When Yelp (www.yelp.com) was launched in 2004 by two ex-engineering employees of PayPal, it started out as a local review site where users searched for food reviews. Since it’s inception, the use of the Yelp service by consumers has spread to a myriad of other businesses. Whether you’re a restaurant, or the owner of a fitness club; you should be knowledgeable of how your Yelp reviews will affect your business.
Yelp Negative Review
When a customer has a negative experience at your establishment, they may walk out feeling like their money was not well spent. In this event, they will be more apt to dissuade future business from entering your establishment through viral means. Today’s word-of-mouth extends to the online environment where they may put a negative review on Yelp, and why should this matter? When potential customers are reading your profile and reviews, they will take into account the good reviews, but also, and almost more importantly are your negative reviews.
Yelp allows you to respond to your customer reviews which can help fix problems affecting your online brand. Another good tacket to increasing your online brands reputation is to offer incentives to customers to share their experience on Yelp; especially those that had excellent experiences.
In the modern web environment, focusing on your brands online image has never been more important today. From the iPhone, Blackberry, or Android Yelp applications; users are able to find your business on the go.
Yelp Positive Review
They may not necessarily be searching for you at home on the computer before they head out, but could literally be 5 minutes away from your establishment. Your negative reviews matter, and having positive reviews are equally as important.
What can you do about your online brand negative reviews? Respond to your customers, whether it’s through the use of your Twitter/Facebook accounts, or through the Yelp website. Address the negative reviews and offer incentives to turn those into repeat business transactions by showing the consumer that you do care, and want to make their experience better. This will drive more business to your establishment while protecting your online brand’s reputation.
