Local Consumer Review Survey 2025

Our long-standing consumer behavior research is back for 2025! We examine how people find, read, and write local business reviews, and explore the impact of alternative platforms.

Key Themes and Findings

• Consumers are looking for facts and objectivity: consumers are happy to read the details of both positive and negative reviews during their research to form their own opinions.

• Consumers are feeling more lenient towards local businesses in 2025: Lowered expectations around the total review counts a business ‘should’ have and a shift in perceptions of recency suggest consumers are feeling more forgiving.

• Local businesses must prove themselves with excellent experiences: Consumers aren't finding experiences noteworthy enough to write about, and some don't think their reviews will make a difference.

• Conflicting feelings and understanding of AI: Consumers think AI equates to 'fake', yet unknowingly preferred an AI-written response, and use AI review summaries to guide decisions.

Consumer behavior is influenced by a variety of external factors, including the economy, politics, technology, social environments, and culture.

In the last couple of years alone, we’ve seen more consumers shifting to alternative platforms in search of local business reviews, including Instagram, TikTok, and AI like ChatGPT.

1. Review Platforms and Finding Online Reviews

Which websites and platforms do consumers go to when researching local businesses and looking for their reviews? Do they stick to traditional review platforms, or are they supporting research with alternative channels and more informal reviews, like the types we see on social media?

How often are consumers reading business reviews?

It appears that, over time, consumers have been reading online reviews less frequently.

What traditional review platforms are consumers using?

It would be quite a shocking year if Google dropped off the top spot; after all, it continues to dominate both the search engine and review platform markets. However, the percentage of consumers saying they used it to find reviews has decreased slightly from 87% in 2023 to 81%.

What alternative platforms are consumers using to find business reviews?

Almost half of US adults turn to local news outlets as sources for local business reviews.

Where does video content fit with business reviews?

Considering what we’ve learned about consumers using local news and social media for review content, where does video fit in all of this?

How many websites do consumers check for reviews?

27% of consumers said they only use one website for reading reviews before deciding to use a local business.

2. Trust in Reviews and Most Important Factors

As you might already have gathered, trust is a significant theme in this report.

The Most Important Review Factors to Consumers

We asked our consumer panel what parts of a business review would make them feel positive about using a local business.

The Impact of Review Ratings, Review Count, and Review Recency

20% of consumers feel that reviews as recent as two weeks old are impactful to their decisions.

Trust in Recommendations vs. Business Reviews

42% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family, down from 79% in 2020.

Review Responses Help to Build Trust

Over the years we’ve consistently found that consumers want to see that you’re responding to all feedback: good, bad, and ugly.

3. How are consumers writing business reviews?

96% of consumers are open to writing your business a review.

What’s holding consumers back from writing reviews?

Almost a quarter of US adults feel that the overall business experience was just not noteworthy enough to write about.

4. Requesting Reviews From Customers

The Most Effective Review Request Methods

There are plenty of ways in which you can ask your customers to share their feedback with you.

Summary

Consumers are increasingly looking for facts and objectivity in their local business research, willing to read the details about all kinds of experiences in order to gather facts and form their own opinions.