Understand the reasons behind why yelp reviews matter for your business and as a local business owner, how can you view, manage and respond to all your customer reviews effectively.
Do you know why Yelp reviews matter for your local business? Whether it’s a restaurant, store, or anything else, customers can rate and review your establishment. These reviews are usually public, but sometimes they’re private.
You may even have an account and are trying to figure out how to respond to reviews in a way that will bring more customers your way. But there’s so much more you need to know about the review sites that matter most for your local business and what you can do with them.
Many local business owners have always been faced with customer reviews that might not be so great. But as the landscape of marketing and social media changes, more and more customers rely on customer reviews to make decisions about where they spend their money.
Yelp is just one of many listing agencies with customer reviews – but it’s one of the most popular sites that connects people to businesses in their area. More than 38 million people are Yelp active monthly users, and if you’re lucky enough to generate more positive feedback from these users– you can draw a lot of new potential customers.
This article will help you understand why yelp reviews matter for your local business; and how you can manage and respond to all your customer reviews. Keep on reading to know how to increase customer traffic and get the trust of your local customers.
Yelp Reviews and How It Works
Yelp reviews algorithmic processes by organizing, sorting, and surfacing customer reviews based on specific and relevant keywords to determine the best Yelp review to display based on the customer’s place of interest.
It also means negative customer reviews are no exception in surfacing on the top page of your business review page, allowing local consumers to see and affect their purchasing decisions.
To better understand the algorithmic processes of Yelp reviews, it works like this:
A customer leaves a review similar to this, “Great customer service, will surely be back again.” That review will then be collected with other similar wordings/reviews for your next potential consumer to see whenever they look up to your local business in Yelp.
However, that doesn’t mean Yelp only welcomes negative customer reviews; their system also works by scanning each phrase, whether a single word or a lengthier one, and organizing it based on its perspective. It’s like reading the customer’s mind based on their specific keywords and interest.
Its main goal is to help eliminate spam and allow you to deal only with legitimate constructive criticism. Let your customer see how well you handle your local business and go beyond fake advertisement reflecting with absolute transparency between Yelp, the local company, and its consumers.
The Best Guide Why Yelp Reviews Matter for 2022
1. Star Ratings System
Aside from Yelp Reviews, the Yelp Star rating system also matters, especially in determining which local business is the best amongst its competition. The star ratings are color-coded and are rated as follows:
- [1-3] Yellow Stars
- [3-4] Orange Stars
- [4-5] Red Stars
On average, local businesses with a 4.5-5 star tend to win the local consumer’s heart compared to local businesses with lower to 4-star ratings.
2. Demographics
Yelp is known to have a rich data set, especially if you are determined to have a targeted audience group. Yelp can help you identify your local consumers’ gender, age, and location to help you set up a game plan that works best for these targeted audiences.
3. Location for Localized Targeting
Yelp has an organized system to empower local businesses within the area; these systems encourage more local consumers to shop locally within their area.
4. Keywords and Interest
The yelp system still depends on how local customers search for specific keywords and interests. These keywords only work on businesses that are relevant to what the local consumer is trying to find. If it is deemed inappropriate or unrelated to another company, the keyword tags on that place won’t impact it.
After identifying these 4 hidden reasons why Yelp reviews matter for your business, we’ll go to another step on how your local business can succeed in dominating Yelp reviews- The proper way of handling your negative customer reviews in Yelp.
How to Handle Negative Comments in Yelp (Like a Pro!):
Negative customer reviews are unavoidable no matter how hard you try to keep away from them, and the more you neglect these negative customer reviews, the more contagious they become.
So, the best thing to do is overcome, embrace and handle it like a pro.
You’ll be surprised at how a well-handled negative review in Yelp impacts your potential consumer’s purchasing decision.
1. Acceptance
Yup, the first step in handling negative comments is accepting that something wrong causes a consumer to leave a bad review. Remember, negative comments are not all nasty. Having a negative comment also shows that you are not just making up all your positive customer reviews.
2. Personal Approach
Reaching out and communicating with the person who writes the negative customer reviews with a professional and personal approach shows humility and genuine care in recovering the customer. For local businesses, the owners are the best person to reach out to these customers to reassure them that their concerns are being appropriately addressed.
3. Refer Them by Their First Names
One of the best ways to show your local consumers a personalized approach is by calling them their first names. It helps in building empathy and emotional rapport in winning your customers back.
4. Don’t Wait for Weeks to Respond
No matter how much it bothers you, don’t let a negative review be left unanswered. Keep in mind that consumers are leaving a bad review because some things need to be corrected. Acknowledged the concern, reach out to them personally, show your empathy and genuineness, or offer a discount/voucher for them to use for their next visit and let them see the improvements you made regarding the concerns they have.
5. Only Respond to Reviewers with Legitimate Complaints
You do not have to misuse your time and energy to deal with people who intentionally leave a negative review for no reason. Only focus your attention and time on those with legitimate concerns.
No worries, the Yelp algorithm helps you deal with spam; those with genuine constructive criticism only make it at the top for your customers to see.
Manage and Set-Up Your Local Business to Success:
For your local business to succeed in the quest of digital marketing and advertising, you must consider these hidden reasons why yelp reviews matter and, if possible, go beyond the average Yelp reviews and star ratings.
And there is a more straightforward way to do that; all you have to do is become a Simply Be Found member. It simply works this way, you supply us with your business data, and we will turn it into advertising that gets your business found!
Some Perks of Being a Simply Be Found Member:
- You can increase your customer traffic and attract more customers.
- Your business gets a competitive edge to be found on online searches and listing agencies (also works on local, mobile, and voice searches).
- You get complete and direct access to our advertising tools to optimize your business profile without the need to leave the platform.
- You get complete control over your business information such as name, address, phone number, website, and operation hours. Easily correct and maintain them when the need arises.
Our system also allows you to view, monitor, and respond to all your customer reviews (Not just in Yelp but on other popular networks as well!)
Become a member today and start winning the local business.
To learn more, contact Simply Be Found, and our team of business experts will walk you through the whole process.
