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YELP Again

In the state I am in, the health inspection reports are available to the general public, just by going to the health department website
 
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ours are too, they have been for years. But not many customers go out searching for them.
This is going to be a huge tool for Yelp. A lot of restaurants feel that yelp extorts them, There has been documented proof that If you choose not to advertise with them then in the next 48 hours you can expect to see 2 or 3 negatives appear. This had happened to me. There was an obvious fake person that gave us a one star rating. There was clearly a lot of fabrication, for instance they said that our dining room was plain Jane cookie cutter white. As you know may know our dining room is vibrant purple, and the walls are covered with gold records and Rock memorabilia. For the longest time It was on front and center. When I did a few things with Yelp not only did it go filtered its now flagged. THE PAGE NOW SAYS “This review has been removed for violating our Content Guidelines or Terms of Services” Now with the power of Combining the Health Department reports, It gives them the ultimate control over us. The return on investment is horrible. If I pay them 300.00 (the minimum) I may get 4 people all month. Also in case you did not know, it ask Siri for a pizzeria in your area. They use YELP
http://searchengineland.com/apple-siri- … rch-124329
 
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Rockstar pizza:
Liz, how many restaurants have you spoke with that has talked favorably about Yelp?
Click to expand...
I’ve found that restaurant owners/operators have a love/hate relationship with all review sites, not only Yelp. However, the savvy consumer usually knows better than to only go by what they read in online reviews. The unfortunate fact is, unhappy patrons are much more likely to post a bad review than happy patrons are to post a good one.

I came across a couple of videos of business owners talking about the importance of responding to every review, whether good or bad. Sometimes all it takes is communicating with the person on the other end of the comment.
http://publicityhound.net/videos-how-2- … s-on-yelp/

Liz Barrett
PMQ
 
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Liz Barrett:
Rockstar pizza:
Liz, how many restaurants have you spoke with that has talked favorably about Yelp?
Click to expand...
The unfortunate fact is, unhappy patrons are much more likely to post a bad review than happy patrons are to post a good one.
Click to expand...
So true… Probably the worst type of sites you could go to for someones opinion

And for yelps case they highlight them mostly
 
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Yes I respond to every review, good or bad. But the two I have issue with, I have no Idea how to respond too.
  1. "Average pizza, nothing special. The rest of the menu isn’t very exciting. The dining room is small and not pleasant to look at. I had the vegetarian sub which was okay, but there just wasn’t much to choose from.
    OK I can respond to the opinion about average pizza and nothing special. Not everyone is going to like our pizza, I get that! BUT we have one of the largest menu selections in the area.
    We have 16 different gourmet pizzas, we have 23 different toppings, we have 16 different oven baked subs, we have 8 different types of wings; we have 12 different appetizers, Yes I see he is a vegetarian but our menu has a little note by almost all of the items that reads about it without meat.
    Second small dining room and not much to look at!
    Gold records all over the wall, the most unique drop ceiling I have ever seen.
OK second is quick and easy;
“Expensive, bland, sub-par. The location has a salad bar that is an over priced lettuce wedge. After spending over $50 four myself and two kids to eat we vowed never to return.”

“Our salad bar is only 4.99 and we have 16 different items on it, 2 desserts and the lettuce is a combination of romaine and iceberg”
So other than offer her and kids a free trip back, I am stuck. My thinking is that this is the manager at a competitors here in town

Yelp boast about there super filtering program, well this chick has posted 1 other time, on the same day as mine. Yet it has block several of my customer!

video does not cover that!
 
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I will say this about Yelp,it did help me when building out my concept. I read the reviews of places around me to see what customers wanted in a restaurant,what they would change and tried to adapt them to fit my needs and theirs
 
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Has Yelp Cross the Line?

Yelp is teaming up with County Health Depts. to display Health Inspections of Local Restaurants on their review site. Local Restaurant Owners are HOT over this decision. A good number of Owners already believe Yelp tips the balance against Owners if they do not take ad space on their site. Some have accused Yelp in getting rid of good reviews that were displayed and bring the bad ones to a more visible light after refusing or cancelling Ad campaigns from them.
A lot of Owners believe the way health inspection are graded that a average customers would come to a negative conclusion of the restaurant if they didn’t score 100% on every inspection. Health Inspections Reports can be hard to interpreted if you don’t have a food service back ground plus if all the facts (complete report) are not available then the public then the whole story is not told. A single score Health Score does not inform the public properly. What about corrections being made at the time of the inspection, a minor infraction are normally corrected on the spot in most inspection but a single score will not inform the public of this action.
When I ran my Pizzeria, one of my competitors used to advertise his 100% scores on his pizza flyers, myself I always had my 100% scores framed on my counter near my cash register. Now another Pizzeria Owners after about 6-8mos started to advertise his 96% score on his flyers to keep up with the other store, I found out latter it hurt him through feedback that it was not 100% because customers wanted to know what he did wrong to get a 96 instead of 100%. A 96% is nothing to sneeze at and any restaurant would be happy (PROUD) to get that in an inspection but the end customer will question what went wrong and this is negative.
Local Restaurant Owners have good cause to worry about this action and the impact on their establishments. I see the Restaurant Industry coming together on this to bare more pressure on Yelp and Local Communities to keep this info out of the review sites.

Here’s the complete story
http://restaurant-hospitality.com/operations/new-reason-complain-about-yelp
 
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Yelp is a joke. On my front page, they show three reviews. One is obviously a competitor that states our meatball subs must be made with processed meats. (They are made fresh by hand). Another bad one that doesn’t describe my shop correctly which makes me wonder if they were ever there, and one good review. When I clicked on the reviews hidden tab, all 11 other reviews were excellent. Yet when they first see my name, they see 2 1/2 stars cause they only average the first three. If every restaurant refused to pay the ransom, they would go away.
 
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These online review sites all drive me nuts! I have one that either is a competitor, a disgruntled former employee, or a person with x-ray vision that can see through walls (review says “the employees here never wash their hands after using the restroom, trust me”). I have 1 single person restroom by the way…

Its frustrating that we cant control the posts more. If you try to dispute a review (at least on this site), they immediately try to sell you their crap for premium placement, blah blah, blah.

Personally, I’ve never used a review site to persuade me on going (or not going) to a particular place. I think we overestimate the power of these overall.

One more rant, I have another negative review from a twice a month regular customer that shows up near the top of searching reviews for my restaurant. Its a 1 of 5 star review. I handled their issue that night and they have continued to order just as frequently since. Everytime I take her call, I want to say “You owe me 75 positive reviews online for the last 75 perfect orders!!!” But I just say “thanks and have a great night”. :roll:
 
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