Yelp is a swiftly growing reviews site with very real challenges. Many business owners who are reviewed on Yelp have experienced real-world changes in their businesses due to the reviews posted by customers. The reviews site has definitely benefited businesses with plentiful 4 and 5 star reviews. But if one studies the conversation in social networks, blogs and the news feeds, Yelp is facing a real PR nightmare due to a poorly run internal sales department that pushes business owners to pay for expensive marketing add-ons. Terry Thomas recently published an article in the Seattle Times about his experience with Yelp. Apparently, a Yelp sales rep called Thomas after his business had risen due to excellent reviews. The sales rep proposed that Thomas pay Yelp $8400 per year for a mid-level marketing add-on program. When Thomas declined, he saw an almost instant drop in the positive reviews of his business due to a Yelp "filtering" program. Interestingly, Thomas noted that positive reviews were filtered out, while negative reviews remained. His rating went down as a result and his business was directly affected. (SOURCE: Seattle Times) There are numerous other examples of similar issues going on for business owners across the world (Yelp is an international reviews site). If you Google "yelp problems" or simply look at Yelp in the news for the last 7 days, you will see an overwhelming amount of bad press and negative feedback about the site. Revleap has come to the rescue of business owners by providing a simple program where existing customers of a business can be invited to contribute reviews to Yelp. The program utilizes a proprietary software package that business owners license from Revleap. With this package, a business owner can upload a list of customers and these same customers will be invited to contribute reviews to Yelp. The Revleap software filters out negative reviews submitted by the customers, while guiding positive reviewers to Yelp directly. Most medium-sized businesses using Revleap have noticed an average of 10-20 new positive reviews on Yelp per day as a result. Revleap was founded with the sole purpose of helping businesses gather positive Yelp reviews in an efficient manner from their customer base. The company is based in Los Angeles, California and currently has 12 employees working round the clock on servicing business owners across the world.
HOW TO NAVIGATE THE CONFUSING WORLD OF YELP REVIEWS
HOW TO NAVIGATE THE CONFUSING WORLD OF YELP REVIEWS
April 23, 2014, Los Angeles, California
"There has never been any amount of money a business can pay Yelp to manipulate reviews and our automated recommendation software does not 'punish' those who don't advertise," wrote Hannah Cheesman, a spokesperson for Yelp. (source:)
"The positive review of Lee S. of St. Paul on the Woodbury bakery Sugar Love has been "filtered" and it's no longer on the bakery's page on Yelp," writes Lee Schafer of St. Paul, Minnesota. (source: http://www.startribune.com/blogs/255805241.html)
"…what many Yahoo Local users are now discovering with the Yelp changeover is that years worth of reviews are being replaced in favor of a single Yelp review. As soon as a business gets its first Yelp review, Yahoo removes all the old Yahoo Local reviews, regardless of how many they have, rather than archiving them in some format," writes Jennifer Slegg, a journalist for Search Engine Watch. (source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2339852/Yahoos-Yelp-Partnership-Wipes-Out-Old-Local-Business-Reviews)
One only needs to scan the last two weeks of news related to Yelp to discover the turmoil surrounding this online review provider. The model simply is not working for both customers and business owners. And while Yelp (and now Yahoo!) get things sorted out, third-party providers have to step in as surrogates to monitor and provide assistance to frustrated business owners.
The strongest alternative to a direct complaint to the Jeremy Stoppleman himself (and now, apparently, Marissa Meyer) is a third-party provider who can help your business aggregate existing positive reviews about your business. The process can be daunting if done one one's own. Tracking down regulars, taking their photos, discovering their latest social pages, discovering their latest reviews about competitors, securing a time to interview them…not the kind of activity a typical small business owner has time for. But now a new era of help has arrived where all the data on one's customers is readily discoverable. In particular, simply with a customer's name or email or telephone number, companies like Revleap can quickly aggregate positive reviews from your top paying customers and help you get these posted to Yelp and Yahoo Local.
The process is very simple and even filters out negative reviews. The process is 100% organic, facilitating a real dialogue between business owner and customer. And, for the business owner, a wealth of customer data is available as a by-product of the process, including a list of best regular customers, a view into their networks where possible additional customers are awaiting an offer and the wonderful fruit of positive reviews on Yelp, of course.
Simply put: there's no way to verify the truth of what the giants like Yelp and Yahoo! are saying about their back-end process. As a business owner, you have to put your foot forward and call upon your own best customers to speak up for who you are and what you have done for them. And you need help to get that process done efficiently and within the bounds of online etiquette/Yelp rules. We've thoroughly studied the process from Yelp's viewpoint. In addition, we've honed the process of contacting your best customers to a super simple and helpful process for both you and them.
You must begin today. Real necessity exists due to the way in which Yelp and now Yahoo algorithms are whittling out some of your best reviews. Since so many people discover where/how to buy goods and services online, the importance of getting this done right now has never been higher. Ever!
