Published 2026-09-05 · Last updated 2026-09-05
A wrong phone number or address on a listing costs real customers. BrightLocal's Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, which surveyed 1,138 US consumers in September 2023, found 62% would avoid a business if they found incorrect information online, and when they hit a wrong address, 28% look for another business and 7% give up. Reviews decide the rest: BrightLocal's 2025 consumer survey found 85% read reviews on Google and 63% expect a business to respond within a week.
Where do customers actually read reviews?
BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey, published in January 2025 from 1,026 US consumers, put Google first at 85%, up from 81% the year before. Yelp came next at 44%, then Facebook at 32%, the Better Business Bureau at 30%, Apple Maps at 23%, and Trustpilot at 13%.
The number to note is that 74% consult two or more review sources. A customer who reads your Google reviews and then checks Yelp expects the same business, the same phone number, and a similar story. If the two disagree, the disagreement is what they remember.
| Review source | Share of consumers who read reviews there (BrightLocal, Jan 2025) |
|---|---|
| 85% | |
| Yelp | 44% |
| 32% | |
| Better Business Bureau | 30% |
| Apple Maps | 23% |
| Trustpilot | 13% |
How much do people trust reviews now?
Less than they did. The same 2025 survey found 42% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, down from 79% in 2020. Customers have learned that reviews can be bought or faked, so they read more carefully and look for signs the business is real.
One of those signs is a reply. Sixty-three percent expect a business to respond to reviews within a week. A thank-you on a good review and a calm, specific answer on a bad one show the next reader that someone is home.
AI summaries are changing how reviews get read. In the same survey, 48% said they read an AI review summary and then dig into the individual reviews, and 18% would decide on the summary alone. The summary is built from your reviews, so a steady flow of recent, detailed ones shapes what it says.
Does the star rating change revenue?
The clearest study is older and about restaurants, but the direction is useful. Michael Luca at Harvard Business School, using Seattle revenue data from 2003 to 2009 in a paper first published in 2011 and revised in 2016, found a one-star increase in Yelp rating produced a 5 to 9% increase in revenue for independent restaurants, with little effect on chains. Independent businesses depend on reputation in a way chains do not. A trades business is an independent business.
What does a wrong listing cost?
BrightLocal's 2023 trust report measured it. Fifty-six percent of consumers run into incorrect business information at least every few months, so this is not rare. Forty-five percent lose trust over a wrong phone number, and 46% over a wrong address. Sixty-two percent would avoid a business if they found incorrect information online.
The address numbers show the leak in motion. On finding a wrong address, 36% call to confirm, 28% look for another business, and 7% give up. Add the last two together and more than a third of the customers who caught the error are gone, and you never knew they were there.
The fields that go wrong are always the same ones. Check each of them on every listing, not just the first one you find.
- Business name, spelled the same everywhere, including any LLC or Inc.
- Phone number that rings today, not an old cell number from the first year
- Address, and whether it is a shop customers can visit or a service-area business
- Hours, including holidays and whether the phone is covered after hours
- Service area, so the listing does not offer towns you do not serve
- Website link that lands on a working page
Which listings need to match?
Google first, since 85% read reviews there. Then the platforms customers cross-check: Yelp, Facebook, the BBB, and Apple Maps. Bing Places is the one owners skip, and it matters more than its share suggests. Statcounter put Bing at 12.82% of US desktop search in August 2026, and Microsoft's Bing Webmaster Blog said in June 2025 that Bing powers Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and AI tools including ChatGPT. A wrong number on Bing Places can end up inside an AI answer.
What does a monthly ten-minute routine look like?
- Search your business name on Google, Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing. Compare phone, address, and hours side by side.
- Fix any mismatch at the source, not only on Google.
- Reply to every review from the past month. Aim to be inside a week.
- Ask the last few finished jobs for a review. BrightLocal's 2025 survey found email is the most effective review request channel, at 40%.
- Note any review that names a problem you can fix in the shop, not just in the reply.
Ten minutes a month is the whole cost. The surveys say customers check both the listing and the reviews before they call, so the two belong in one routine. At Optimus we run listing accuracy and review replies as a single monthly job for that reason.
Common questions
Should I respond to bad reviews?
Yes. Sixty-three percent expect a response within a week, and the reply is read by the next customer, not just the reviewer. Keep it short, specific, and calm.
Which listing matters most if I only fix one?
Google, where 85% of consumers read reviews. Then fix the rest, because 74% check two or more sources and a mismatch costs trust.
How often do listings go wrong on their own?
Often enough that 56% of consumers run into incorrect business information at least every few months. Platforms accept edits from the public and copy data from each other, so a monthly check earns its ten minutes.
