I am writing this series as an active Yelper.
Prior to writing this post, I researched prior posts on Active Rain regarding Yelp. It is a mix of dated observations, sour grapes and a few Realtors who embrace Yelp. This post is the first in a series on reviews.
Right off the bat, I need to address the importance of only ACTIVE Yelpers leaving you a review. Time and time again, I will run across pissed off Realtors who tell me they had a good number of clients leave them 5-star Yelp reviews only to wind up as non-recommended reviews under the line.
Case in point. This agent(who shall remain unnamed), has 7 reviews with a 2-star rating. (Note: a 2 star average in 7 reviews is telling to the consumer experience)
She was upset that 22 of her reviews are below the line as non-recommended reviews.
I layed out a spreadsheet to help her understand why she had so many reviews under the line.
At the time I first had contact with her, she only had 18 reviews under the line.
Based upon my observations, on or about 9/16/2012, she or somebody representing her, sent out an e mail to a mix of prior clients, friends or family letting them know she established a Yelp account and they were asked to leave her a 5 star review. Starting on the 16th and continuing through 10/24/2012 a total of fourteen 5-star reviews came in to Yelp. That is unnatural and is a big red flag.
Then when you see that most of these reviewers have had zero activity in the past three years and based upon Yelp's algorithm and tracking, Yelp assumes she asked all of these people to leave her positive reviews in bulk, which is against their guidelines.
They want active Yelpers to be motivated to find the vendors they do business with and leave honest reviews. The "zero friend/one review" accounts under the line most likely signed up to leave her a review and then immediately left that review, never to be heard from again. Yelp tracks that. You simply cannot ask non-Yelpers to leave you reviews or they will be buried.
Active Yelpers have friends. Completed profiles. Profile images. Reviews. Location check ins.
Now IF any of the inactive Yelpers became active, there is a good chance this activity might get the reviews after 10/24/2013 published. She has all of these reviews from 2012, most of which don't count. Six from 2013. Two from 2014 and only 3 in 2015. This shows she had a push in 2012 and then sat back to allow natural review postings which is why the four one star reviews are published.
When you have clients doing their happy dance and if you have a Yelp business page, casually ask them if they are a Yelper. They will know if they are. And then let them know you have a Yelp page. That's all you have to say. The motivation of leaving that review is up to them.
The Takeaways:
1) Create or Claim your Yelp Account(which I will discuss in my next post)
2) Do NOT send a blast out to the world asking them to leave you a Yelp review.
3) It’s not too late to increase your numbers which will increase your average score.
4) If you have horrible customer service, no amount of reviews are going to help you. Averages seldom lie.
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