Tag Archives: Yelp

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

Posted on February 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

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. 

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Dealing with negative comments on Social Media

Posted on September 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

This week Social Media Examiner posted a helpful blog called 7 Tips for Dealing with Upset Facebook Fans.  While they are specifically speaking Facebook here I think the advice is solid for most social media outlets where customers/fans can post about your business.

  1. Respond no matter what.  Great advice on Facebook, Yelp or any site that allows users to post reviews and comments on your business.  If a user posts in anger, the entire community can see it.  If you don’t reply it may incite more anger in the person leaving the comment, and additionally your silence makes a statement to the rest of that community.  Instead, take the opportunity to address the issue.  Hopefully you defuse the angry poster and let your other fans know you are invested in their customer satisfaction.
  2. Be patient and understanding.  This tip involves putting yourself in the customer’s shoes.  No matter where they fault lies, a simple apology can go a long way to keeping the customer’s business.
  3. Contact the customer privately.  Posting publicly that you are sorry the customer is unhappy and will contact them privately immediately, is a great way to announce to the community you are addressing the situation.  Contacting the customer privately allows you to give the customer a personal touch and make offers to resolve the issue you might not be comfortable offering in a public forum.
  4. Consider asking the fan to remove the post.  Once the issue is resolved and while you have them in a private conversation anyway, you might want to make that request.  The blog says often once the issue is resolved the disgruntled fan will remove it if asked.  That being said, personally I’d prefer asking the customer to respond that the issue has been resolved instead.  This reinforces for other fans your commitment to customer service.
  5. Respond back to the original post.  Personally I’ve seen this often on trip advisor.  Travelers will post a negative comment about the hotel.  The hotel will apologize for the bad experience and let the community know how the issue was resolved.  When I see this I am more likely to book with that hotel.
  6. Let your community respond.  This is a great suggestion for Facebook specifically.  The more you engage with your fans on your page, answering questions and providing assistance the more active they will be.  Often they will help each other before you get the opportunity to comment.  This sort of response from other fans creates genuine credibility.
  7. The last resort according to the blog is to block a fan.  This should only be used if the fan refuses to respond to your attempts to resolve the issue, is blatantly hostile and especially if they engage in expletives or racial slurs against your staff, business or other fans.

Social media can be a powerful tool and opportunity to build relationships with current and potential customers.  It’s important to remember however that these relationships, like all relationships need to be nurtured.

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Word of Mouth Advertising…engaging your employees

Posted on July 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

If you have your own business you know how valuable Word-of-Mouth can be.  Customers endorsing you, your product or service to their friends and family are probably the most powerful form of marketing available…and it’s free!  Directories like Yelp and TripAdvisor have created word-of-mouth opportunities that are beyond your control so it’s essential to take control where you can.

One of my favorite resources on this topic comes from a website called GasPedal.com.  They produce two of my favorite newsletters, “You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius!”  and “Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That!”

Earlier this week their quick tip involved a couple quick tips about involving employees in word of mouth.  The three quick tips they offer are these:

  1. Give employees guidelines.  This is not to control their interaction but educate them as to how to ethically and honestly participate in conversations about your business, both on and offline.
  2. Give them tools.  Offer employees special discounts for themselves, their family and friends.  If you find something employees are sharing, it might indicate a potentially popular item or service outside your employee network.
  3. Give them status.  On a small scale allow employees, where applicable to get involved with online forums relevant to your business as your companies expert on the subject.  Social media forums function with a personal face and when your employee is allowed to be that expert.

Speaking of services such as Yelp and Trip Advisor… If your business is listed on directories such as these with reviews, it’s a good idea to check them out and respond when appropriate.  I am an avid Trip Advisor user.  When I read a negative review of a hotel that is followed up by an apologetic response from the hotel attempting to resolve or address the issue, I am impressed by the business.  In this way, even a negative review provides an opportunity for positive word of mouth.

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Posted in Small Business, Social Media, Uncategorized

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