As featured in Propel Hospitality Thursday 27th June 2019: Do you have sites in the most satisfied cities?

By analysing thousands of online and social reviews across the restaurant and bar industries, leading online reputation specialist, Feed It Back, reveals that reviewers in the UK’s Northern cities are more positive that their Southern counterparts.

The statistics confirm the commonly held assertion that Londoners are the hardest customers to please, with 15% of all reviews left in the capital falling in the negative score bracket of (1-2 out of 5).

Conversely, the northern cities of Leeds and Edinburgh, topped the list of most satisfied customers, with 82.3% of reviews from both cities falling in the positive bracket (4-5 out of 5), followed by Liverpool (81.9%), and Glasgow (78.3%).

Digging deeper into what was driving negative reviews in the capital, the words ‘rude’ and ‘group’ featured prominently, particularly in comparison to the other major cities analysed.

Whereas, the primary drivers behind positive reviews in the top performing cities in the North were the words ‘birthday’ and ‘special’. This clearly indicates the opportunity for operators to capitalise on the make or break special occasions, such as birthday’s or anniversaries, which have proven to drive overtly positive and negative reviews.

Looking at the social channels each region chose to share their feedback on, Londoner’s predominantly used the Google (69.8%) and TripAdvisor (24.9%) platforms.

Leeds reviewers topped the charts of usage for typically negative platform, TripAdvisor usage, with (37.1%). Interestingly, the residents of Leeds were more positive than the average TripAdvisor reviewer, with 66% of reviews scoring top marks.

Commenting on the insight, Carlo Platia, CEO of Feed It Back said “The statistics clearly reinforce the widely held assertion that London customers are the most demanding in the UK. This can be partly attributed to the vast range of choice available in the capital, along with the fast pace of life demanding ever quicker transactions.

“Interestingly, the data does show that social review platforms are not a unique phenomenon for the capital and that cities all across the UK are turning to social media to let their feelings known, be them good or bad, presenting a great opportunity for operators with large estates to gain granular regional knowledge on what customers demand from specific sites.

“Data is only one piece of the puzzle. When combined with the knowledge of a great general manager the two are incredibly powerful in positively influencing the guest experience and creating exceptional dining experiences that drive loyalty and return custom.”

For press enquiries:

Geoff Campion
020 3567 5804 / 07957 251475
geoff@fsc.uk.com

Kate Goodbrand-Dillon
020 3567 5811 / 07878 481646
kateg@fsc.uk.com