Morgan Remmers of Yelp discussed the importance of ratings and reviews sites when it comes to any SMBs online presence. According to a 2014 Nielsen study, 78% consumers turn to review sites to look for local businesses.
Morgan shared some stats about just how powerful Yelp is in reaching potential consumers:
- Yelp has 135 million monthly unique visitors
- 71 million reviews (as of Q4 2014)
- 72 million users on mobile.
- 523,000 calls made through Yelp’s mobile app daily
- 82% of users visit Yelp because they intend to make a purchase.
- 89% of those make a purchase within one week
When it comes to managing negative reviews and responding to them, Yelp offers several tips:
- Craft a response you can be proud of. What is posted on the internet can live forever and may be shared widely.
- Stop, Drop and Roll
- Stop – Don’t respond immediately – wait/sleep on it so you can calm down and be thoughtful about your response.
- Drop – don’t be prideful or reactionary. Respond well, then be willing to drop it rather than continuing to engage in an online argument.
- Roll – roll with it. Keep providing best possible service and good reviews will multiply.
- Consider responding privately as a first response in an attempt to resolve any disputes prior to opening up an unpredictable public discourse.
- Review profiles users who leave reviews including their review history. If the individual mostly leaves negative reviews then it may be prudent to just leave that review alone rather than responding.
On the other hand, most of Yelp reviews are positive with almost 80% rated 3 star or higher:
- 42% = 5 star
- 25% = 4 star
- 11% = 3 star
Businesses can also flag reviews that violate its content guidelines. For example, if the review contains false information or promotes another business. When flagging a review, leave detailed notes explaining why the review violates the content guidelines to help Yelp evaluate the flag. For example, if the review criticizes a dish that a restaurant doesn’t even serve, this may indicate the wrong restaurant is being reviewed or that it is a fake review.
Lastly, Yelp recommends that in order to achieve a strong online presence, the business encourage engagement with the business instead of just asking for reviews.
