YELP-You either hate it or love it?

[Joe Marconi]

I hear so many mixed opinions about yelp. And not just from the auto repair shops. There are restaurants that love Yelp, others say it did nothing. I also read that the laws suits against Yelp was found in favor of Yelp, and that their business practice does not extort businesses.

 

I know this is an old topic, but does anyone have a solid experience they can relate to me. A real-life experience, not hearsay. Thanks in advance.

[mspecperformance]

Yelp is a tricky subject and one I know we have brought up before Joe. Yelp has a tremendous impact in areas of high population and of course high usage. Years ago Yelp was not popular on the east coast as it is on the West Coast. Using restaurants as an example, I have noticed that on the west coast it is not uncommon for an establishment to have 2000-3000 reviews whilst even the most popular restaurants here in NYC may only have a few hundred. That being said even here in NYC I have had a lot of feedback from customers stating that they have found us on yelp. Whether that was there starting point to where they saw us is unknown but what is known is that my good reviews certainly helped in convincing that customer to opt in. I have tracking phone numbers on my yelp page along with my google, adwords and facebook page. Out of 413 Leads in the last 3 months that were tracked through one of my online tracking phone numbers, 134 were from Yelp.

 

Yelp in less population dense areas and also area where yelp hasn't caught on yet is a different story. I do however feel that for the owners out there who don't see negative yelp reviews affecting your business you may be looking at things the wrong way. Think about all the customers that you MAY NOT be getting due to some bad reviews. These are the folks that you never hear from. It doesn't matter if you have a 500k shop or a 2 mil shop we all want more customers and new customers.

 

I am convinced Yelp is an important and integral part of my online reputation and marketing. I am however on the fence about yelp advertising and how effective it is.

[mspecperformance]

Also for those who have a gripe with Yelp, I also agree with you. Many times negative reviews are unjustly posted whilst positive reviews may be filtered. You can however flag negative reviews however after they are reviewed Yelp may allow them to stay on your page. It is unfortunate and one of the very reasons why I try my very best to keep all my customers happy, even the ones I don't want!

[Joe Marconi]

Yelp is a tricky subject and one I know we have brought up before Joe. Yelp has a tremendous impact in areas of high population and of course high usage. Years ago Yelp was not popular on the east coast as it is on the West Coast. Using restaurants as an example, I have noticed that on the west coast it is not uncommon for an establishment to have 2000-3000 reviews whilst even the most popular restaurants here in NYC may only have a few hundred. That being said even here in NYC I have had a lot of feedback from customers stating that they have found us on yelp. Whether that was there starting point to where they saw us is unknown but what is known is that my good reviews certainly helped in convincing that customer to opt in. I have tracking phone numbers on my yelp page along with my google, adwords and facebook page. Out of 413 Leads in the last 3 months that were tracked through one of my online tracking phone numbers, 134 were from Yelp.

 

Yelp in less population dense areas and also area where yelp hasn't caught on yet is a different story. I do however feel that for the owners out there who don't see negative yelp reviews affecting your business you may be looking at things the wrong way. Think about all the customers that you MAY NOT be getting due to some bad reviews. These are the folks that you never hear from. It doesn't matter if you have a 500k shop or a 2 mil shop we all want more customers and new customers.

 

I am convinced Yelp is an important and integral part of my online reputation and marketing. I am however on the fence about yelp advertising and how effective it is.

 

Thanks Adam, great comments! I think we are on the same page. I hope to hear from others. The discussion of Yelp comes up often, and I find myself on both sides.

[KMS]

I do see the positives and negatives with Yelp. I think it needs to focus more on the positive reviews. There algorithm to chose the most influential reviews is flawed! It should show all reveiws and allow the review to be disputed easier.

[mspecperformance]

The problem is is that an elaborate story teller with a vendetta against a business can have multiple accounts or friends accounts and write all kinds of made up nonesense. With the amount of potential damage yelp can do, they should have an investigative team so that they can request documents, receipts, invoices even showing the customer actually frequented the business.

[KMS]

The problem is is that an elaborate story teller with a vendetta against a business can have multiple accounts or friends accounts and write all kinds of made up nonesense. With the amount of potential damage yelp can do, they should have an investigative team so that they can request documents, receipts, invoices even showing the customer actually frequented the business.

Very good point. I do believe only the individual with the gripe should be able to leave a review.

[MINI4U]

We had a poor review on yelp and had no idea the guy was unhappy. He was from out of town stopped in and felt we did not do something right. Had we known we would have done anything to make him happy. Since it was our ONLY review we asked our happy customers to leave reviews. The filtered them all out except one. We thought that was a load of crap. They were true customers leaving truthful reviews. So we hate yelp.

[mspecperformance]

It is recommended that your yelp reviewers have complete profile and show a track record of reviewing in yelp. Yeah its convoluted BS i know but those are the rules of the game.

[FROGFINDER]

No one can withstand being reviewed 24/7 365. Reviews are very important but its a double edged sword. After I retired a gal come in to the shop I worked for an wanted a signal bulb changed on her BMW. She got made at the labor estimate of $60.00 and went on YELP to complain. She also stated that she googled the bulb change and changed it herself in 10 minutes.

 

Before I let a customer leave mad I would have changed the bulb n/c, given her roses,a hug and put a $2.00 bill with my business card in her car.

 

 

I WANT REFERRALS!

[FROGFINDER]

No one can withstand being reviewed 24/7 365. Reviews are very important but its a double edged sword. After I retired a gal come in to the shop I worked for an wanted a signal bulb changed on her BMW. She got made at the labor estimate of $60.00 and went on YELP to complain. She also stated that she googled the bulb change and changed it herself in 10 minutes.

 

Before I let a customer leave mad I would have changed the bulb n/c, given her roses,a hug and put a $2.00 bill with my business card in her car.

 

 

I WANT REFERRALS!

[alfredauto]

I guess the underlying problem is some people are simply complainers. I sold stuff on eBay for 10 years for a living, vintage motorcycle parts to be exact. Stuff from the 60's. Cheap prices on impossible to find cores like 1966 trumph carburetors for $20. 1 in 50 would have a complaint that could be resolved simply with dialog, 1 in 250 would really be mean but could be satisfied in the end, 1 in 1000 could not be happy no matter what. They would complain about their item, so I would let them keep the item and refund all their money plus shipping, and I would send them another item. So they got something for free, an apology from me, all their money back, and they would still leave a negative feedback and threaten to sue or kill me or something over a $20 part. No different at the garage, after 1000 invoices get prepared for the inevitable, you can't please everyone.

[mspecperformance]

i have found the key to successfully reducing the crazy sociopaths is to never enter into business with them. I try my best to dissuade the nutty ones to even bring their cars to the shop.

[FROGFINDER]

No one can withstand being reviewed 24/7 365. Reviews are very important but its a double edged sword. After I retired a gal come in to the shop I worked for an wanted a signal bulb changed on her BMW. She got made at the labor estimate of $60.00 and went on YELP to complain. She also stated that she googled the bulb change and changed it herself in 10 minutes.

 

Before I let a customer leave mad I would have changed the bulb n/c, given her roses,a hug and put a $2.00 bill with my business card in her car.

 

 

I WANT REFERRALS!

sorry for the double post.

[KMS]

You will never please every single person. It would be nice if Yelp would challenge some of these reviews. From what I am hearing Yelp isn't a very good review site to join at this point. Maybe there will be another, even better site, to come along where they will see both sides. Who knows.

[mspecperformance]

KMS, I agree Yelp is flawed and certainly if I could avoid it I would. Unfortunately we don't make the rules when it comes to review sites, customers do. Yelp is not going away and it grows more and more every day. Best approach is a proactive one. Try your best to get great reviews and claim your biz listing so you can respond to the negative ones.

[ATLAuto]

KMS, I agree Yelp is flawed and certainly if I could avoid it I would. Unfortunately we don't make the rules when it comes to review sites, customers do. Yelp is not going away and it grows more and more every day. Best approach is a proactive one. Try your best to get great reviews and claim your biz listing so you can respond to the negative ones.

 

Yelp is more powerful than word of mouth in urban areas. Think about it ... You have a high density of people that don't really talk to each other. Additionally, many of them are new to the area and did not grow up with "that garage my parents have always gone to." Thus, they head to the Internet to find the best shops in their area.

 

I would say over 90% of our customers either find us on yelp or check out our yelp reviews before coming in.

 

In regards to yelp being flawed, I disagree. Yelp either keeps your review or filters your review based on the following:

-- how many reviews have you left? Just one? Filtered.

-- how old is your yelp account? Just made? Filtered.

-- how many yelp friends do you have To? None? Filtered.

-- is your yelp account linked to your Facebook account? No? Filtered.

...etc

 

Notice I did not mention "did you leave a positive or negative review." To yelp, it's irrelevant. All yelp wants to know is whether or not you are a legit user or just someone creating an account to leave one review and the moving on.

 

Our shop has 50+ reviews. 9 of them have been filtered. Of the nine, there is no correspondence to their review rating. Rather, all were new accounts with only one review left.

 

I have actually seen yelp review move from our filtered reviews to our unfiltered front page reviews once a yelp user starts using yelp more and leaving more reviews.

[ATLAuto]

Anyway, with that said, yelp is by faaaaaar the best form of free advertising any shop in an urban area can use. Hands down. Without yelp, our revenues would be down at least 30%.

[ATLAuto]

Also... More to add...

 

Today, people search for shops based on their smart phones. They open up Google maps or Apple maps, zoom to an area, and type "car repair." Guess what the number one factor influencing your ranking on this map search is. You guessed it...

 

If a user is using Apple maps, the ranking is based of your yelp score.

 

If a user is using Google maps, it is based off your Google+ review score (which is another topic all together)

Edited March 11, 2015 by ATLAuto

[mspecperformance]

Yelp is more powerful than word of mouth in urban areas. Think about it ... You have a high density of people that don't really talk to each other. Additionally, many of them are new to the area and did not grow up with "that garage my parents have always gone to." Thus, they head to the Internet to find the best shops in their area.

 

I would say over 90% of our customers either find us on yelp or check out our yelp reviews before coming in.

 

In regards to yelp being flawed, I disagree. Yelp either keeps your review or filters your review based on the following:

-- how many reviews have you left? Just one? Filtered.

-- how old is your yelp account? Just made? Filtered.

-- how many yelp friends do you have To? None? Filtered.

-- is your yelp account linked to your Facebook account? No? Filtered.

...etc

 

Notice I did not mention "did you leave a positive or negative review." To yelp, it's irrelevant. All yelp wants to know is whether or not you are a legit user or just someone creating an account to leave one review and the moving on.

 

Our shop has 50+ reviews. 9 of them have been filtered. Of the nine, there is no correspondence to their review rating. Rather, all were new accounts with only one review left.

 

I have actually seen yelp review move from our filtered reviews to our unfiltered front page reviews once a yelp user starts using yelp more and leaving more reviews.

 

 

Not always true. If you look at my reviews, I have several 1 star no picture profiles on my unfiltered reviews page. Yelps algorithms are entirely flawed.

 

I looked at a competitors yelp page and there is a review from user, "Fuck Y." with a good amount of inappropriate language and slander used. 1 review no profile picture. Review has been up going on 4 months. I know for a fact that bad language is against the users agreement as I have had posts removed for that in the past. Its a wonder why Yelp's filters don't catch things such as this.

[KMS]

Also... More to add...

 

Today, people search for shops based on their smart phones. They open up Google maps or Apple maps, zoom to an area, and type "car repair." Guess what the number one factor influencing your ranking on this map search is. You guessed it...

 

If a user is using Apple maps, the ranking is based of your yelp score.

 

If a user is using Google maps, it is based off your Google+ review score (which is another topic all together)

 

ATL,

 

Reviews are needed by everyone these days. I just feel yelp is misleading and not very trustworthy. Very similar to the issues Angie's List is having. They just don't manage the reviews correctly. When it comes to search engine - I know for a fact that Google Plus and Yelp is a very small part of search results. It helps, but is a very small part. I have recently been doing a lot of research on how these search engines work and it is very complicated.

[Jimbob661]

I am in a rural area and we get some yelp reviews. They send me a report every month or so telling me how many views and so forth we get, so it is useful. I just don't agree with the filtered review thing. I understand that they are trying to keep people from loading their site with bogus good reviews, but it makes it look like the reviews you do get are not to be trusted. There might be a better way, I just don't know what it is.

[ATLAuto]

Wow. I am truly sorry to hear that. We have certainly not seen that in our area with the cursing in the reviews. Hope it stays that way.

 

Regarding the Google Maps and Apple Maps - I do not know their SEO algorithms and all the variables involved. However, I do know that if you search "car repair" in the Google Maps app, your G+ reviews will show up in the results. Same when you click your shop in Apple Maps, your Yelp reviews come up.

[alfredauto]

I finally got my first yelp review. "Liars!!!" It says 4 times. From a person I never met - Ayed from San Diego California. I have to flag it and I hope they take it off. I think I would remember if Ayed was mad, or even if Ayed came in. Its not like Mary from Rochester NY. Gotta love the Internets.

[mspecperformance]

Update on Yelp and my experience. I have currently 33 reviews and a 5* overall rating. We are in the higher range of reviews for most shops around me. I have seen a BOOM in business and a very high frequency of customers coming in and commenting on our Yelp reviews. Nowadays if say you send out a direct mail campaign a lot of these folks are going to do some research on you. Once they see my reviews its the final push to get them to buy. Now I just have to figure out how to keep my production up!!

[Garage40]

I hear so many mixed opinions about yelp. And not just from the auto repair shops. There are restaurants that love Yelp, others say it did nothing. I also read that the laws suits against Yelp was found in favor of Yelp, and that their business practice does not extort businesses.

 

I know this is an old topic, but does anyone have a solid experience they can relate to me. A real-life experience, not hearsay. Thanks in advance.

Hey Joe, just keep in mind that regardless of whether you choose to advertise with them or not, your listing is still going to show up there for people to post reviews on and it is VERY IMPORTANT to claim your Yelp listing and pay attention to your reviews so that you can reply to negative reviews - and you will most likely receive a negative review at some point because people love to complain - positive reviews deserve replies too.

 

Personally, I've found that just having the free listing there and monitoring it is all you need to do. You can do very well organically on Yelp and other directories without paying those directories for advertising.

 

And when responding to negative reviews, just be diplomatic with your responses and show empathy. Do some Google searches on "responding to negative reviews" for more info on that. Here are a few good reads:

http://www.krusecontrolinc.com/classic-example-right-way-wrong-way-to-respond-to-negative-reviews/

http://www.garage40.com/dealing-with-forum-complaints/

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-handle-negative-online-reviews-of-your-business/

 

My issue with Yelp is I don't like their automated filtering - they want you to send your people there to post reviews, but unless the people you send post several other Yelp reviews, the review they wrote for your business stays hidden and is essentially worthless. Having worked for a "consumer review" website company in the past, I understand why Yelp does that, it just doesn't make much sense to to a business owner. I also don't like their strict policy against you asking customers to post reviews on Yelp - they will remove reviews if they find that you're asking your customers for them. The closest you can get to asking people to write a review for you on Yelp, according to their policy is by telling them to "find us on Yelp". Again, I understand they're pushing for organic reviews, but seriously, that makes little sense to a business owner.

[Garage40]

Update on Yelp and my experience. I have currently 33 reviews and a 5* overall rating. We are in the higher range of reviews for most shops around me. I have seen a BOOM in business and a very high frequency of customers coming in and commenting on our Yelp reviews. Nowadays if say you send out a direct mail campaign a lot of these folks are going to do some research on you. Once they see my reviews its the final push to get them to buy. Now I just have to figure out how to keep my production up!!

Do you attribute the increase in business to that higher Yelp review count or your Google review count?

 

Nice job on the social activity too. Looks like you're consistent in your posts and are getting fairly decent engagement. Are you also doing boosted posts to help get more views on your FB activity? Do you do any forum marketing at all? You doing this all yourself or do you have an agency doing it for you?

 

Nice job

[mspecperformance]

Thanks, I do it all myself right now and run the shop as a manager and the only service advisor lol. That is all changing within the next few months where I will be transitioning more of my time toward marketing efforts as we grow.

 

I would say that both reviews, actually any reviews help. We hear feedback from yelp reviews, google+ reviews as well as our website which is managed by kukui that has a lot of internal reviews on it (I think up to 180 5 star reviews now?). I would say the boost in yelp reviews has really helped us gain confidence with new customers. I will still go as far to say that in todays world its rare that it is 1 marketing/reputation effort that causes a prospective customer to call or buy. I truly believe there has to be a complete effort all around. My goal is to be on a persons mind and for them to be able to see great things about our shop any which way they search. In fact this exactly how I am when I am looking to choose a service.

 

As for Facebook, we do not boost our posts. We have tried that in the past and the only posts I will potentially boost is if I am running a campaign for a new hire. I don't particularly think it is a good method of marketing UNLESS you have a very broad offer (like a $69.99 4 wheel alignment or something comparatively ridiculous). At that point you may get a good amount of responses however you also may be left with a lot of the wrong type of customers.

[Garage40]

Thanks, I do it all myself right now and run the shop as a manager and the only service advisor lol. That is all changing within the next few months where I will be transitioning more of my time toward marketing efforts as we grow.

 

I would say that both reviews, actually any reviews help. We hear feedback from yelp reviews, google+ reviews as well as our website which is managed by kukui that has a lot of internal reviews on it (I think up to 180 5 star reviews now?). I would say the boost in yelp reviews has really helped us gain confidence with new customers. I will still go as far to say that in todays world its rare that it is 1 marketing/reputation effort that causes a prospective customer to call or buy. I truly believe there has to be a complete effort all around. My goal is to be on a persons mind and for them to be able to see great things about our shop any which way they search. In fact this exactly how I am when I am looking to choose a service.

 

As for Facebook, we do not boost our posts. We have tried that in the past and the only posts I will potentially boost is if I am running a campaign for a new hire. I don't particularly think it is a good method of marketing UNLESS you have a very broad offer (like a $69.99 4 wheel alignment or something comparatively ridiculous). At that point you may get a good amount of responses however you also may be left with a lot of the wrong type of customers.

I think you're on point for everything you've touched on.

 

Though you never know with Google, I really feel the more reviews you have on Google+ the more it helps you with the local SEO rankings, which is HUGE. Yelp is big too, but your Yelp link listing is always going to get less exposure than your Google Maps marker. That's why I asked about where you felt you were getting the bigger benefit.

 

But you're right, a complete marketing plan is always going to be more important than trying to focus on one specific effort. You have to focus on several efforts and prioritize them, and it all has to tie into an overall strategy.

 

As for the FB boosted posts, the only reason I would disagree a little bit there on it being a bad marketing method is because with the recent FB page algorithm change (well, it's been a few months now), company pages have almost been forced to use boosted posts or FB ads to get their status updates seen in the news feed. Page updates have been relegated to the bottom of all news feeds. It's extremely difficult to get much engagement without at least a small monthly budget. And if you're not posting an update with a photo or video it's become almost pointless to even post an update at all. Spending time commenting on other pages and interacting with people in comments tends to be pretty effective too.

 

I've always been fascinated with this stuff though, and it's always cool to see someone doing it well.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Garage40

[Garage40]

Thanks, I do it all myself right now and run the shop as a manager and the only service advisor lol. That is all changing within the next few months where I will be transitioning more of my time toward marketing efforts as we grow.

 

I would say that both reviews, actually any reviews help. We hear feedback from yelp reviews, google+ reviews as well as our website which is managed by kukui that has a lot of internal reviews on it (I think up to 180 5 star reviews now?). I would say the boost in yelp reviews has really helped us gain confidence with new customers. I will still go as far to say that in todays world its rare that it is 1 marketing/reputation effort that causes a prospective customer to call or buy. I truly believe there has to be a complete effort all around. My goal is to be on a persons mind and for them to be able to see great things about our shop any which way they search. In fact this exactly how I am when I am looking to choose a service.

 

As for Facebook, we do not boost our posts. We have tried that in the past and the only posts I will potentially boost is if I am running a campaign for a new hire. I don't particularly think it is a good method of marketing UNLESS you have a very broad offer (like a $69.99 4 wheel alignment or something comparatively ridiculous). At that point you may get a good amount of responses however you also may be left with a lot of the wrong type of customers.

By the way, how are you going about generating the reviews on your website? You're getting a great amount of reviews. Emails going out to your customers after service?

[mspecperformance]

yes, Kukui handles my website, seo, call tracking, and CRM. There is an e-mail that goes out after service that asks for a review. It gets generated to the website. If a 5 star review is given, the customer is then asked to share it on google+ or yelp. To be honest these people generally don't take the extra step but I am formulating a strategy and process in which to get more reviews by asking them after they give me a 5 star for my website. I haven't implemented that yet as I am bogged down with other things but I think I will be putting into practice soon. Hopefully I will have great results.

 

 

If anyone has any questions about Kukui feel free to message me. I have to say they are one of the best companies I have ever worked with and they make me a lot of money

Edited June 11, 2015 by mspecperformance