Yelpers Should Have Review Credit Ratings

Here's a thought about Yelp, and well, actually any other review site out there these days.  Why not give Yelpers (or other reviewers) a credit score like rating? 

Imagine looking for a new place to eat sushi, a hotel while on vacation, or well, even a new doctor.  Reviews can play a critical part for many while trying to decide which place to eat at, what hotel to say in and which doctor to entrust your health.  Why should these companies overall review ratings be tainted by reviewers who really have no experience reviewing or are "Negative Nancy's" that only review when they have something to gripe about?  Wouldn't you rather see an overall rating based on facts (not temper tantrums) from individuals who frequently share their thoughts and experiences?

This is my proposal.  Give reviewers a credit score like rating.  The higher their "credit score" the more influential their review plays into the overall star rating or point scale.  In contrast, the lower the reviewer's credit score, the less impact it has on said overall rating.

Now, I'm not saying filter out people's reviews (hint hint Yelp).  Everyone, no matter if they leave one review a year, or are, well I will say it, crazy Yelp Elites that have nothing better to do with their time than leave 42 reviews a day, deserve to be heard.  Maybe, however, post the one review from the person who has never reviewed on Yelp before at the bottom of the page, and only factor in their rating slightly (positive or negative) to the overall star rating.  Then, take the Yelp Elite's review, and give that one much more bearing on the star rating (again, positive or negative).

Additionally, with all these "super high-tech, fancy schmancy algorithms" that Yelp (and others) claim to have, shouldn't it be safe to assume that they could probably figure out people who shouldn't be Yelping (or reviewing) at all?  Case in point, people who ONLY leave negative reviews that offer no useful information.  Allow me to elaborate on this one.

In doing research on Yelp, I came across several reviewers that had anywhere from 5-50 different reviews, all of which were one star reviews.  In on instance, a reviewer with several one star only reviews gave a local Starbucks a 1-star because there were 2 customers outside smoking.  The reviewer never mentioned anything about the service nor the coffee.

Same reviewer then left a 1-star review for the local Home Depot.  She stated, and I quote, "I am giving them one star because too many people came up and asked if they could help me find anything."  Ok, enough said on that.  I think you get the point.

Sadly, there are many reviewers like this on Yelp (and I'm sure on other sites as well).  If a business only has 5 or 6 reviews, a 1-star from an idiot like this could dramatically affect their overall Yelp Rating.  How is that fair?

Personally, I think reviewers like this should be treated like someone with a 398 credit score because they have never paid a bill on time in their life.  A bank does not trust an individual like this, so why should we trust an individual like the one described above?

Again, I'm not saying filter these people, or filter the folks who only occasionally leave reviews; just don't let those reviews affect a business' rating as much as a reviewer who leaves a review every week about and has a mix of positive, negative and neutral reviews based on facts about the service and/or product they purchased and/or experienced.

Yelp's reputation for many is horrible!  Rightfully so in my opinion.  This is just one small step, they and others could take to put more trust and validity into their online reviews.  Not that it will ever happen because Yelp is corrupt (again, my opinion).

Yelp Reviews Require Common Sense

 



After attending an E-Commerce and Online Reputation Management seminar in Chicago this past week, I became somewhat alarmed at the stats given in regards to online reviews.  Allow me to elaborate.

According to the host at the seminar, 86% of consumers read online business reviews before making purchase decisions, 90% say they trust these reviews and 74% of consumers choose companies and brands based on what others say online about their customer service experiences.  Although, the numbers weren’t overwhelmingly shocking, they still caused an eyebrow or two to be raised in the room.

Why are these numbers concerning you may wonder?  Well, take into account places like Yelp.com.  Yelp tends to filter reviews for a variety of reasons, one of which being if the review came from a new or newer Yelp user.

Yelp states they filter these reviews from one, two or three time users to avoid fake reviews from business owners writing reviews of their own place or competitors trying to hurt the competition (amongst other reasons).  However, many legitimate people only leave reviews sparingly.  Let’s face reality, it takes time to write a review and not everyone in the world has the luxury of that time on a regular basis.  Therefore, more often than not, true reviews (good or bad) from REAL people are filtered on a daily, no wait, a minutely basis with Yelp.

Additionally, Yelp tends to put more weight on the Yelp Elite (people who constantly post to Yelp and meet other “Yelp Criteria”) and Yelpers who may not be “Elite” but post reviews on a regular basis.  Ok, that doesn’t sound too bad, but when delve into further, many times these “Yelpers” are just people with nothing more than a chip on their shoulder, too much time on their hands and an internet connection.  When looking at their profile and number of reviews, in many instances, the majority of their reviews are all negative.  So, I pose the question, how “fair” and unbiased” are the reviews left by these folks?

Then, not to add insult to injury, there are Yelpers who purposely leave negative reviews in an attempt to “extort” the business they reviewed.  They demand something, either a gift card, free meal, discount off their next visit, etc in exchange for a follow up 5-star review.  Sometimes Yelpers try the extortion tactic before leaving a review, stating they need some type of “freebie” to keep them from posting a negative review.

And, last but certainly not least, there is the question about Yelp’s own business practices and ethics.  There has already been one class action law suit against Yelp accusing Yelp of filtering positive reviews and leaving up the negative reviews for businesses who refused to pay for Yelp’s montly advertising package.  Again, there are countless blogs and websites stating that after a particluar business declined service with Yelp, all (or most) of their positive reviews, no matter how long they had been posted, disappeared to the filtered page.  Then, subsequent reviews, if positive, were filtered, and negatives allowed to post for all to see.  Here is just one example of the many Yelp Complaints websites.

What I am trying to say is that review sites like Yelp (and I’m sure there are others) need to be taken with a grain of salt.  If you are a consumer looking to check out a business, read BOTH the main reviews AND the Filtered Reviews!  Keep in mind, that any business, no matter how wonderful they are, cannot please 100% of the people 100% of the time.  Everyone will receive a bad review here and there.  See how the company deals with the reviews.  To me, that means more than 10 positive reviews.

Finally, use your own head to form an opinion.  Don’t solely rely on others.  If you are reading a review and the entire review is just horrifically bad, stand back and ask yourself, “Is this person over exaggerating just because someone didn’t kiss their ass the way they thought their ass should be kissed?  Could this business really be that bad, because if they were, how on Earth are they still in business?”

Reviews can be helpful….but they are not everything! Common sense, though, will never go out of style. 

The Horrible Yelp Filter - How It's Affecting So Many

Like so many other people, I really had no idea what Yelp.com was all about 3 years ago.  I just figured it was another "Dot Com" site that really had no merit or impact and would probably fizzle out, just like Myspace.  Well, I wish I could say I was right, but alas I was (am) not.


My personal experiences started when a representative of Yelp first called me to discuss possible advertising options with Yelp.  Since I really had no prior knowledge of the company, I decided to do some investigating on my own. 


I checked out my employer's Yelp profile.  Wow, I was shocked.  We had a few reviews posted.  I will be honest, they were a mix of anywhere between 1 and 5 stars.  I was shocked at the 1 star review, but everyone receives a bad review once in a while, right?


After more digging around, though, I found so many complaints about Yelp's Review Filter, Customer Service Issues and Complaints, not to mention (at that time anyway) the Class Action Lawsuit against yelp.com, I decided my employer's ad money wouldn't be very well spent with Yelp.  I graciously, again at that time anyway, declined Yelp's offer, which began my Yelp nightmare!


Miraculously, those couple 5 star reviews seemed to disappear.  The 1 star review was displayed prominently as the first review for the entire world to see.  The sales calls from Yelp kept coming, my response was always and adamantly "NO", and the good reviews kept being filtered, the bad reviews kept being posted.


Fast forward about a year and a half or so to today's date, and my employer still doesn't have a ton of reviews, but here is how they break down.  On our main review page, 11 total reviews; three 5-star reviews, one 4-star review, zero 3-star reviews, two 2-star reviews and FIVE 1-star reviews. 


Go to our filtered reviews page and this is what you will see:

• Seven 5-star reviews
• One 4-star review
• One 1-star review

Throughout my brief "conversations" with Yelp Reps and my own online research, I do know that Yelp tends to filter out first time reviewers.  Ok, I can accept that fact.  Actually, to some degree makes sense, yet I also believe and know there are ways to verify if a first time user is legitimate or not (but that will be the topic of another blog).  However, with that being said, why then, were 5 of my filtered reviews from reviewers with 2 or more prior reviews?  Why did a 1-Star review end up on the main review page from a brand spanking new Yelp user?  Why did another 1-star review end up on the main page from a person who left one other review and had just registered with Yelp?  Answer me that? 


The more research I do, the more irate I become.  I have reached out to other business owners affected by Yelp's tyranny.  Yes, I call it tyranny due to the fact there is no real appeal process for reviews, there is no customer service number on the homepage of Yelp to call, the "Contact Yelp" link at the very bottom of the page is a joke.  Typically, if you submit a question or problem, you will receive a "canned response" with a No-Reply email address attached to it.  Also, if Yelp decides to ban your user ID, they do not disclose why, just list their "Terms of Service" link and says you were in violation and Yelp does not give further information regarding the matter, and once again, from a No-Reply email address.  Basically, Yelp is the Dictator/Czar and we, business owners and consumers alike, cannot question their government.  If so, death may be the punishment.  Well, death to one's business anyway.

Help me in my fight against Yelp.  Visit the Facebook page, Yelp is a Fraud.  Feel free to post your own stories, speak with others in the group and take advantage of some of the Yelp "Tips and Tricks" I and othermembers have posted.  Remember, alone we are weak; together we are strong.  The more people who know about Yelp, the more people who will stop using Yelp. 

Without people, there will be no more Yelp!