The Industry's Love / Hate Relationship with Yelp: Yelps Responds (For Part I click here)

It seems there are lot of fairly strong opinions on Yelp, I heard from quite a few of you, including Vince Sollitto from Yelp, who wrote:

="font-size: 10pt;">"Hi Margie,

I saw your recent post and wanted to correct one statement you appear to make: businesses can *not* "pay and get their negative posts filtered" on Yelp. As a result, the question you ask ("Would you pay?") is a moot and misleading one. The business owners in question are mistaken if they believe that purchasing an advertising package on Yelp would "fix" their concern over negative reviews; all their advertising would do is drive more traffic to their business listing page on Yelp and all their reviews -- positive and negative.

If the business owners in question have claimed the free tools available to them on Yelp, they have the ability to respond publicly on their business listing page to the reviews you highlight and explain their version of events.

More information to dispel the myth you mention can be found on our company blog, notably here and here, and more information about how business owners can unlock their free tools on Yelp and engage with their customers can be found in our Business Owner's Guide.

Please don't hesitate to contact our media relations department if you have any further questions."

Regards,

Vince Sollitto
VP, Communications & Public Affairs
Yelp, Inc.

I email Vince back to ask how they filter the reviews, and received this:

"Yelp uses an automated computer algorithm to determine which reviews to display to users, in order to provide the most trusted content possible. It is not an easy task but we believe it is essential and a key reason that 36 million people come to Yelp each month to find a great local business -- because they trust the reviews. Protecting that content from fake (shill) or malicious (competitor) reviews is a challenge but one we take seriously and more so than any other review site, we believe.

More information about our automated review filter can be found on our company blog, specifically here and here."

I also heard from a lot of you who had unfortunate experiences on Yelp, and from some who love Yelp. Here are a few exerpts, all comments can be read at the bottom of the blog.

"I opened a pizzeria in Seattle 3 months ago and already have a love/hate relationship with Yelp. I know that it's hard to please everyone but I don't really trust all of the Yelp users that write reviews. After our first month or so I was contacted by someone who worked for the advertising team with Yelp. They asked me if I wanted to run an ad because we were getting good "hits". Well, after speaking with the sales rep he admitted that some of your competitors can create profiles to bash your establishment in order to keep potential customers away. I was a little shocked to hear this coming from the sales rep but at least he was being honest."

-------------

"I'm a restaurant manager in Washington DC. I deal with customers all the time who present unreasonable and exaggerated complaints in attempt to get items comped from their checks. Yelp is a forum that allows upset customers to post over blown negative complaints about their experiences."

-------------

"Yelp ........ they can deny it all they want but "THEY" Blackmail Businesses! My friends up at (name deleted) Winery ran into a situation where they supposedly had "TOO" many good compliments verse one negative and most positives were removed. I'll vouch for that because my positive post about their Cab was off in the haze of the heat somewhere (gone/deleted)? Speaking to (name deleted) up there she said something like they'd re-post all those positives for a price, but they still had their doubts."

-------------

"I've been in the hospitality industry for longer than I care to say, so I've seen much with regard to customer relationships between customers and businesses. Websites like Yelp have proved invaluable when everything is wonderful. Conversely, when things go bad, it can magnify and multiply to potential customers in such a magnitude that it's truly scary."

------------

Not surprisingly, the people that like Yelp the best are the ones who really seem to be embracing the system:

"We are so confident in our ability to provide great wines and a positive experience, we integrated Yelp into our homepage!

From time to time we get nailed. Not a good feeling and our stomach's sink but it's what they felt and something we accept. If the reviewer said things that we're inaccurate or out of line and not in keeping with Yelp review standards, we've been able to get them removed.

Lastly, Colleen Topper replies to every Yelp reviewer within 24 hours of receiving their review in a very positive way. Sometimes, the reviewer will not respond, others are very appreciative of the personal touch, others (sometimes) even increase their star rating.

In other words, Yelp is a social interactive site so, to participate, we need to be socially interactive and provide the "experience" folks are looking for.

Our overall experience of working with Yelp has been positive."

David Topper
Goosecross

-----------

"Thanks for the perspective on Yelp. I have heard so much talk about the good and bad of the site. I have to say, as a winery owner I LOVE Yelp. Honig has had many reviews posted on the site. Most of them have been good reviews, and they are genuine. We recognize the people who are writing the reviews as having been here. Some of course are not as positive and I think we have had a couple that were just not good at all.

First let me say that the reviews being posted on Yelp are almost always written by young professionals in their late twenties and their thirties. This seems to be the demographic that is most interested in sharing their opinion, and who look to their peers for recommendations. We have a lot of visitors to the winery in this age group. They have definite ideas about the way a business should operate, and we have been lucky to fit well with these ideas.

To me, Yelp reviews are priceless. An unbiased, unsolicited review of our business is an invaluable management tool. They give me insight into the operation of my tasting room that I would not otherwise have, since I do not work in the tasting room and am not at the winery on the weekends when we are busiest. Negative comments, or statements about "generous pours", or "even though they are by appointment, they let us in anyway" are red flags that I can then address immediately with my staff. I also use the positive Yelp reviews as a way to commend my staff for their great customer service skills.

I personally respond to all reviews, whether they are positive or negative, and have always had communication back from the poster. They are always happy to hear back from the business and to have their issue acknowledged.

I realize that a site like Yelp can open the door to shady behavior, and that not all reviews are legitimate. I’m sure there are times when a person posts a review that is biased in some way, or just plain unfair. But Yelp wouldn’t be worth anything if everyone just posted great reviews. I think, instead of complaining about bad reviews, take a moment to read what the person has said and honestly look at your business to see if it is something you need to address. Use it as an opportunity to make a change for the better.

And hopefully, the success of your business is not entirely dependent on Yelp reviews. If you have satisfied customers they will recommend you to their friends and keep coming back."

Regina Weinstein
Honig Vineyard & Winery

-------------

The lesson in all this seems to be that you need to work the system in order to have the best experience; the companies who really embrace the way Yelp works and interact with their reviewers (both good & bad) have a much more positive view of Yelp than those who do not. The biggest issues seem to be what companies perceive as "unfair" poor reviews, (in many cases where alcohol is a factor), and that businesses are given less space for rebuttal than customers are for reviews. Further, the challenge of having "unbiased" reviews, yet also has paid advertisers, which certainly can be viewed as a conflict of interest. It's a changing world out there, we'll just have to see how all this evolves!

The Industry's Love / Hate Relationship with Yelp

It seems most industry people either love or hate Yelp. I thought one San Francisco restaurant that discusses their love / hate relationship on their blog does a great job of pointing out both sides of the equation. Of course the love comes from getting some fabulous reviews and the hate from any other reviews. The question is, do these forums really offer an honest and fair way for people to get info on businesses they may wish to patronize, or are they simply an easy way to bash a business you don't like or had one poor experience with? Sure, we've always had word of mouth, but that has gone from "you tell a friend, they tell two friends" etc. to "post a review" and have thousands seeing it - and deciding where to spend their money based on it. I admit that I use reviews on some retail sites (such as Amazon) to make purchasing decisions, and have found them helpful. However, what happens when you get a negative post?

I recently heard first hand about one local B&B type Inn and their personal experience with Yelp.

It seems that a group (11 to be exact) had booked the place for one guest's 30th birthday. Let's just say that at the end of their 3 day stay, the guests were unhappy (well at least the 2 that Yelped about it), the owner was unhappy, and their was a question of cost of damages (stained carpet that the carpet cleaners could not fix). Any hotel or B&B stay that involves a call to the cops is probably not going to have a happy ending.

The gist of it was this: due to the location being in a residential area, there are noise considerations, due to this, hot tub use after 8:00PM is not allowed. Suffice to say, the guests decided that they should be able to use the hot tub when they wanted, regardless. Owner's view: loud and drunk guests making a ruckus in the middle of the night; fears of neighborhood complaints that could affect their permit. Guests' view: "mostly well behaved and quiet, but wanted to take advantage of the hot tub, it was a nice night and we were paying for the place. So what, we were in the hot tub at midnight, what's the big deal, no one could hear us." By both accounts there was alcohol involvement, to what extent might be in dispute, but it was a factor. One of the guests even posted that they "didn't come to wine country for a weekend of sobriety." The cops were called, the guests were sent indoors for the rest of the night. By any account, not an ideal situation. Was it handled well by the owner? Maybe, maybe not, at this point it has turned in a "he said, she said" back and forth.

Now the negative reviews come up on Yelp, the owner is upset, stressed, and believes that they are losing bookings due to this. To top it off, in the owner's dealing with Yelp, it seems that for about $300 a month this can all be fixed. That didn't sit well with them at all; now, a couple of weeks later and they have been asked to join the class action lawsuit against Yelp.

Good, bad, indifferent, what have your experiences been with Yelp? How do you feel about businesses that pay and get their negative posts filtered? Would you pay? Let me know what you think!

Chefs! We are conducting a brief survey on spreads, please participate!