{"id":3457,"date":"2018-07-17T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T19:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/server.trenchlessmarketing.com\/~inhouseplumbingc\/?p=3457"},"modified":"2018-07-17T19:25:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T19:25:00","slug":"yelp-reviews-business-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/yelp-reviews-business-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Yelp Reviews From a Business Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bring up Yelp in a room full of business owners and you get a lot of mixed reviews.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not that businesses don\u2019t like reviews. We love reviews, in fact, both the good and the bad. From the bad, we can reach out to and build stronger relationships with unhappy customers by addressing their complaints. From the good, we can celebrate a job well done with our customers.<\/p>\n<p>And thanks to the internet, there are any number of places a customer can leave a review. Google, Facebook, the Better Business Bureau, to name a few. But Yelp\u2026 Yelp is a whole other beast.<\/p>\n<h2>How Yelp is Different<\/h2>\n<p>When you search for a company\u2019s reviews, like \u201cIn-House Plumbing Company reviews,\u201d you\u2019ll find any number of review sites in the results. And if you go to any of these sites except Yelp, you can see a list showing every review.<\/p>\n<p>But Yelp doesn\u2019t do this. They show some reviews and leave others out. The reviews they do show are called \u201crecommended reviews.\u201d And the ones they don\u2019t are hidden below those reviews by a grayed out link. You have to click that link you want to see the reviews that are \u201cnot currently recommended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3468\" src=\"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-15-at-12.21.29-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"202\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Recommended Reviews vs. Not Recommended<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A question many business owners and the people who leave reviews have is why are some reviews recommended and some not?<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Yelp explains it like this:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PniMEnM89iY\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It makes sense, on the surface. And when you consider there are companies buying\u2014 or otherwise incentivising\u2014 good reviews and other companies leaving negative reviews on competitor\u2019s pages, finding a way to filter those out makes for a better experience for you, the customer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But is that what\u2019s really happening? Is it only fake reviews being filtered out?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If you look at our reviews, recommended and not recommended, there doesn\u2019t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There are some reviews in the not recommended section where the reviewer has no picture, no friends, and a single review. But that is also the case in the recommended reviews.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Additionally, a one-star review came in that was in the recommended reviews and counted toward our total star rating. But after we worked with the customer and she changed her review to five stars, it was removed from the recommended review section and no longer counts toward the total.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Yelp\u2019s Explanation<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">According to the video and on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yelp-support.com\/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">site<\/a>, the reviews are sorted using an algorithm (software).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are some of the factors the algorithm considers when filtering the reviews:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>the quality of the review (one line, heavily slanted in one way or the other)<\/li>\n<li>number of reviews<\/li>\n<li>how the reviewer signed up (email, Facebook, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>lack of profile photo<\/li>\n<li>reviewer\u2019s location in relation to the business location<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Additionally, the software runs every day so it\u2019s possible a review is recommended one day but not the next.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">And they also admit because it\u2019s an automated process, some legitimate reviews occasionally find their way into the not recommended section.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Yelp, the Big Bully?<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">While the other big review sites also filter for fake or spammy reviews, Yelp has been accused of using their recommended\/not recommended review process as a way to pressure business owners into becoming paid advertisers on the site.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Buy our ads and we\u2019ll \u2018get rid\u2019 of your bad reviews.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">On sites like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/yelp-sucks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yelp Sucks<\/a>\u00a0and the Facebook page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/YelpExtortion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yelp Extortion<\/a>, you\u2019ll find numerous complaints against the company from local business owners about the tremendous pressure they get from Yelp\u2019s sales people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2010\/02\/24\/finally-an-actual-yelp-class-action-lawsuit-for-extortion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2010<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2014\/08\/06\/yelp-lied-about-review-policies-to-inflate-stock-price-lawsuit-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2014<\/a>, two class action lawsuits were brought against the review company accusing them of lying about requiring small business owners to pay to filter out the bad reviews. There\u2019s even a documentary about similar complaints against Yelp called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prostfilms.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Billion Dollar Bully<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In this video from The Washington Post, they talk to business owners who claim their reviews were changed based on whether or not they signed up as advertisers on the site.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/c\/embed\/c860baa0-c199-11e2-8bd8-2788030e6b44\" width=\"480\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">However, this three year study presented by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.hbs.edu\/mluca\/FakeItTillYouMakeIt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harvard Business Review<\/a>\u00a0found being an advertiser on the site does not affect the algorithm.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">And Yelp themselves said the reviews cannot be manually changed from recommended to not recommended despite their sales people\u2019s claims to the contrary.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Who Should You Trust?<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So what should you do when looking for a company\u2019s reviews?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Staying informed is the best option at this point. As a potential customer when going to Yelp, make sure you look at all the reviews, recommended and not recommended.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Also be sure to check out reviews on the other sites like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=inhouse+plumbing+company+reviews&amp;oq=inhou&amp;aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0j69i65j69i57j0l2.1001j1j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x864ea7b15c1ceb3f:0xd2b8db89b1fda080,1,,,\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google<\/a>, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/dallas\/business-reviews\/plumbers\/in-house-plumbing-company-in-garland-tx-90014776\/reviews-and-complaints\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BBB<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/In-House-Plumbing-Company-117823804908818\/reviews\/?ref=page_internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">And of course, trust your gut. When you call a business or read about them online, if you get a bad feeling about them, trust that. Sometimes your instincts are right on the money.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Also remember. Nobody and no business is perfect. Before leaving a negative review, reach out to the company and see if they are willing work with you to resolve your issues. Then once the company works with you, consider leaving a review of the whole process from initial call to unhappy result to how the company handled the problem when you went to them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are In-House, we are proud of our unofficial policy of running to the problem. But if we don\u2019t know there is a problem, we can\u2019t fix it. And in the end, that\u2019s what we all want.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">As always, we\u2019re here to answer any questions you have. If you want to know more about us or any reviews you found about us, call us at 972-203-6479.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bring up Yelp in a room full of business owners and you get a lot of mixed reviews. It\u2019s not that businesses don\u2019t like reviews. We love reviews, in fact, both the good and the bad. From the bad, we can reach out to and build stronger relationships with unhappy customers by addressing their complaints. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry","override"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigwesttemp.com\/inhouseplumbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}