The hard truth about Yelp
The whole mission of Rating Bee is to make sure that every business gets a fair shake, an opportunity to fix negative reviews in an unbiased and fair platform. I’d like to preface this article with pointing out that we’re not in the business of writing negative opinions about any other competitor, but we are in the business of ensuring that small business gets a fair shake, and we’ll call it out as we see it. This article is one of those call outs.
Yelp is a necessity now for small businesses; they’ve grown their following and become one of the top five review engines online. Granted, in the early days it was quite a different model; but, now it is harder for small businesses to succeed on Yelp more than ever because of their antiquated ranking algorithm. So what is this algorithm? There are multiple instances online where websites have entire discussion boards pertaining specifically to Yelp and it’s business practices toward small business. In essence, most of these articles are businesses that have experienced difficulties using Yelp as a reliable source for reviews and most importantly seeing Yelp as strong-arming businesses into paying for enhanced Yelp reviews and recommendations. Sadly, many of these businesses complain of unfair practices mostly to do with negative reviews and the resolution of those reviews. In addition, many businesses have worked hard to get positive reviews on their profiles only to have them hidden in a section called “not recommended“. Shockingly, Yelp also discourages you from requesting your clients to review your services. That is nuts. Your customers are the lifeblood of your business, the good experiences demonstrate to the rest of the Yelp community your commitment to their satisfaction. How is it possible that a business would discourage reviews for your business?
We at Rating Bee believe that you should absolutely encourage your customers to provide fair and unbiased reviews about their experience with your business. You’ve worked hard to build this business; we want to make sure that your customers share the love.
Many believe that businesses will only invite customers that are sure to leave good reviews, and that may be so, because of this let us clarify…
You should offer your clients every opportunity to share fair and unbiased reviews by offering them opportunities to share their experiences. Give your client base a voice by allowing them to leave suggestions to improve the business with in-store surveys, satisfaction cards, reviews on Google, Yelp and Rating Bee. The smart business owner uses negative reviews to improve their business.
Every opportunity that you have with your customer should be spent encouraging more business and asking them of their experiences. “How can we better help you today”, should be your primary question. In essence, how can I get you to return to my Business? How can we improve? These are essential questions for the growth and prosperity of any business.
No, we don’t discourage customer reviews, we encourage it.
We expect that all businesses listed with Rating Bee take advantage of every opportunity to promote their business. So this is not a Yelp bashing article, it is merely stating the difference between Yelp and Score Client, we don’t hide your good reviews, we won’t hide your bad reviews, but we will give you an opportunity to solve those reviews if they are negative. We don’t use strong-arm tactics to force you into huge monthly payments. Our packages for our very best Premium service is $15.99 and Standard is $9.95. That’s it.
Be fair to your business, get your business noticed and reviews recognized. Use every opportunity to enhance your listings to grow your business. Our mission is to prove that small businesses can get better reviews, one resolved review at a time, join us and get your business listed and get your business profile started.
