UK dealers improving speed of response to online reviews

Dealers are now replying to more online customer reviews and with faster response times, according to new research by JudgeService.

The customer review platform found 79% of online dealer reviews received a response in Q4 2024, representing 1.5 million Google reviews, compared to just 8% 10 years ago, when it first started measuring replies.

While the speed of reply has improved significantly to an average of 3.5 days, compared to three weeks (22 days) in 2021.

JudgeService’s research also found that dealer partners using its AI tool to write responses are currently averaging just 1.9 days to reply.

Reviews have become an increasingly important part of the car buying journey with JudgeService identifying that 75% of customers want to read dealer reviews before committing to a purchase, rising to 95% for younger buyers.

“Customers look at replies to reviews as evidence that the company is listening to its customers. That’s why they are so important – no one wants to feel they will be ignored,” said Neil Addley, managing director of JudgeService.

“Forbes identified that 89% of customers are more likely to choose a business that responds to every online research and our research shows how dealers have grasped this by responding to more reviews in an increasingly timely manner,” he said.

Addley believes AI has a role to play in making further improvements to response times.

“While there is a lot of nonsense spoken about AI, this is already proving to be an example of how the technology can be used to both improve the customer experience and save the dealership time and money.”