How Negative Yelp Reviews can Ruin Your Business

yelpYou must do everything in your power to try and remove negative Yelp reviews and in this article we will explain why!  While there are other factors involved, a study out of Harvard’s School of Business points to a correlation between stars on a business Yelp page and revenue for that business. The study says that every star increased in a review leads to a 5-9% bump in revenue, potentially. Even when fake reviews are present, which a growing volume of articles suggests is the truth; users still view the Yelp rating of a business as extremely important to their decisions to use a service.

It should be clear that negative reviews have a potentially catastrophic effect on your business, but you can take steps to improve your potential revenue.

Revenue Losses

If your business is rated three stars by Yelp, you’re bound to get more people applying a scrutinous eye to the negative reviews on your page expecting to find something convincing. If they recognize a pattern of behavior, such as expensive menu items or terrible customer service, you’ll probably lose a potential customer.

The average rating system also fails to highlight what works about your business, so customers who don’t feel like sifting through reviews will use the star average system to make a snap judgment.

The difference comes for chain restaurants, which do a fairly decent job of standardizing the quality of their food/product/service. Independent businesses tend to be met with a more critical eye.

What to Do

Knowing that these losses equate to a dip in revenue, the simple answer is to ask customers to leave reviews on your Yelp page.  If you have existing negative Yelp reviews, then you must try to get them removed. Some reviews can be remove if they are against the terms of service of Yelp and this simply can be done by flagging and explaining your reasoning. Some others may require a legal letter to Yelp legal department with more evidence why you think the review is false. In our experience less than 10% of negative Yelp reviews have a chance of getting removed. If you need help with getting your negative Yelp reviews removed, contact us.

Another way to get a review removed would be to contact the original poster. However, be aware that Yelp is against offering incentives to your customers for removing the review. You may offer them a refund or an incentive, but do not make that a condition of the removal.

Finally, if all above fails, you should respond to the review from your business account and explain your side of the story or apologize publicly.

Final Thoughts

When you think about the average user searching for your business, it’s no wonder Yelp or Google reviews play a role. They are most likely searching on a mobile device, probably very close to your area at this moment. If they are hungry, or in the mood to buy, they want results delivered fast. The star rating provides a simple method to convey that information. If your stars aren’t looking bright, you might want to take steps to correct that.

 

 

How to Combat Negative Online Reviews

negative online reviewsNegative reviews have been shown to directly correlate with lost revenue for any business with less than 5 stars. The way users utilize reviews is a big part of the reasoning behind that correlation. Users, especially those on the go, tend to review the star ratings because those ratings provide a quick and easy reference point. Unfortunately for businesses with fewer than 5 stars, those pages don’t always display the kind of information one might want to show.

If your business is the victim of a negative review smear campaign, or you find your ratings slip and want to be proactive about improving them, then these tips will help you grow.

Address the Concern

Google will go to great lengths to present all information in a dispute, including your response. If you use your business Google account to publicly respond to negative press about your business, your response will be included. This is a double-edged sword. If your response is hastily written and doesn’t address the problem, record of it remains. Carefully word your responses and feel free to ask the user to take the conversation private (either by phone or email) to find a solution.

Own Search

If you own multiple properties, there are good odds that those properties will show when someone conducts a search for your name. Especially if you do some basic SEO and link building to those properties. The more properties you own, the better your odds of controlling the messaging around your business. This strategy is especially effective at helping businesses that wouldn’t normally get a ton of press from outside sources.

Request New Reviews

While you can pay Yelp to advertise on their site, it’s a better idea to just ask your existing customers to leave reviews on your page. It’s against the terms of service to offer some form of incentive, even a small discount, but you would be surprised at how many customers want to offer their point of view to help others out. You’ll need to collect the customer’s email address to get the best results, but many businesses will just ask the customer to leave a Yelp review on the receipt.

Final Thoughts

Businesses with a less than stellar Yelp review are literally leaving money on the table. Every star missing equates to a loss of revenue near 5-9%, according to a study published by the Harvard School of Business. If you’re a restaurant, and you’re not a chain, the losses could be even worse!

Yelp will try to hassle you for advertising, hinting (but never explicitly saying) that your negative image will vanish. This isn’t true. Yelp reviews must be sought actively. Paying for ad space on Yelp is the equivalent of paying AdWords fees. If you’re interested in improving your reputation, you need to engage with your customers.