Whoever said that no one but techies know about review sites or go to them is absolutely false.

Studies have shown that over 80% of all Americans will research a product online before purchasing (this applies to online products, goods or services from brick and mortar businesses as well)

This part should alarm business owners – 72% of people who research prior to buying will choose a competitors product if they find something negative about that business.

Review sites typically rank pretty high for business names SERPS. You tell me know how a small business is suppose to survive after 2 negative reviews get posted to yelp and 8 positive reviews get filtered out.

I’ve read that both positive and negative reviews can be filtered by Yelp. How is the business owner suppose overcome this issue. They are discouraged from encouraging reviews from their customers and even then, the likelihood is that the reviews will be filtered out.

Lisa, I agree with your points, but I think this point is a critical missing piece of your post and I’m glad it was addressed in the comments.

I’m afraid that when you ask the average customer to write you a review, they will open a Yelp account, write a review, and then forget about Yelp, never posting another review. If that happens enough, potential customers like me will not trust your rating and likely not try your business. Most business owners think that consumers look at the star rating and that is it. But that is not true. I skim the reviews, at a minimum, and give more weight to reviews from people I know and trust. Most people I know use Yelp this way. There is so much spam on Yelp, each user really needs to do their own filtering. It’s unfortunate but true of most internet sites.

I don’t think businesses should be discouraged from soliciting reviews. But you should first start with the question, “Are you on Yelp?” If they say yes, then ask for a review. Good intentioned customers writing reviews who are not “Yelpers” could kill a business with kindness on Yelp.

I’m personally not a big fan of Yelp (I think their practices and their little review filters are a bit shady), and I also sort of wonder if some of this stance has to do with the way Yelp works. If a business asks for reviews, a fair portion of those will probably come from new or infrequent users. On Yelp, I’m pretty sure the filter algorithm penalizes you for being a newbie, and is more likely to filter out that beautiful review you just wrote — which is discouraging not only for the business, but for review-writers as well.

As a business owner, you really don’t want just passively leave the review process to chance.

I firmly believe in systems and being highly aggressive when building your brand. “Ask and ye shall receive.”

Continued success!

There’s a cliche along these lines:

A happy customer will tell a friend…
… An unhappy customer will tell everyone.

In other words I totally agree. Outside of an incredibly small minority, the bad reviews are the only ones which will come naturally and to ask a happy customer for a review is merely an offset.

Great piece, as always!

I think Yelp’s concern was for discouraging fake, manufactured reviews. They could have saved a lot of frustration by just pointing that out. Sending a follow-up email asking for a review after a consumer places an order is good, timely business. Likewise, for including a QR code on a window/door exit for a retail shop that asks for a Yelp review. You’re right on Lisa, “Don’t ask, don’t get!” There can never be an assumption that the user’s experience was peachy.