In Defense of Yelp
Hate the player, not the game.
I am a Yelp Elite member! There I said it! Yes, a proud 5 year Elite badge member and nine year member of Yelp overall. I am proud to be a veteran member of the Yelp platform having represented my favorite places to dine, grab take out, drink wine, sip coffee, shop, get massages, eat ice cream, workout, have my tires rotated, go dancing and 100 other things as well. I have resided in four major metro cities across the USA and imbeded myself into the local Yelp community of each respective location be it Seattle, San Diego, St. Louis and now Madison, WI. I have done 477 reviews and counting and posted 2,102 photos from these many places I have given my patronage over the last nine years as a Yelper. You can peak at any of them right here on my Yelp profile if you so wish.
Hold on now…
I am not bragging about my Yelp participation or my Yelp Elite (YE) nomination! Not at all. That is not my intent here with this article. I simply give some context to my personal perspective and background with the Yelp platform. Being a Yelp member, YE or otherwise does not entitle me (or any other) to privileges or rights beyond someone who is not. I stay true to this now as much as always. I do not wave my status as some “credential of merit” to demand higher treatment, special respects or social clout than someone who does not. Its a simple mark of commitment, participation, my exposures to a place or service and my frequency to it. I use Yelp to help locals and tourist alike, have open access to a resource they can go to and gain real world insights and suggestions to the places I have been, the places I like, the places I want others to be sure and find. As a food and travel blogger in three major US cities and one Italian city… part of me has always felt compelled to share my passion for travel and food with the world. I had to be sure others beyond just little old me could also find and experience the places I deem worthwhile and exceptional be it food, fun, entertainment or health and leisure. Yelp has been a critical extension of that sense of duty for me but on a different platform where any average Joe or Jane can quickly peak at whats around them from their computer or the mobile app. Not all blog readers are Yelp readers and vice versa so double dipping a bit never hurt. In fact it was Yelp first and blogging that came second for me. Yelp spurned the notion to go all-in and make a personal blog that could be uniquely mine with my own style and flavor to write, post, comment and review as I pleased. If interested, check out my past blogs here and here and stay tuned for the launch of my newest blog here.
Yes I get it…
I understand that some bad apples really do exist on Yelp and IMHO, abuse the platform, their status and their perceived “rank” to its extremes. Leaving damaging remarks, comments, photos, reviews and statements on business review pages. I have seen it myself and its fair game for those Yelp members to do so. Yelp is essentially a message board for public opinions. Bad reviews of any service or product will always exits no matter what. Its part of the world we live in. Do I personally think that scathing remarks on Yelp business pages is right? No. Why? Here is why. Why would I use a secondary indirect method of complaining about bad service, bad food, incorrect bill charges etc… on a review site where little or nothing can be fixed in real time when I could (and have) simply ask to have it dealt with on the spot with a manager or owner? I can give them a real chance to correct the matter at hand and rectify it then and there. I feel that by being a kind, professional human being and shedding light to a shortcoming in a dining experience or service, I give the business a chance to explain the matter, pursue recourse and make the matter right not just for me but for those to come in the future. Nearly every time this has happened, I have found that management and/or owners are more than willing to help fix matters big or small in a bad experience no matter the issue at hand. They typically want your long term patronage so any well meaning establishment will go an extra step to assure this relationship is maintained. Why some Yelp members as few as they are, choose to go all righteous and burn bridges… I do not know? This goes for those odd-balls who also like to complain and gripe about how bad parking is or how long a Friday night wait time is for a popular fish fry joint without an RSVP made… really?
Okay but for real….in my nine years as a Yelp user, contributor and pro-active connector, these are few and far between. In fact I have never met a single one of these such types in person before. The simple fact is that their rarity still leads to damaging impacts on businesses. Those comment leave big black eyes on establishments reputation and rapport with locals and tourists. So it stands out big and loud when they do it and it then generalizes all to quickly to all Yelp users and members which is just not true!
On the inside
One of many perks of being a YE is the member benefits. YE get to attend community events that only other YE members in that city can attend as well. These events are amazing! Pure-blood local extroverts of all walks of life with one common passion of being genuine, true, honest and open about their love for their local city businesses of which most are dining establishment in my experience, come together at (typically) new business about to open or long standing well known businesses to host a night of entertainment, free services, free food, free drinks, top notch socialization, swag bags, give-away prizes, and gift cards to the host venue and of course, memorable photos. I have been to at least 10 of these such events and they are A-mazing! Full-time community managers (CMs) in each major metro city I have lived in from 2009 to present, work behind the scenes to scour, recon, craft, collaborate and design superb events like this all over the USA. I had the true pleasure to get to know some stud CM’s such as Katy H. of Seattle, Brad B. of Southern San Diego County, Max R. of St. Louis, and Thuy Dan T. of Madison, WI. These people are freaking awesome! They live for creating excitement, energy, anticipation and community within their cities. They love their local businesses deeply and dedicate their days to making sure others like them (Yelpers) can meet, connect and network with others to find, share and experience the uniqueness of their respective cities. Some of my best friends to date are these CM’s and the other YE members I have met at these events or hung out with outside of official Yelp events. We love food and drinks, we love our cities and we love to share in those rich experiences and more so yet, we like to share that with others.
My struggle between consumer and Yelper
Having seen this positive side if Yelp so often, so deeply and so clearly for so long makes it hard for me to hear about business owners who show disdain for Yelp as a whole. The platform, the company, the reviewers, the system. So easy to point a finger and call us out as pure evil, bad to the core, no good. I get their anger and frustration, I really do. But this blanket treatment to hate the whole game and not just the player who’s at fault also urks me. In a time where restaurants and bars have seen unprecedented slow downs in foot traffic, sales and revenue, coupled with staff layoffs, I pray that amends can be made with Yelpers and business owners alike to help one another moving forward. Now more than ever, local businesses need the public's help as doors slowly re-open and fill seats, plates and mugs with people, food and drink. Yelp allows for the public masses to generate free publicity and promotion, marketing, photo and video content that is unbiased, pure and honest. This can be a huge help for an already limping business to get back on their feet. This being said I leave you all with the following short, simple checklist of behaviors and actions that Yelp customers can take to support and assist local businesses you either go in to debut or return to as a favorite hot spot. I also leave a list for business owners to consider adhering to for better assurance customers leave positive reviews for your pages on Yelp if you have them.
For Customers:
- Keep your review to the purpose of going to the establishment. Food, service, value and experience. Parking is not relevant! Score a place on what its in business for, not parking maters or your omission to make an RSVP.
- Ask first. If you have an issue with anything be it music level, food taste, wrong order, wrong charge, wrong temp, wobbly table etc….ask a manager or owner in a kind, professional way how it could be fixed or handled. Biting their head off, being condescending and rude will not get you anywhere with anyone. If someone came to your workplace and did so how would you respond?
- Do not leave overtly negative reviews or images or comments on Yelp if it could have been fixed onsite at the venue. If you abide by point 2 above and still no correction was made then or on return visits then yes, a low star review is warranted but this can still be done in a professional way that is tactful and respectful without barraging the venue in harmful, irreparable ways.
For Businesses
- Weather or not you know a customer is a Yelp member or not is irrelevant. Assume everyone is. Yelp had 35 million unique reviews in Q1 2020 on the mobile app alone. Always pretend a customer may leave planning to review you. With 211 million total reviews across all sectors of industry on Yelp as of March 2020, your going to see Yelp folk more and more.
- Know your Yelp market… 69% of Yelp users are Gen X and Milennials. 80% of them have some college education and 19% have a graduate level education.
- YE are truly savy shoppers, trend spotters and trend setters. Like myself with blogging and active social media platforms, Yelpers are often effective communicators of the hot and new.
- This is key! Influence the right Yelp people (YE particularly) and you have a public relations + marketing force multiplier of the best possible kind.
- 45% of US consumers check Yelp reviews before making a purchase or selecting a place to dine. Only Google beats them on this mark.
- If a bad review is made(in good taste or not), reach out to the patron and respond back professionally. Not only might this very well correct the matter for them but its seen by other Yelp members that you care about customer issues. You will work with them to make things right. It also shows direct customer engagement which always makes patrons feel good when they are heard.
- Google uses Yelp reviews and star ranking to drive search terms and how often your business comes up for consumer searches by key words or cuisine/service types.
One final note
And last of all. I find that when people better understand the origin story of any business or service they gain a whole new perspective on that business or service. I had never herd Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman speak before, only read stories on him or by him about his creation of Yelp. Then in July 2019 my favorite podcast brought him on for an interview on NPR’s How I Built This. Guy Raz interviews Jason here in this 62 minute podcast that was nothing short of inspiring and fascinating as to how it came to be and almost did not even happen at all. See how the company started in Oct 2006, now valued at $2.5B with 4,000 employees got its start. Podcast link.
