Like it or not, Yelp has a lot of power for small businesses. For some companies, Yelp reviews contribute to their success. For others, negative Yelp reviews have greatly harmed their reputation. Customers are more than ready to speak up and report publicly about their experience with a business, and sometimes this isn\u2019t pretty. For whatever reason, people tend to post bad reviews more than good ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing Yelp reviews can feel like fighting an uphill battle, but there are things business owners can do to turn things around when those negative reviews appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn From It<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a business owner, the first thing you should do when your company receives negative Yelp reviews is to learn from it. Before you get angry and start typing to defend the business, take a moment to appreciate the fact that you\u2019re getting a sense of the public\u2019s opinion of your company. If they\u2019re complaining about a server, perhaps you should be observing that server more closely. If they\u2019re pointing out that your place is dirty, it may be because you actually have a problem. Customers won\u2019t usually complain in person, but they have no trouble doing so online. Take this as feedback and use it to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apologize And Offer Something<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If an actual customer has been to your business, had a bad experience, and left a negative Yelp review on your page, the best thing you can do is to reply with a well-written apology and an explanation that hard work will be put in to improve the mistake. Business owners can respond publicly or privately to a user on Yelp, but many of them choose to do so publicly so that other readers can see that they haven\u2019t ignored the poster, and that they care about their customers\u2019 experience. Some business owners offer a free meal, drink, dessert, or discount to win back the customer\u2019s approval. Very often, this gives the customer who left the negative Yelp review incentive to edit their review to be more positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report Reviews That Violate Yelp\u2019s Guidelines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many times, a negative Yelp review for a business is left by a user that hasn\u2019t even been to the business that they\u2019re complaining about. These false reviews can be left by competitors, bots, or third party services. If you\u2019ve received a negative Yelp review that violates the Yelp content guidelines<\/a>, the best thing to do is to flag the review and report the user to Yelp\u2019s admin through the Yelp Business platform (biz.yelp.com). Explain why you\u2019re suspicious and send them the link to the user\u2019s review so that they can see it. If the review goes against Yelp\u2019s guidelines, they typically remove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encourage Happy Customers To Leave Reviews<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The key word here is encourage<\/em>. You shouldn\u2019t come right out and ask a customer to leave a positive review (Yelp frowns on this). What you can do is display a \u201cFind Us On Yelp\u201d sticker in your business so that people will be reminded to leave reviews. And if a customer compliments your product, food, or services, you can reply with something along the lines of, \u201cWe\u2019re so happy you\u2019ve had a good experience! Perhaps you can leave us a review.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonus Tip: Always Have Great Photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many Yelp users bypass reviews altogether and only concentrate on the photos a business displays. For this reason, it\u2019s very important to have professional-looking photos promoting your business, as well as nice photos of smiling employees to combat any negative Yelp reviews about the staff. Hopefully you\u2019ll have both good reviews and great photos, but having great photos will only help!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Alecan Marketing<\/a>, we use the most effective strategies to help businesses stand out from their competitors. When it comes to combatting negative Yelp reviews, these are the best practices. For more information on our marketing services and digital strategies, contact Alecan Marketing Solutions<\/a> today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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