Thursday, April 9, 2009
Yelp Bows to Pressure and Will Allow Biz Owners to Respond to Criticism - for Free
Business Kathleen Richards — Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 2:54 PM
After a lot of complaints by business owners, Yelp has finally decided to let them respond to reviews of their businesses on its web site, the AP reports. As the Express previously reported, many business owners complained that they were essentially being held hostage by negative reviews - whether true or false - by Yelp, whose sales reps told them that they could move or remove them (and in some instances did actually move or remove them) only if they advertised. In some cases, biz owners said positive reviews were removed when they refused to advertise. The only option business owners had was to privately message the reviewers to get them to reconsider; otherwise, Yelp reps told some business owners that the web site would be more responsive to their concerns about false reviews if they paid them money.
Today, according to the AP, Yelp told its active users in an e-mail that they will allow business owners to post replies to users' reviews as long as they sign up for a free business owner's account. The feature will be activated in a week or two. But Yelp was apparently thinking about charging for this feature. In a "Yelp Client Feedback" survey sent in an e-mail April 3, Yelp asked business owners how they felt on the subject of "allow owner/manager to publicly comment on reviews" with the options being "don't want it," "don't care either way," "nice to have, but not important," "want it, but would not pay extra," or "would pay extra for this." No doubt they got an earful from angry business owners. This appears to be a step in the right direction to giving business owners a fair say in what can sometimes be false, damaging reviews of their businesses.
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
http://jimmyduncan.blogspot.com/2009/05/yelp.html
Thank you for bringing the yelp story. I don't think we should let this fade away.
Yelp just took the easy way out.
1) They are surveying people to find out (probably so they can appeal the decision) if people:
"don't want it," (negative, no way of instructing if payment)
"don't care either way," (votes go out the window)
"nice to have, but not important," (votes go out the window)
"want it, but would not pay extra," (positive for yelp, more $$)
or "would pay extra for this." (positive for yelp, more $$)
Why not allow users to check "Like it!!!" ... very strange
2)Yelp still controlling the "algorithm that is used" controlled by selling advertisement. *note, they will throw in issue #1 if people say "I like it, and i will pay money"
3) Other companies are taking on this business model. Citysearch, etc. These smaller companies are picking up yelps scraps and trying to cash in.
4) Other small companies are calling saying that GooglesADWORDS actually is the problem (of course by phone). Convincing businesses that Google "ask for you to buy GoogleADWORDS or else you won't land on top of the google search...". Very strange how they figure the payoff of adverting people from google to their sites... Also, pretty weird, because wouldn't you be the one to think "Hey. Google should be the one we really need to buy advertising from"... So pretty weird for citysearch (and others) to do this. I guess the scale of % that they would get is way better than what they are driving to google (80% stupid americans, 20% wise americans.
Oh thank you capitalism
Article -
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SearchResults?keywords=yelp
Funny things about yelp
http://consumerist.com/5164533/pizzeria-employees-wear-t+shirts-with-quotes-from-nasty-yelp-reviews
like
dislike
Yelp finally released the new feature that allows business owners to respond publicly to reviews. It's comical, really. Before a business owner can respond to a review, they must upload a picture of themselves. Yelp clearly states that if you upload a picture of anything other than your face, messaging will be disabled for your business. They show an example of a dorky chef, which they say is correct, and then a nice general shot of a restaurant's dining room, which they say is wrong. It's totally hypocritical because any internet troll can post a malicious review without uploading any picture at all. Yelp has also done nothing to ensure that internet trolls don't claim a business page that doesn't belong to them. Those businesses that don't play the yelp game or lack the internet skills to participate are left vulnerable to a total lack of security that welcomes identity theft and bogus business responses. While yelp claims they will closely monitor and censor business feedback, you know damn well that they are not going to make any effort to protect a business and will allow trolls to further damage business reputations via their website.
The EBX deserves a big award for bringing Yelp's shabby business style to light. This was kick ass investigative journalism. It was risky. And the outcome will improve life for a lot of people.
Yelp maintains that they are all about the consumer, yet it's the business owners they solicit for "sponsorship" and they actually call it being a "sponsor" of Yelp. Why would any business "sponsor" yelp when they are not supportive of the small business owner? They don't verify reviews, fact check, and they remove perfectly good reviews and will not explain why. I remember my kids were in college and they would ask if I wanted to "sponsor movie" Or "sponsor a vacation" and it was laughable. Just ask for the money! Don't mask it behind a softer version to solicit funds.
Still, they will not put into writing what they offer if you are a sponsor and that concerns me. Still they only "deal" on the phone. When you talkk to the Yelp sales staff one gets the distinct impression they are not on the "up and up" and I hope the small business people will continue to not be a sponser of Yelp.
Yelp needs to verify their reviews. Which is to say that the site needs to actually become trustworthy by being responsible, instead of simply calling themselves trustworthy and expecting people to believe them. They need to be diligent and REMOVE false reviews, either positive or negative, when those reviews are brought to their attention. They need to reinstate credible reviews by actual people, even if those people aren't doing what Yelp wants by spending all their free time on the site, filling it with free content. Short of this, there is no reason for Yelp to exist.
Yelp is simply awful. I posted a truthful and positive review of a local animal organization, not knowing that another reviewer of that organization had a personal vendetta against it. This reviewer had yelp remove my review, just like that. When I protested, yelp ignored me. In curiousity, I read other reviews by this same reviewer, and was shocked to find racist comments against Hispanics, their numbers are too large, they are growing too rapidly and taking all the local jobs etc. When I flagged the bigoted reviews, yelp told me that what the review writes is their own business! So I can't write a positive review about a kitty rescue organization but Denny C can write racist remarks against Hispanics, what kind of site is this?
In summary, Yelp is fake people, fake reviews. Yelp is most definitely, NOT COOL.
It took yelp six years to even consider giving small business owners a voice on their website, and only after a flurry of negative media attention threatened the viability of its own business. Yelp has never apologized to the small business community for its actions, nor did it bother to even announce this change to the business owner community. Instead, they send a message to their reviewers, which seems more like an apology for "giving in" to the demands of business owners. If yelp truly cared about the small business community, it would have included its needs in the original business plan, it would not have waited six years to respond to the needs of business owners, and it would not be apologizing for taking the first step toward creating an equitable site. Why on earth would any business owner advertise on a website that begrudgingly supports their needs? Yelp has offered up far too little, far too late, and it simply won't be enough to recover from their long term mistakes.
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