The Review Trap

Yesterday, I ordered pizza from a place that has only 3.4 stars on Google. I know—blasphemy! But the pizza was good. Not the best ever, but it slots in neatly with plenty of other places in our neighborhood, many of which are rated 4 stars and up. How can this be?

For starters, the place had four times as many reviews on Uber Eats as it has on Google. Therefore, I assume delivery orders are the bulk of its business. Next, the reviews on Uber Eats were actually much better. 500 people gave the place 4.3 stars. Hmm, why the discrepancy? As it turns out, only extremely dissatisfied delivery customers care enough to review a restaurant on both Uber Eats and Google. Therefore, a few burnt pizzas tanked the Google rating, but the majority of deliveries was fine—just like our pizza.

Numbers rarely tell the whole story. Look behind the curtain before you make up your mind.