Are You Monitoring Your Yelp Reviews?

It’s no secret that most businesses are hesitant about being present in the online space for one very big reason: immediate and uncensored feedback. No matter how nice 90% of the reviews might be about your business, the other 10% make you want to avoid the internet completely. It’s a natural reaction when you love what you do and know you’re really good at it.

But is avoiding the situation really the proactive approach?

Technology is only going to continue to grow and play a large role in marketing. So as you continue to avoid the naysayers online, people are growing more and more accustomed to looking at those reviews when they are trying to decide where they want to spend their money. There’s nothing you can do to stop it so don’t you want to have a say in how your brand is reflected to possible new business?

The Right Way To Have A Presence On Yelp

Yelp is one of the top social networks dedicated to growing the relationship between businesses and consumers based on user reviews. If you really care about the satisfaction of your customers so that they will come back and bring their friends, you will play an active role as a business owner on Yelp. Having the opportunity to monitor the experiences and reactions of customers can only help you make your business better.

Take the time to build relationships with those reviewers who sing your praises. If someone took the time to write out a glowing review for you, they are only going to love you more if you publicly acknowledge and thank them for their feedback. Not to mention, you will be recruiting them as your biggest advocates which always comes in handy when you have a Negative Nancy situation on your hands.

When you do have a less-than-stellar comment on your business profile, don’t panic. For one thing, everyone knows that you can’t make every single person happy. So the odds of someone not choosing your place of business because you have one thorn among many roses aren’t very good. But that shouldn’t mean you just let it go either. Show the reviewer and the rest of your community that you care and publicly try to correct the situation with the them. If you show them that you’re listening (which will be a pleasant surprise in and of itself) and ask them to let you change their mind, there is nowhere to go but up. Because either they were having a bad day, your business had a small slip up, or you actually have something going on that needs to be corrected. Communicating and being aware of the situation is only going to but you in a better position.

Are you communicating with your customers on Yelp? Why or why not?