57% Of People Rely On Online Reviews Of Restaurants

Sites include yelp.com . Published on June 2nd, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

There is a good reason that Yelp and other review style websites are doing well—people absolutely love and rely on the services they provide.

So says a new study into the phenomena of the online review. According to the study conducted by the National Restaurant Association, more than 57% of people rely heavily on online reviews to make choices about where they dine. A great many of patrons also like to be pitched to about where to eat. 41% of online patrons were found to dine in a restaurant or drink at a particular bar (pub if you live in England) as a result of some kind of promotional email.

The study also shed light on the dining and preferred payment habits of most consumers. More than 61% of the people surveyed admitted to having visited a restaurant’s website at least once, and 36% have looked up nutrition information online. 52% of consumers would prefer to use an electronic payment method if available and whopping 41% admitted to having a preference for self-service ordering terminals.

That latter point is important, not least because it may signal the end of the waiting all together. That may not happen for a while yet though because the convergence between dining and the online mechanics of getting people at the table are not fully in sync. And that may take another 10 years to happen.

Do you think the traditional ways in which we find restaurants and dine is changing for the better? Let us know below.