BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 asked 1,002 US adults about owner replies. 89 percent expect business owners to respond to reviews. 80 percent say they are likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews. 42 percent say they are unlikely to use a business that never replies. And 50 percent say templated or generic responses make them unlikely to choose a business, because they read them as a sign of subpar customer care.
- Expect owners to respond to reviews: 89 percent
- Likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews: 80 percent
- Unlikely to use a business that never replies: 42 percent
- Put off by templated or generic replies: 50 percent
Self-reported, all local businesses. The two losses are the point. Ignore the review and four in ten say they walk. Answer it like a form letter and half say they do. The second loss is the quieter one, because the owner thinks the job is done.
If software drafts your replies, the 50 percent is the number to watch, and the fix is not to stop drafting. It is to draft in the owner's voice, name the job, and have the owner read it before it posts. A reply that mentions the furnace, the Tuesday and the dog is a reply a person wrote, whoever typed the first draft.
Read your last three replies out loud. Would a customer believe a person wrote them?
What ProxMedia does about it: reply drafts in your voice that stay drafts until you read and post them, never auto-posted, never a template.
Source: BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adult consumers via SurveyMonkey, published February 11, 2026).