What Yelp Should Be
Yelp
is a social network that pet parents use to review the businesses they’ve been
to and specific services they’ve used. Businesses create their own profile
pages to build up their reputation and hopefully garner positive reviews and a
five-star rating. Yelp caters to small independent businesses and gives them a
voice against the marketing budgets of larger chains. It makes it much easier
for your business to be found in local searches.
What Yelp Appears to Be
Some
business owners have made claims that Yelp’s employees have called them
offering to remove their bad reviews if the business buys ad space. Others have
even reported that their positive reviews would be hidden once they declined to
pay.
Our Experience with Yelp
From
my experience as a customer, Yelp owners have reached out to me on a few occasions
after I had given them good reviews on their business. After thanking me for
the four or five-star rating, they would ask me to “Like” them on Facebook
(They also provided their Facebook links for easy access). These businesses
easily integrated their social media marketing strategy with Yelp and it
worked! Without hesitation, I clicked on the link and added myself as another
follower to their business page. Why?
1.
They made it easy for me to find their Facebook.
2.
I was already a fan of their service, so why not be a fan on Facebook?
3.
Their responses affirmed that my reviews were actually being read and made me
feel as if the businesses really cared about the opinions of their customers,
so I was happy to extend the favor by liking their pages.
Believe
it or not, “Yelping” or reviewing is fun for customers because people are
always looking for their voice to be heard on topics that they are
knowledgeable about. Yelp allows customers to create lists of favorite places
and to bookmark business they haven’t been to yet. This way, satisfied customer
refers your business to their friend, this now potential customer can bookmark
your business and refer back to it on Yelp.
Here Are the Facts
·
Yelp
has 100 million monthly unique visitors
·
99%
of Yelp users are not on the site to casually browse; they intend to spend
money at local businesses
·
Every
star you get in Yelp’s five-star maximum rating leads to a 5-9% jump in
revenues.
Your goal in using
this social network: Bring in as many positive reviews as
you can to boost your business’ credibility.
How do you generate several positive reviews?
After
you’ve successfully set up a Yelp business page, look to the faithful customers
you already have. Potential customers are eager to know how people like
themselves view your business. This is why you should ask your current
customers to rate and review your business through Yelp. Building up a
collection of positive reviews also will help buffer you in case you receive a
less than favorable review.
How do you ask your customers to give you a review?
Kristin
Morrison, author of Six-Figure
Pet Sitting Academy, advises
that you should send out a short e-mail to clients you have in mind. In this
email you should:
ü
Thank
your clients for being loyal customers.
ü
Request
for them to review your business via Yelp.
ü
Let
them know that it only takes two minutes to become a Yelp member.
ü
Encourage
clients to review five or more businesses on Yelp to maintain an active status
so that their reviews will be shown. (Yelp does not show reviews by
inactive members.)
ü
Remind
them that they can review your business more than once, which will increase
your star rating.
ü
Tell
them that customers can also “check-in” to your business, which puts your
business profile on their Yelp feed.
How do you deal with negative reviews?
Don’t
try to respond the same day. Take another day or two to get over the initial
shock of receiving a negative review and ask yourself why the customer may have
written a negative review in the first place. Think back and try to remember
when this customer came in. Were they in a bad mood to begin with? Did you have
certain employees on the floor at that time? Recalling the incident this unhappy
customer is referring to will help you form your response that addresses the
customer’s concerns in a professional manner.
You
are able to send private or public messages to your Yelp reviewers. We
recommend that you message them privately so that they do not put any other
complaints on public display.
Perhaps
you will be able to remedy the unfortunate situation by offering a special
discount or a free service so that they might try your business out again and
hopefully have a better experience the next time around. If you are able to remedy the situation,
politely ask the customer if they would mind taking down the review.
Remember
that one bad review does not counteract the good that you have brought to the
pet community. However, multiple bad reviews should not be overlooked. Use
these reviews as opportunities to improve your business and the customer’s experience.
Always try and keep the number of
unfavorable reviews balanced by more good reviews. If you receive a negative review, it is
worthwhile to ask several of your loyal customers to review you on Yelp if they
haven’t already.
Benefits
·
Free
advertising for your business through a Yelp profile complete with your
standard information, description, and business photos (added by you and your
customers).
·
Once
you have five or more reviews, you can add the Yelp badge to your site, which
will not only encourage more people to review your business, and will add
credibility to your business’ reputation.
· Publicly shared referrals in the form of reviews, this will lead to more potential
customers.
·
A
backlink to your website through a popular social network filled with pet
owners looking for pet services.
·
Pictures
of happy pets that are a direct result of your business’ services.
Yelp
is your online reputation laid out in reviews. It’s better to have a reputation
than to not be recognized at all. This free business profile will increase
your visibility in the local community and soon all you’ll need to worry about
is if you have enough staff members to handle the new customers. Luckily you’ll
have your handy kennelsoftware to
check them all in!
Throw Us a Bone!
Would you give Yelp a positive or negative review? What techniques have you used to garner
positive reviews or deal with negative ones?
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