Yelp, for those who don’t know is a review site for businesses, mostly for small independent cafes and restaurants. Also the site was originally used for business listings back in 2012 for Apple Maps. So here are some facts about Yelp and also why I think it’s a very good service to use.
Yelp don’t like retailers to encourage customers to review
I have personally experienced this with Tripadvisor reviews, upon getting the bill at a pub or restaurant the staff sometimes say, “can you review us on TripAdvisor?” – Sometimes I do, but I review them on Yelp more often than not. But Yelp discourage this. Yelp prefer reviews and information that has quality rather than quantity.
“We recommend that people focus on awareness rather than asking for reviews, because then it becomes an arms race.” – Yelp
Small businesses are preferred
Yelp tends to prefer smaller businesses rather than a chain, Yelp has found that when a customer reviews a chain store it doesn’t usually have any effect on the overall revenue for the store. But with more independent businesses such as the local cafe tend to have a boost in revenue. Yelp also think that reviewing a McDonald’s chain on Yelp is a bit pointless as it’s the same everywhere.
Larger stores tend to have “statistically insignificant and close to zero” effect on large stores.
The Yelp “ People Love Us on Yelp” stickers have to be earned
Same with TripAdvisor the award stickers and posters have to be earned. Yelp offers stickers to businesses which have been rated high on Yelp. You can’t order the “People Love Us on Yelp” sticker.
Business owners can dispute reviews
If someone writes a bad review of a business on Yelp, then the business owner can attempt to dispute the review. Then the review can get in contact with the business.
Every star leads to 5-9% extra revenue
Michael Luca who is a professor at Harvard Business School studied the relation between Yelp ratings and the revenue. He studied the restaurants in Seattle and found that Yelp ratings had a positive effect on revenue.
