Why Negative and Positive Deserve Their Own Metrics
I’ve talked about this before, but I believe it's worth reiterating here. In my opinion, there are two ways to optimize and measure reputation: by increasing positivity and decreasing negativity.
You would think these two concepts would work in partnership, as negativity decreases, positivity increases. The data indicates that in many situations, this is not always true.
Communication, repair, wait times, price—these are all topics that are frequently mentioned in negative reviews but rarely mentioned in positive reviews.
Communication, for example, comes up in 42% of negative reviews, but only 10% of positive reviews.
What this means: When you get communication right, you’re 75% less likely to be rewarded for it.
All this to say, you need to measure review topics and sentiment combos independently, tracking their rise and fall over time. Pay attention to trends, because a drop in negativity can be just as much of a win as an increase in positivity.
How the Top 10 Topics Shifted in Q1
The top 10 metrics above are the most commonly mentioned in reviews across the industry. Staff is reliably #1 in positive reviews, even after having dropped 2.5% from Q4, our comparison period.
We also saw staff negativity drop 2.5%, which is a good sign considering the topic’s substantial 20% rise in negativity in 2024 vs 2023.
Interestingly, despite staff positivity dropping, we see modest gains for each of the staff-related subtopics—helpfulness, friendliness, knowledge, and professionalism.
