The cost of not responding to reviews at your locations

What do customers do with reviews and responses?

BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 paints a clear picture. The research is American, but the behaviour matches what we see among chains in the Netherlands.

How do Dutch franchise chains respond to reviews?

The Local SEO Benchmark Franchise Chains 2026 tracked 500 profiles across 100 chains. The picture is worrying: responses are rare, late and lack any fixed process.

Calculation 1: what does a single unanswered negative review cost?

A review is read far more often than you might think. Our own measurements show that a review is viewed around 15,000 times on average. In the benchmark, four reviews with a photo or video received 59,913 views between them.

A cautious calculation: if one unanswered negative review causes 1% of those 15,000 readers to drop out, that is 150 people. With a customer value of €50, that is €7,500 in lost revenue, for one review at one location. A quick, personal response wins part of that back, because readers can see the location takes the problem seriously. You can read how to tackle this under review management for franchise brands.

Calculation 2: what does it cost to actually respond?

Responding takes time, but less than many franchisors think. A location with 20 reviews a month and 5 minutes per personal response spends 100 minutes a month. At an hourly rate of €40, that is €67 a month, or roughly €2.19 a day. With a customer value of €50, you earn that back with 1.3 extra customers a month.

Why does not responding hit franchise chains especially hard?

For an independent business owner, a bad review affects one business. For a chain, it also affects the brand. Customers read a negative review of one location and sometimes choose a different franchise brand, not a different location. On top of that, AI systems use reviews to summarise a location. Since public questions and answers disappeared from the Business Profile at the end of 2025, AI answers draw even more of their information from profile data and reviews. An unanswered complaint can thus earn a permanent place in how a location is described.

Calculation 3: unanswered negative reviews across a chain

Suppose a chain of 50 locations receives an average of two negative reviews per location per month. That is 100 negative reviews a month. How many readers drop out when there is no response varies by sector. That is why we calculate with three assumptions, based on 15,000 views per review and a customer value of €50.

How do you write a good response to a negative review in four steps?

A good response does not have to be long. Thank the customer for the feedback and mention the specific point from the review, so it is clear you have genuinely read it. Explain in one or two sentences what you are doing about it, without arguing about who is right. Offer direct contact, with the name of the location manager. And sign off with a person's name, not the name of the franchise brand. That way, future customers can see there is a real person behind the location.

What do responses deliver beyond revenue?

Responding to reviews delivers more than retained customers. You learn what is going wrong at a location, often sooner than through internal reports. Franchisees see that head office is engaged. Staff read positive reviews and responses and feel recognised. And future customers see an active profile with recent reviews and responses, which according to BrightLocal matters to 74% of consumers, because they mainly look at reviews from the past three months.

Who responds: head office, location or agency?

There is no fixed rule, but there does need to be an agreement. For many chains a hybrid approach works best: positive reviews are answered centrally in the brand's tone of voice, while negative reviews go to the location first, which supplies the facts within a few hours, followed by a personal response. This combines speed with local knowledge.

Work it out yourself

Enter the number of reviews per location, the time per response, the hourly rate and the value of a customer. You will immediately see what responding costs and how many extra customers you need to earn it back.

What does a better star rating deliver?

Research by Michael Luca (Harvard Business School) into restaurants in Seattle showed that one extra star on Yelp was associated with 5 to 9% more revenue. To be fair: in that study, chains were less sensitive to reviews than independent restaurants, because customers already knew the brand. Today, however, Google shows the rating of the individual location in a local search, not that of the brand. As a result, reputation per location carries more weight than it did in 2011. And according to BrightLocal, 31% of consumers now only choose businesses rated 4.5 stars or higher.

Fake reviews and review extortion

Not every negative review is genuine. Chains sometimes face fake reviews or people who threaten bad reviews unless they get something. Even then, a quick response matters: a short, factual reply shows readers that the complaint is unfounded, while you report the review to Google. Record such cases centrally, so you can spot patterns when several locations are hit at the same time.

What can you do about it today?

You do not need to wait for a large project to limit the cost of unanswered reviews. These steps take little time:

1. Open the profiles of five locations and count the unanswered reviews from the past three months.
2. First answer all negative reviews from the last month, personally and specifically.
3. Agree who at each location receives an alert when a new negative review appears.
4. Set a response time of 24 hours and measure it every month.
5. Drop standard texts and write a short guideline on tone and content instead.

After a month you will already see the difference in the profile: recent responses, fewer open complaints and often new positive reviews as well.

The approach we recommend for franchise chains

Respond to every review within 24 hours, and forward a negative review to the location manager within an hour. Write a specific reply without getting into an argument, and never use the same text for every review. Do not buy reviews and do not pre-filter customers. Decide who in your organisation is responsible: head office, location or agency. marketing training for franchisees helps here, as does a clear agreement in the marketing plan step by step.

Not sure how your locations are doing right now? Request a baseline scan of three locations. Also work out what invisibility in Google Maps costs, and read questions to assess your agency if an agency manages your reviews. In a hands-on Business Profile session we practise responding at scale with your team. You can outsource it too: see why outsourcing pays off.