Every small business owner is mindful of the impact of negative on-line reviews and quakes in fear when a client is not 100% satisfied. Alas, we had the unfortunate experience of displeasing a client (a bride) a few weeks ago. She spent her entire wedding day telling everyone that would listen that she was going to “give the florist a bad review on every website in the universe” – I held out hope that she would have such a great wedding day that she would completely forget about the ineptitude of the florist (I say this tongue-in-cheek).
True to her word, the displeased client posted negative reviews on numerous websites including Yelp. If you want to read her review (and other negative reviews) you need only search for Michael’s Flower Girl and you will be presented with a disturbing scene of complaints and rants. We really do strive to do the best work possible for every client but we are human, and mistakes happen. However, no mistake has ever been so egregious so as to have warranted a 1 star review (a matter of opinion, of course). Anyway, I wanted to respond to this particular negative review because it was unfair, untrue and unequivocally non-representative of the way we serve our clients. A bit of research (specifically a google search for “how to respond to a negative Yelp review”) brought me to the page where Yelp itself is reviewed! A fascinating land of single (and negative – if only it were possible) star reviews of the company itself and it’s unfair (to businesses) practices.
Here is what I learned…
- Yelp “filters” all the reviews.
- Positive reviews are filtered (i.e. positive must mean contrived) so just a FEW appear on the page
- Negative reviews ALL appear on your page
- Yelp sells advertising.
- Purchasing advertising from Yelp may (but not guaranteed) result in positive reviews appearing on your page
A negative review is bad. But the fact that all the positive things that have been said about you won’t appear to counteract the negative Nellies makes it even worse!
Be a responsible Yelper and take the extra effort to click the “filtered” button at the bottom of the page.
In the case of my business (and many other’s, I am sure) the filtered reviews are all 5 stars and worth looking at when making your decision on which vendor to choose.
