Yelp Reviews: A great tool for Word-of-Mouth Advertising

On January 31, the Gaspedal blog offered great word of mouth advice on getting Yelp reviews.  In case you are not familiar, Yelp is a website with over 61 million monthly visitors reading over 22 million reviews on local businesses.  I use Yelp all the time.  I have the app on my phone as well.  That way if I am in an area I am unfamiliar and hungry I can look up restaurants and what other customers have to say about them.  It isn’t only restaurants though.  I can look up everything from dry cleaners to chiropractors to auto mechanics.  Reviews are the Holy Grail on these sites, so it’s important to get those reviews.

Gaspedal recommended three tips for getting reviews on Yelp.

1. Remind your customers.  Put signs on tables, receipts, business cards, and remind them on the way out the door.  People are often self-motivated to post negative reviews so it’s important to encourage the positive reviewers to post about you as well.
2. Link to your Yelp profile.  Create these links on your website, your email signature, and your newsletters.    Don’t forget that strangers may already be heading to the Yelp page so make sure your loyal customers are making their voices heard.
3. Reply and respond.  Like any social media community, the more you get involved the better.  If you do receive a review respond with goodwill.  Thank the positive reviews but leave it at that.  No gifts or incentives.  A simple thank you will suffice.  If it is a negative review, thank them for their patronage and feedback.  If you can be specific about the customer’s experience and changes you made as a result then mention that as well.

 As a member of the NALA our eListing product automatically creates a Yelp profile for you but can do nothing to help you get reviews.  That requires your own Word of Mouth.  Hopefully the above tips help.