What percentage of people actually leave reviews?
In BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, a panel of 1,002 US adults, 69% said they had written a review for a business in the past year, and 65% had written one after being asked. That does not mean 69% of your customers will review you: the share of any one business's customers who leave a review is much lower, and asking is what moves it most.
By Richard Thomas-Pryce, Founder · Updated
The most useful recent figures come from BrightLocal's annual Local Consumer Review Survey. The 2026 edition surveyed 1,002 US adults: 69% said they had written a review for a business in the last 12 months, 78% had been asked to leave one, and 65% had written a review after being asked. We have not found an equivalent recent UK survey, so treat these as a guide to behaviour rather than a UK benchmark.
The figure that matters to you is different. The same survey says the average consumer writes four to six reviews a year, and most people use far more businesses than that. So even a willing reviewer will only review some of the trades they hire. That is why a business that does good work but never asks can go months without a new review.
Asking changes the maths. In the BrightLocal data, 28% said they would always write a review if asked, up from 16% the year before. People were also twice as likely to write about a good experience (60%) as a bad one (29%), which is the main reason a business that asks every customer tends to end up with a strong rating.
The best number to track is your own: reviews received divided by jobs completed over the same period. If you finish 30 jobs a month and get two reviews, that rate is what to improve. Asking at the moment the job finishes, with a direct link, is the change that makes the biggest difference.
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