Why You Should Care About Business Review Websites
Sites like Yelp and Urban Spoon that allow users to post business reviews are all the rage right now. At first glance, you might not think much about them. Whether reviews for your business are positive, negative, or somewhere in between, they're just websites, right?
Well... not really.
Yelp and
Urbanspoon aren't just a place for customers to talk about their experiences with your business; they can potentially become an invaluable marketing tool. Here is a handy cheat-sheet for how to turn business reviews into actual business.
Online Business Reviews: How They Work
It is extremely easy for customers to tell the world what they think about your company. Both Yelp (which allows reviews of all businesses) and Urbanspoon (which focuses on restaurants) allow customers to rate a business, write a review of their experience, and rate and compare the experiences of other customers. In addition to providing a platform for customers to discuss their experience with your business, potential first-time customers can look up your business and see how it compares to similar businesses. While the prospect of customers dishing publicly about your business might seem daunting, it can easily turn into a valuable business tool.
Turning Online Business Reviews Into Business: There Are Two Primary Benefits to Online Business Reviews.
First, you can get direct and honest feedback about your business. If you run a restaurant, you might find out that customers like a particular dish that you should highlight more prominently on the menu. If customers found your employees to be too impersonal, you can quickly find out by seeing if multiple customers on Yelp complain. These websites provide a window into the minds of customers you can't get anywhere else, giving you valuable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your company.
Second, these sites give you an opportunity to engage with customers directly. Let's say a customer leaves a negative review. You can send them a message apologizing and even rectifying the problem. Bad business experiences are often the result of customers feeling like they aren't being heard, and engaging with them online fixes that. Additionally, if you feel a customer is being unfair or untruthful, you can easily post a reply telling your side of the story. You can't do that with old-fashioned word of mouth.
