Hungry Go Where? Online Reviews and Food Safety

Food service business namely restaurants are among the few business categories where consumers make purchasing decisions with very limited information. In Malaysia with growing number of mixed development projects and townships, you can find a ‘mamak’ shop in almost every corner and food stalls (street food) at probably every train or bus stations and outside schools.

New chains of restaurant open up frequently and fast food outlets are among the first to appear in malls. So, Malaysians are spoiled for choice and making decision on where and what to eat is becoming very difficult especially with the addition of UberEat, Food Panda and Eatigo. How do Malaysians decide where and what to eat? What are their expectations? Cheap? Safe, have vegetarian choices, or must have wifi?

A recent spate of food poisoning incident compelled one Malaysian daily to look at how Malaysians choose where to eat. Those interviewed for the news said that they don’t mind to compromise on hygiene if the food sold is cheap or ‘affordable’. A survey carried out by FOMCA on sustainable consumption some seven (7) year ago showed that price is the first consideration for most things Malaysians buy – including food.  

Consumers generally regard packaged food sold at hypermarkets and supermarkets or marts as safer than those sold by sundry shops. More than one third of complaints received by the National Consumers Complaints Center or NCCC against restaurants are related to hygiene and safety issues- followed by price dispute; of course!

Under the Food Hygiene Regulations 2009, food service operators are required to comply with basic hygiene requirements with regards to : Food safety; Food Handlers; Equipment & Utensils; Water Supply; Effluent/Drainage; Toilet Facilities; Waste Disposal; Floor, Walls & Ceiling; Others (such as Pest Control). These are the components assessed by local government for grading purposes. 

However, the expectations of local governments are not standardized – yet! The overall scores required to achieve each grade (A, B or C) is not standardized across states and local government jurisdictions. Some say restaurants in northern peninsular cities need to score a minimum of 80% to be awarded grade A premise whilst down south its 75%.

Have you noticed the grading and do they matter when you decide where you eat? 

The internet, the world wide web and world wide apps have made our lives easier or more difficult – depends on who you ask. In the past, or pre-internet days, word of mouth among friends and relatives helps us pick what to buy and where to eat. This is a form of review or feedback on their experience and they share, often with good intentions. But word of mouth could make or break a business even if it travels at the speed of sound.In the era of internet these travel at the speed of light!

A bad review online could send a company’s stock prices downwards – overnight!  Reviews help sell books, hotel accommodation and food at restaurants. A typical restaurant review website seeks customers review on aesthetic values of food and beverages served at a restaurant, value for money, the quality of service and the environment it gives for people who dine in. Most of if not all these criteria are very subjective – especially aesthetics: taste, presentation, the ambience etc.

These review service providers should also seek to collect information which are important to consumers’ well-being: especially hygiene practices. Review service providers must have mechanisms to verify if these reviews are authentic – i.e from those who actually ate at a particular restaurant which they commented on. Questions or rating criteria should not be biased in order to get favourable feedback. 

The Business of Online Review
A study on online shopping suggests that an average Malaysian online shoppers reads seven (7) to eight (8) reviews before deciding to purchase anything online. According to the Competition and Markets Authority or CMA of the UK, more than half of UK consumers use online reviews to decide what to buy. Online reviews influence more than $32 billion of UK consumer spending each year. 

According to Harvard Business School researcher - Assistant Professor Michael Luca, how reputation is earned in the digital age is a fertile area of his research. According to him, in the city of Seattle alone, Yelp, which launched in 2005, had accumulated 60,000 reviews by 2009, rating 70 percent of the city's restaurants. It seems Yelp is the first site to to emphasize user reviews for restaurants over professional critics. It also keeps historical database that tracks every review. Luca’s study showed that the Yelp review translated to anywhere from a 5 percent to 9 percent effect on revenues and that chain restaurants are not much affected by ratings. The greatest effects were on independent restaurants!

Restaurant owners who are affected by the Yelp rating are not that happy and argue about the reliability of public reviews and if they are actual measures of quality. There are possibilities that review can be influenced in favour of a particular restaurant.

Here’s how it was or is done for book reviews – according to a New York Times article:
In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50.

Another Article goes: While completing his clerkship after graduating from Harvard Law School, Michael Fertik started to think that creating a company that helped people and businesses control their online reputations and data might be his logical next step. In October 2006, he started Reputation.com. It turned out tthat his customers were white-collar professionals worried about their own reputations. Later, after customers began to tune in to social media, the company added social media monitoring and management tools. Since it started, Reputation.com has raised $67 million in venture capital and attracted more than 1.6 million customers. It generally charges small businesses $1,000 to $4,000 a year.

Can Online Review be Manipulated for Restaurants?

 
The short answer is – duh!!!! Yah!!!

A 2013 study by Harvard Business School indicated that, at least in the Boston area, 16 percent of Yelp restaurant reviews were fake! Several governments like the one in the UK and Australia have developed measures to discourage fake reviews and also constantly educate consumers to spot fake reviews. 

But it seems like an uphill battle when it comes to regulating online businesses.

So here are some considerations for online review companies and those collecting reviews for their businesses:

• be transparent about commercial relationships;
• don’t post or publish misleading reviews; and
• remember that omitting negative reviews can be as misleading as posting fake reviews (and in some countries are subject to penalties)
• be transparent and accountable on how star rating are determined
• have mechanisms to detect fake reviews and to verify if reviews are by those who in this case dined at a particular restaurant for which the review was written.

Travelers and those planning vacations use several websites to help plan their travels. A good 25% of the reviews were found to be fake – also.

As Malaysia becomes a popular tourist destination – leisure, business and increasingly for medical purposes, fake reviews could tarnish the efforts to bring in tourists or it could mislead them. There are a good many reviews about food hygiene and drinking water quality in Kuala Lumpur on a popular travel advisor website. Many reviews encourage tourists to err on the side of caution about food safety and drinking water quality!

As for Malaysians – hungry where to eat ah? Wait I ask Uncle Google!

Aiyah! no grading information for restaurants lah! So how!!!!!