Local businesses explain affects of Yelp
When someone has been to a business or restaurant and they didn’t meet expectations, it’s really easy to jump online and voice an opinion. Review sites like Yelp are tailored for those wanting to give out stars to businesses, but problems can occur when sites go unmonitored.
“Unfortunately things might not go the way the guest wants them to,” said Daniel Bonney, manager at The Sandpiper. “If they don’t say anything we can’t fix that problem for the future.”
Review sites like Yelp are a bit of a double-edged sword
“You know people see that and they don’t see the full story, which is a major frustration for us,” said Ty Goulding, general manager of Pizza Pie Cafe.
Businesses want to be able to hear feedback from their customers, but what about when things go too far?
“It’s easy to go and say something bad about a company because that’s your natural reaction, that’s what you want to do,” said Goulding. “If you feel angry for some reason that’s what you’re going to do is tell people about it.”
Not enough of the reviews shed positive light on businesses.
“For a business to have someone say something good you have to absolutely exceed their expectation and sometimes you don’t see that on Yelp,” said Goulding. “A lot of the time you don’t.”
However, some feel if used correctly it can be a benefit.
“All in all right now I really enjoy it,” said Geoff Padagimus, owner of Lucy’s Pizza. “I’ve taken advantage of it, I’m paying for ads. The one reason I did it because I wanted to see how effective it was. I want to track it.”
“Honestly I’m totally fine with them saying something on Yelp, but message me back,” said Goulding. “I love that, I get on Yelp and say, ‘Hey we’re really sorry about that experience.’ We do everything we can to make it right. I check Yelp every other day on my phone. We love when people say, ‘Hey you know we noticed this, and it could be a little better.’ That positive criticism is awesome.”
We talked to the Better Business Bureau to find out what other options there are
“Last year, BBB threw out over a thousand complaints and reviews that we could not confirm were part of a real transaction,” said Samantha Gillihan, “They submit it to us. We make sure it was part of real transaction and then we give the business an opportunity to respond to the complaint being posted or the review.”
We reached out to Yelp to find out how they’re working to monitor reviews to remain unbiased, however they didn’t respond.
The Better Business Bureau tells us to make sure you’re checking many review sites so you get the real picture.
