Yelp reviews are some of the hardest online reviews to get from your customers. We look at why that is, and guide you on how to get more of them.
As a business owner, you might have a small army of loyal customers, but if your Yelp page is quiet, you may find it harder to attract new customers into the fold.
Of course Yelp reviews translate directly into dollars.
But with a notoriously strict review filter you may be wondering just exactly how to get Yelp reviews… and how to get them to stick.
It’s just like mom always said: all you have to do is ask nicely.
Okay maybe it’s a little more involved than that, but optimizing your Yelp business page and putting in the effort to get Yelp reviews isn’t as hard as you think.
Let’s take a look at why it matters and exactly how it’s done.
Why Yelp Matters
Between desktop and mobile versions, 80 million people visit Yelp each month (according to Yelp itself).
Google and Facebook don’t release stats about their review readership, but they are becoming increasingly important, even eclipsing Yelp in volume and readership (more on this in a minute).
And online reviews are incredibly influential, according to recent research.
Over 1,000 people were surveyed about how their shopping habits were affected by online reviews, and the message was clear:
In order to drive business, you need customers to consistently write positive reviews because:
88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation
74 percent of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
73 percent of consumers think that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant
Creating a Great Customer Experience
Creating a great experience is the foundation of getting positive Yelp reviews.
It’s essential to focus on providing excellent service, ensuring that your products or services meet customer expectations, and building a strong relationship with your customers.
By doing so, you’ll significatnly increase the chances of customers leaving positive reviews on your Yelp page.
Building a Foundation for Positive Reviews
To build a foundation for positive reviews, consider the following strategies:
Train your staff: Ensure that your staff is well-trained to provide excellent customer service. This includes being friendly, helpful, and responsive to customer needs. A well-trained team can make a significant difference in how customers perceive your business and their willingness to leave positive Yelp reviews.
Improve your products or services: Continuously evaluate and improve your products or services to ensure they meet customer expectations. High-quality offerings are more likely to result in positive Yelp reviews, as satisfied customers will want to share their experiences.
Encourage feedback: Encourage customers to provide feedback (both positive and negative reviews) to help you identify areas for improvement. By actively seeking feedback, you show customers that you value their opinions and are committed to enhancing their experience.
Respond to feedback: Respond promptly to customer feedback (both online and offline) to show that you value their opinions and care about their experience. Addressing concerns and thanking customers for their positive feedback can foster a sense of loyalty and encourage more reviews.
Continuously Working to Improve Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a long term game. Improving the customer experience is not going to happen overnight – you have to work on it a little bit every day. Consider the following strategies:
Personalize the experience: Personalize the customer experience by addressing customers by name, offering personalized recommendations, and showing appreciation for their business. Personal touches can make customers feel valued and more likely to leave positive Yelp reviews.
Offer loyalty programs: Offer loyalty programs or rewards to loyal customers to show appreciation for their repeat business. Loyalty programs can incentivize customers to return and share their positive experiences on your Yelp page.
Improve communication: Improve communication with customers by responding promptly to inquiries, providing clear information about products or services, and keeping them informed about any changes or updates. Effective communication can prevent misunderstandings and boost overall satisfaction.
Show appreciation: Show appreciation for customers by offering discounts, freebies, or other perks to loyal customers. Small gestures of gratitude can go a long way in building a positive relationship and encouraging positive Yelp reviews.
By focusing on creating a great customer experience, building a foundation for positive reviews, and improving customer satisfaction, you’ll increase the chances of getting positive Yelp reviews and improving your online reputation.
Wait, There’s More!
Opportunity to Improve Your Business
Customer reviews – particularly critical reviews – can shed a lot of light on the areas you need to improve on.
A proper Yelp review plan may help you to better understand your customers’ needs and make the required changes to meet those needs.
Traffic
Good Yelp reviews help you expand your customer base by attracting new customers based on positive word of mouth.
Yelp receives approximately 80 million unique visits each month – that’s a lot of publicity!
Adding your company to Yelp can help you reach a larger audience and enhance your visibility.
You’re Connecting With Individuals Who Are Ready to Buy
When individuals step out into the market to buy a particular product or service, one of the first things they do is look at other people’s experiences.
Customers use Yelp to determine if purchasing from a particular business will fit their expectations.
Thinking of Buying Yelp Reviews? DON’T!
You CAN buy Yelp reviews. Simply type “buy Yelp reviews” in the Google search bar and a list of companies that sell them will appear. Such service providers will load up your page with good reviews at an affordable cost.
HOWEVER, the problem with buying paid Yelp reviews is that the platform is very effective at discovering them and penalizing the companies that pay for them. This is just one of the reasons why you should avoid purchasing Yelp reviews altogether.
People who attempt to cheat Yelp’s system aren’t just frowned upon. Yelp also has strict filters in place to prevent false reviews from being seen by the general public. The site pays attention to how many reviews an individual has written in the past and whether they give a five-star rating for one business and a one-star rating for a local competitor.
They also use sophisticated algorithms to keep an eye out for suspicious language. And if the Yelp algorithm doesn’t get you, Yelp’s close-knit community that self-polices any shady reviews definitely will!
Asking for Yelp Reviews
Here’s where that “asking nicely” thing comes in:
Seven out of ten customers will write reviews if you ask them to. So… start asking.
It’s worth noting Yelp’s official position about asking for reviews…
On one hand, the company tells businesses not to ask customers for reviews. But on the other hand Yelp does encourage businesses to tell their customers to “find us on Yelp.”
If that sounds confusing it’s because… well, it is confusing, especially because Yelp is the only major review site that has this policy.
But rather than ponder why this is their policy, let’s instead focus on what matters…
The Step-by-Step Guide To Get Yelp Reviews
Whether you’re a new one-person startup or a business owner who’s been around for a while, you can get more Yelp reviews using the same process.
(Of course, you can’t get any Yelp reviews if your business isn’t on Yelp. So if you haven’t already created a page for your business, start with Yelp’s Add a Business page.)
If you haven’t already, claim your Yelp business page. When a business owner claims their Yelp page it’s a way of stating you’re authorized to speak for it. To take this step, visit Yelp’s Find and Claim page and search for your business. Once you’ve successfully claimed the business, you can respond to reviews and track visitor activity on your page.
Optimize your Yelp profile by adding all relevant information about your business, such as hours and parking information. Upload high-quality photos of your location and products. Photos are really important: according to Yelp, users spend 2.5 times longer looking at pages that include photos than those without photos.
Add links to your Yelp page that direct users to your website and other social media pages.
Add a Yelp review widget on your website that links back to your Yelp page where people can leave a public review. The positive reviews will build trust in your customers and the integrations will bring together your audience from both platforms.
Make it a habit to ask customers questions at the end of every transaction, and train your staff to do the same. Ask something like, “How was your experience here today?”
If the feedback is mixed or negative, ask (nicely!) to hear more about what the problem was. When you empathize with the customer and ask for genuine feedback, you might be able to address their concerns and make them feel heard and understood. And when that happens, you can convert them into happy customers, or at least make them less inclined to complain about you on Yelp.
If the response is positive, ask for a Yelp review. The key is to ask in a casual, no-pressure manner. Say something like “Glad you’re happy! Don’t feel shy about posting that on Yelp or Google!” If you can get a smile out of them, they’re that much more likely to review you positively.
Responding to your reviews is also an effective tool for attracting new customers and encouraging the existing ones to leave reviews. In fact, 44.6% of customers are more likely to visit a business that responds to negative reviews
Next Steps
It’s only natural to focus on Yelp – it’s an important online review site. But it’s not the review site behemoth it was a few years ago.
In fact, Yelp is increasingly losing in marketshare to Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and industry-specific review sites.
What’s that mean for you? It means don’t obsess over Yelp.
Obsess over providing a great customer experience. Obsess over how to get more online reviews in general. But let your customers choose the site that they’re most comfortable reviewing you on, Yelp or otherwise.
Considering how much business is driven by reviews, it’s definitely worthwhile to get reviews on Yelp, Google, Facebook, etc. But it takes tons of time and continuous effort to keep those good reviews flowing.
Using an automated system like ReputationStacker to get Yelp reviews makes the process incredibly easy and simple.
Just enter your customers’ email addresses or phone numbers into the system, and ReputationStacker reaches out to them with a single survey question to get their feedback, and directs them to the review sites of your choosing to post a review.
What If My Customers Don’t Have a Yelp Account?
Yelp is what a lot of us think of when we think “reviews”, but again it’s far from the only game in town.
Cultivate your business pages on review sites like Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor and others to build a diverse review profile. And if a customer says “I’d love to review you but I don’t have a Yelp account,” you can respond with something like, “No worries, you can review us on Google or Facebook, too!”
The other reason it’s important to have reviews on a few different sites and one that you’re no doubt already well aware of: Yelp uses complicated algorithms to decide what reviews are shown on your page and which are filtered out, and the company is tight-lipped about how those decisions are made.
Suffice it to say, if your customers are reviewing you on Yelp but they don’t have strong Yelp user profiles (i.e.: if they’re not already fairly active about posting Yelp reviews for other businesses), then their review is going to get filtered out.
This advice is extremely important so we’re going to repeat it: Work on getting more reviews in general and don’t focus so much on laser-targeting Yelp.
Over time your customers who are active on Yelp will naturally post reviews there and those reviews won’t get filtered. If you focus on and push only for Yelp then statistically speaking most of the reviews posted there are going to get filtered.
Yelp is definitely one of the most important review sites, but don’t obsess over it. Spread the review love around to a variety of sites to grow your online reputation.
Final Thoughts
Many small business owners look at Yelp as both a blessing and a curse, but managed properly, it’s really mostly a blessing. That said, Yelp is not the be-all end-all of online review sites.
Use the suggestions here to get Yelp reviews, but also don’t ignore other review sites like Google, Facebook, and niche online review sites that are specific to your industry.
Most of your customers will post reviews when gently prompted. And systemizing the way you get reviews keeps positive reviews flowing in and keeps negative reviews from overwhelming your online review presence.
An automated review system like ReputationStacker takes all the guesswork out of getting more reviews and building your customer base.
