How much is a Yelp review worth to your business? The price of your core product? A free meal? A discounted session?
Yelp Example
This summer I posted a review of a restaurant Katie and I visited while on a road trip. The restaurant/farmer’s market was a bit too dirty for our tastes and we did not even stay to eat. I posted the review on Yelp giving it only 2 stars (out of 5) and a full explanation of the flies we saw on the food.
Well, interestingly enough, I’ve had frequent contact with the restaurant ever since.
Initially, they apologized for the cleanliness and explained some basic reason of why it was so dirty that day. For that, I posted an update on my review about this contact, and raised my star rating from a 2 to a 3.
Afterward, we had a little bit of back and forth with me mentioning I would swing by on my next trip.
Then, last week, I received another message on Yelp from the owner, explaining that they had cleaned up the restaurant thoroughly and asking if I could remove the review. Apparently my Yelp review was showing up under a Google search for their restaurant and was clearly hurting business.
“Hey I think we’ve been over punished for a hot summer day…when the employees left the door open. It is really hurting us more than you probably intended. If you concur would you be willing to remove the review…it comes up in abbreviated form when one does a search for [our company].
The store is clean the food is healthy..what else can I say…
.have you ever been on a picnic and had such a problem? Sometimes nature can not be controlled, as much as we try. Thanks…and generally I accept the critic but I feel it has served it’s purpose and my sense of shame is overwhelming me and thus I beg you to remove said review.”
While proud to see my impact, I have been more impressed with the restaurants active management of their online presence. I removed my review and let the owner know I would be up to visit and see the cleaner setup in the Spring.
Interestingly, though, I did hesitate to remove my review. For one, I have not been back to the restaurant to see the improvements. Even more so, though, I do not feel I was sold hard enough on the owner being sorry. I felt my review was actually worth something at this point. Something was missing.
Well, sure enough, after removing my view, I got another message back with exactly what I was subconsciously seeking:
“thanks!
please email when you might be coming up and we will treat you to lunch and a tour of our place, and the farm if you have time.”
Reactive Web Presence Management
The point is, your small business web presence has value. Most businesses spend money proactively to manage their web presence – building a website or setting up a Facebook page – but far fewer manage it reactively. Even the reactive web presence management needs improvement, however. It should be treated as an all out customer service position.
Reactive web presence management is a powerful approach for companies going forward. A value can already be placed on the customers review. On Yelp for instance, how far down the list of Top Sushi restaurants in LA does that 1 star rating drop you? How much more business does being at the top of that list generate? Twitter feedback can be studied similarly.
One strategy we discussed last week for reactive web presence management revolves around the potential of Foursquare, Google Latitude, or whatever location based social media tool really takes off. Foursquare, I’ve heard, is considering teaming up with local businesses to offer rewards to those “mayors” who visit their shops most often. This is an incredible opportunity for small businesses to react online to customers who are already showing their support for your product.
There are small business reactive and proactive opportunities growing out of new online technologies and established web platforms all over the place. The next important leap will be in placing an accurate value on the cost and benefits of that management. Only time will tell how long it takes to educate small businesses on this value.
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