i totally comprehend your anxiety with yelp; i realize that numerous entrepreneurs express a similar feeling. in no way, shape or form am i urging anybody to pay for their administrations. i was trusting that my article would essentially give accommodating data to any individual who was interested about the audit site since there are numerous individuals who use yelp to choose whether or not to visit a store.

best,

wendy t alphin

owning and running a business is difficult enough without the added burden of the yelp process. we promise, this is not a sour grape assessment. business owners beware for the following:

-after speaking with three sales people over several months, we carefully followed their instructions precisely to ensure we were yelp friendly. the little they did to help us was not worth the efforts & time involved. plus, it’s true, the sales people are relentless and love to act like your best friend when they have never spoken to you before. yelp makes money on advertising and will throw stats at you until your heads spins.

-we have literally hundreds of customers and we were so honored when a few decided to take the time to write a review that ultimately was not approved by yelp. out of the the 9 new reviews, 7 were rejected.
-it appears that because the review mentioned my name and seemed too “familiar” it was rejected. we are a custom jewelry maker, we work for weeks for our clients and build true relationships, this is called excellent customer service. not according to yelp.

-also, it appears that that the reviews who were from new yelp subscribers were rejected. this was very upsetting to some of our clients, as they took the time to sign up for yelp and take the time to leave a review. yelp states that if they do not know enough about the new reviewer, they are rejected. do they realize that all of us are new at least once on yelp.

-lastly, yelp states that if a rant is not helpful, they dismiss it. however, how is a positive review, about a positive experience a “rant” and considered not useful to someone looking for a jeweler? or for any business for that matter?
i hope this helps at least one poor soul from wasting their time and money with yelp. just keep all your focus on the customers who come through your doors and treat them like royalty and they will return and refer you to their friends. yelp needs us as business owners, not the other way around.