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Wed
25
Jan
2012
Yelp, and the One-Way Anonymous Review Culture
"Wow, you can sit at home and trash a business anonymously in your artisan pajamas, destroy what someone has worked so hard for. A passion your bitter life will never know...are you living a 5-star life, my friend? Can I follow you around and review you?"
We have had great reviews over the years, but this culture of one-way reviewing bugs the hell out of me. Site like Yelp, that give all of the control to the snarky user and no protection for the small business owner...its no wonder that no one wants to advertise with them and they are sinking like a rock. As a small business owner, why would I want to fund a company that doesnt have my best interests and protection at heart? (and that's exactly what I tell them when they call to peddle their wares).
Dd you get that one..."peddle/pedal". That's free.
As of this writing, we have 80 5-star reviews, of which Yelp has decided to hide 68 and show 12. No other business that I have come across has such a similar black-out ratio.
It all started a few years ago, right when I started. I actually choose to advertise on Yelp for an intro 3 month period because I didn't know any better. When the 3 month period ended, I didn't continue and was met by some hard-sell tactics from my account rep. The day I finally refused, my reviews went from 18 5-star reviews down to 2, and we've been blacklisted ever since.
Yelp claims their filtering algorithm is purely automated, out of human influence, and looks for suspicious reviews. Yeah, I hired 68 people to write my reviews. I have been able to copy them all to my website, however. See them ALL here.
I have heard of lawsuits where Yelp has approached businesses to advertise and make good reviews show up, and bad ones go away. It's a digital shakedown, and they have tried that crap with me a number of times. You can guess my response.
Here's the rub...many people (although fewer every week) take Yelp very seriously and use it to make shopping /eating decisions. I am thusly forced to keep my hat in the ring and include a like to our Yelp site on my website. I would recommend Google Places, as that site takes reviews from a number of feeds and paints a more honest picture.
Rant:Over (return)
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Trackbacks / Pingbacks 3
- Digital Shakedown: Is 718 Cyclery in Gowanus Being Screwed by Yelp? » Brooklynian (2012-01-25 12:49:24)
- Digital Shakedown: Is 718 Cyclery in Gowanus Being Screwed by Yelp? » Brooklynian (2012-01-25 12:34:37)
- Digital Shakedown: Is 718 Cyclery in Gowanus Being Screwed by Yelp? » Brooklynian (2012-01-25 12:33:59)
Comments: 13
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#1
Thanks for sharing your experience, Joe! Really valuable for the rest of us (consumers) who don't have that perspective on Yelp.
A friend of mine is doing some social media consulting for a business and has been wondering how to address their issues with Yelp. I'm sending this to her! -
#2
Its an unsustainable business model....make businesses extremely vulnerable, and ask them to give you money to advertise with them. Yelp cant have it both ways.
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#3
With all due respect, the reviews that have been filtered from your Yelp page *are* highly suspect. I write and read a lot of Yelp reviews and as a result, know not to trust any review from someone with less than 10 reviews and no friends because they are almost always fake. This is the case for almost all of your filtered reviews.
If you look at other businesses on Yelp, you'll see similar filtered reviews on their pages too. In my opinion, you're not being singled out. It's that your fans have Yelp profiles that look just like fake/spammer Yelp profiles.
Maybe you coule write to those Yelpers and encourage them to connect with more people and write more reviews? Not certain that's a good idea; just throwing it out there. -
#4
I think asking/pandering my good customers to write more reviews misses the point. Also, as a new yelp user, I would feel pretty put-off by a site that filters out my reviews because I am new.
I also find it troubling that a review is seen as "highly suspect" because its written by a person with less than 10 reviews. Only yelp lifers are worthy to have their opinions seen by others?
Finally, as a person who has worked his ass off for my business and reputation, to insinuate that my hard earned reviews were ill gotten always bugs me. I dont even ask my customer to write reviews, like many businesses do. I am of the belief that tyhings will work out for a great business. I am sick of the argument about the Yelp algorithm that "the system works", because I can tell you it 100% does not.
This is why Yelp wont be with us much longer. -
#5
Hi Joseph. I didn't mention it before, but there are a lot of other factors that go into deciding whether a review is likely fake or not.
Like every social website, Yelp collects a lot of data about its users. They know when you sign in, what you search for, what business pages you visit, etc.
I can't know for sure, but I think it's pretty likely that those filtered 5 star reviews were written by people who signed up for Yelp on the same day they posted the review and never came back or signed in again. If that's the case, then Yelp is right to assume those aren't "real."
This is why not all reviews from people with just a few reviews and no friends get filtered. If a person is actively searching and using Yelp, it's a lot more likely that their reviews were written by a "real" person.
Just to be clear, by the way, I don't work for Yelp. I know about this stuff because I have worked for another social networking site and dealing with fake/spammy posts is a huge challenge for the entire industry.
I don't think Yelp is insinuating that your reviews are ill-gotten either. They just look fake because a lot of factors of those reviews match up with factors of reviews that are known to be fake. What I mean is, Yelp is not suggesting that you solicited those reviews - at least that's how I see it.
Honestly, your shop is one of the highest rated I've seen and the fact that you have some filtered reviews shouldn't take away from that. Reading your reviews, it's obvious that you're doing awesome work and that your customers love your shop. Best of luck to you. -
#6
Yelp is not right in assuming that people who signed up and didn't come back are frauds. If I go to a bakery once, does that make me less of a customer?
"those filtered 5 star reviews were written by people who signed up for Yelp on the same day they posted the review and never came back or signed in again. If that's the case, then Yelp is right to assume those aren't "real."
Reviews and great customer service is how a small independent shop like mine competes with the big guys...take that away and it marginalizes what we are trying to do.
I appreciate your thoughtful comments, but I know each person who wrote each review...I have the best customers on the planet. Many of them are disgusted by yelp and their filtering practices, so they wont ever be back on Yelp. -
#7
I agree that dealing with fake/spammer reviews is a challenge, but the inverse of that,and the protection of us on the business side is non-existent
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#8
Do check out my Yelp listing. http://www.yelp.com/biz/peter-coombs-photography-chicago
116 reviews, 99 of them filtered. ALL of them genuine!
It's tough out there! -
#9
Peter...wow, I truly feel your pain. Doesn't it just kill you knowing they are all valid and there's nothing you can do about it?
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#10
Yep - it does suck, but I'm not sure what the alternative is. Short of actually calling and verifying each reviewer I don't know how any review site can, with any certainty, claim it's content is all genuine & generated by actual clients/users. You could require reviewers to submit an email address or phone number but that would just put people off writing anything. I eagerly await a solution, 'cos this is killing me!
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#11
"The Yelp Scam"
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/01/the-yelp-scam -
#12
Hi. I was one of the people who apparently did everything wrong when I reviewed Joe's shop. I registered, wrote the review and haven't been back. Why? Because this has been one of the few times I've felt strongly enough about a business to write a review. And I'm not really interested in sitting and looking at social media in my free time -- I could be biking. To be profiled and censored because my online behavior doesn't fit an algorithm just shows how idiotic things have gotten.
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#13
Peter
Its so true...they reward trolls who review other all day long, as opposed to people living an active life with little time for Yelp-tending. Does going to a bakery once a year make you less of a customer?
Check out our new video review section...its my way of getting around yelp's one-way anonymous games. 
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