How to manage your YELP Reviews

http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/operations/article197278.html

When co-founders Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons conjured up the idea for Yelp during a startups incubator four years ago, they didn’t think people would care to review businesses. Now Yelp is one of the most popular online customer review sites. It’s succeeded in translating word-of-mouth to the World Wide Web and has transformed the way people interact with businesses.

The site can be a great way for entrepreneurs to promote their business. Since anyone can enter a business on Yelp, it’s a good idea for business owners to check out the site and see what’s there.

Yelp was launched in 2004 in San Francisco and now covers the entire United States. It includes every type of business imaginable. Users rate a business’ services on a one- to five-star rating system. Eighty-five percent of all its reviews are three stars or higher with 67 percent rating at four or five stars, so for the majority of businesses the feedback is good. For businesses with reviews that seem a little lackluster, there are tricks to boosting your star rating.

Chains focus on more microsites and blogs

Microsites and blogs give marketers a way to communicate with customers that’s more effective than using a standard website or traditional marketing, said Brad Wahl, Krystal’s vice president of marketing.

“There are more and more opportunities [for consumers] to have a conversation with our brand,” he said. “Consumers are demanding it.”

Through behavioral research studies Krystal has learned that consumers who go to one of its blogs or microsites have different behavioral attributes than visitors to its other sites, allowing the chain to tailor marketing messages to them, Wahl said.

By GREGG  CEBRZYNSKI

http://www.nrn.com/article.aspx?menu_id=1416&id=358456

Why you shouldn’t fake reviews ..

The restaurateur confessed to posting the reviews, his rational pointing to stimulating custom, however with any reactive strategy it requires a degree of foresight – and I am not sure he really thought through the wider ramification of posting these “inaccurate” reviews.

Firstly, a warning must be expressed. For example, if someone finds your restaurant or hotel via a positive (fake) review and they have a bad experience, there is a chance that they will post a true review to assist fellow users and generally have a rant. The initial seeding of this true review has the potential to lead to an onslaught of further reviews from other visitors who might not have otherwise posted. Don’t forget the saying “people don’t lead… they follow”.

But how can you manage your reviews and ultimately what your customers are saying about you? Well first and foremost, address the problem(s)!

http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4129.shtml

Small business: Good customer service is key

Take opportunities to talk to customers and ask them how your customer service is, advises Michael Crom, executive vice president for Dale Carnegie Training in Hauppauge.

“The most effective way to make certain that you’re offering satisfactory customary service is by ensuring that customers always have the opportunity to provide honest, anonymous feedback,” he says. “The key here is to allow feedback to be given at any point, not just through polling or questionnaires distributed at times dictated by the company itself.”

Highly visible customer service telephone numbers, mail-in or drop-box survey cards and feedback forms on your Web site are all good options, notes Crom.

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/business/ny-bzherz5833981sep08,0,3905646.story

How Many Reviewers Should Be in the Kitchen ?

FOR polar or lunar exploration, we are an intrepid species, eagerly vying with one another to be first. But we’re not so brave when it comes to being the first to buy a particular product or service. We much prefer letting someone else go on ahead and report back.

Like others, I used to rely on professional critics for guidance in many domains — restaurants, movies, books. When the Web arrived and the opinion of every single customer could easily be published online, we began to listen to one another instead. Amazon.com was a pioneer in offering customer reviews of books and many other products.

But there was a nagging concern. Without knowing reviewers’ real identities, couldn’t we be misled? In 2004, a computer glitch at Amazon temporarily revealed the real names of its reviewers, including, in at least one instance, a book author who had submitted rave reviews of his own books.

Fortunately, the sites that welcome customer reviews have evolved significantly. One of the best, Yelp, has replaced the cult of the anonymous amateur with a design that highlights the judgments of the exceptional few. These dedicated reviewers produce work that, in quantity and quality, increasingly approaches that of their professional forebears, and they are willing to divulge personal information about themselves.

Founded in 2005 in San Francisco and now covering 21 metropolitan areas, Yelp invites customers to review any business that has a street address. It covers most everything — doctors, carpet cleaners, tattoo parlors — but may be best known for its restaurant reviews. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, it covers more than 19,000 restaurants; in New York City, more than 8,600.

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/technology/07digi.html?_r=2&scp=24&sq=restaurant&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Keeping in touch with customers

SERVICE TIP: Keep In Touch
by Shep Hyken

How often do you “touch” your customers, clients or guests?

Lessons by examples:

Recently my wife and I tried a new restaurant. It was very good. On the way out the hostess thanked us and asked for our e-mail address. Two days later we received an e-mail thanking us for our business with a promotion for the next time we came in. Every month we receive an email with the newest specials.

Not long ago I went shopping for some new clothes. Several days later I received a thank you note. Two months later I received a post card, signed by my salesperson, announcing the latest sale. A couple months after that there was a message on my voice mail from this salesperson just “checking in” and telling me that the new season’s clothes had just arrived. This guy is good. He has a system. He keeps track of his customers and keeps in touch with them.

One of my clients is a CEO who writes a short note twice a year to all 1,000 plus employees in his company. Sometimes it is a holiday or birthday card. Other times it is a congratulatory note of some kind. Regardless, everyone gets “touched” at least twice a year.

Everyone, in just about any type of business, can do this for both external and internal customers. With all of the technology we have available to us, it is easy to mix in some of the personal with the non -personal/technical contact. It shows we care. It keeps us “in touch.” It puts our names in front of people. Overall, it gives us a competitive edge.

Are you keeping in touch with the people you should?

Shep Hyken, CSP is a professional speaker and author who helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. For more information on Shep’s speaking programs, books, and other learning products, please contact (314) 692-2200. Email: shep@hyken.com Web: www.hyken.com. For information on customer service training, go to www.TheCustomerFocus.com.

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