Dear Yelp,
I love you. Really, I loves me some food and I loves me some honest customer feedback. I’m guessing that a lot of people love you for the same reason I do: I put more stock in what Johnny-Down-The-Street has to say about a local chinese place than some prissy dining guide written by people who come from some planet where taste buds are engineered to enjoy weird food. You’re the citizen’s Zagats guide. Be proud.
Yelp, you and I clicked right away. It’s at the point now where I go to you first when I look for restaurants, and even though you have some big search problems (I give you a neighborhood and you give me a restaurant 20 miles away – I want a meal, not an excursion. 20 miles in L.A. is far. BAD Yelp!), there simply isn’t anything better for me. I like reading other people’s reviews, I REALLY like writing my own (I further loves me some opinionating – fake word alert!), and it’s cool to share information and help other people. All’s not well in Yelp-land, though. A very important group of people have been left out. Not shut out, just left out.
The business owners.
*GASP*
I know that they can have their own business accounts, but I haven’t seen many business owners taking an initiative towards getting involved. What’s the deal, business owners? Scared that someone is saying something negative? Maybe some are. I’ve talked with business owners that would rather stick their fingers in their ears and go “la la la” than deal with that fact that they might not be doing the best job all the time, but to be fair, there’s not a ton of outreach going on to get the owners involved. Let’s at least meet them halfway, huh?
Yelp, you have a great opportunity to create a real business ecosystem, where people give businesses they valuable feedback they need to improve, resulting in more customers and more honest, positive reviews. Someone has dropped the ball here, because it ain’t happenin’.
I’m looking at YOU, Yelp.
You know as well as I do that change is really difficult – hell, I still own shirts from 1992 (and when I lose weight they actually fit, so I don’t look like Chris Farley trying squeeze into David Spade’s jacket), so you need to work a little harder to get those businesses involved. Market to them a little better. Help them understand that it’s not a haven for whiny babies, but a valuable resource for people who are hungry, need dry cleaning, or teeth cleaning, or house cleaning, or another service that may not even involve cleaning! Take them by the hand, Yelp, and you’ll finally create the epic utopia where business and customer walk hand in hand towards a sunrise of togetherness.
OK, so maybe not quite like that, but it would be pretty cool, and not just for the business owners. Imagine consumers having the benefit of proper information! (Sorry Yelp, but you sometimes have bad pictures, sometimes have the wrong address, sometimes don’t have the place I’m looking for at all.) I don’t want the businesses to run Yelp. That’s WAY not the point here – I wouldn’t want a collection of Facebook Fan Pages, but I would like to see a business be able to set the record straight (or at least the basics details so I can FIND the place I’m looking for) and feel confident in addressing legitimate concerns (all of which benefits – you guessed it – the consumer!). I know you can’t keep all the crazy people from written profanity (and typo) laden jags, but I wouldn’t want you to either – I, for one, find them hilarious. Just make it what it should ultimately be anyway – a conversation.
Thanks for the time, Yelp. I’m sure you’ll get right on that.
Love,
Me
Tags: Community, Consumer Info, Reviews, Yelp
