage guests to leave a review. Sometimes, after all, it just takes politely asking. All this inevitably translates into an increase in revenue because, like it or not, a good reputation influences the choices of potential customers. But these numbers also show that 86% of a sample of over 175,000 establishments analyzed could greatly improve their online image and therefore their business as well. This is precisely why RepUP was born.”. Explains Salvatore Viola.
“According to a study conducted by Small Business Trend, – says Andrea Orchesi – an extra star in your rating translates into a measurable business increase of between 5% and 9%. If we consider that the transition from three to four stars for a venue also means going from “passable” to “good,” the resulting gain—not just in terms of image, but also in covers and revenue—can make a huge difference. On this topic, the same study also indicates that customers are willing to spend on average 31% more in venues that have excellent reviews.”.
