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Is Yelp Helping or Killing Your Business?

February 8, 2012 By Joe Rawlinson

Listening to your customers is essential to a long and healthy relationship with them. The good news these days is that you can easily listen to your customers because they are talking about you all over the place.

The review site Yelp.com is a great example of how your customers are giving feedback.

Are you listening?

The potential for good and bad is huge with a site like Yelp. A collection of negative reviews can scare away any potential customer that is looking for your local business.

Conversely, a Yelp listing with customers raving about your awesome service is a golden marketing and customer acquisition opportunity.

During my business travels, I’ve used Yelp to locate airport shuttles, restaurants, and shopping in cities across the country.

Being unfamiliar with several of the cities I visited, I trusted in the collective wisdom of positive reviewers and have not been disappointed. I also changed plans when I saw a massive amount of negative feedback.

If you run a local business, your customers are similarly checking you out on Yelp.

Do you know what they are saying?

Have you responded to comments, both good and bad? Not to rationalize your behavior, but to validate the customer’s feelings and apologize or thank them for their comments?

Is Yelp helping or killing your business?

If it is helping, odds are you’ve heard customers say they found you on Yelp.

If Yelp is killing your business, you may be none-the-wiser if you haven’t reviewed the site yourself. When customers get scared away, they rarely tell you that they even considered your business. They just walk away in silence.

Monitor your reputation and customer feedback on Yelp. It will serve your business well.

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