Slow clap, my friend. I tip my hat to you.
But if you’re like the majority of Yelp restaurants, you probably either don’t have an outstanding number of reviews or an exceptionally high overall rating.
This part is important – you’re in more trouble than you think.
Yelp Restaurants Need An Over 4-Star Rating
Think your restaurant is sitting pretty on a 4-star rating? Well, it’s not… compare this rating with some those of your competitors or other restaurants in your surrounding area. Many restaurants have excellent overall ratings because they invest in online reputation management. Their investment involves a strong campaign to direct happy customers towards posting their high-quality, authentic reviews onto Yelp to help increase their rating.
It doesn’t matter if your restaurant looks good on Yelp if the restaurant next door looks GREAT – you’ll lose the majority of your online business, no questions asked.
Your First 10 Yelp Reviews Are Extraordinarily Important
Yelp restaurants must invest time, efforts, and money to make sure the first 10 reviews you receive are positive and quality. If you get 10 5-star ratings, you’re insulated from negative reviews – if someone leaves a 1-star review, your rating will fall to 4.6. Just brush yourself off – you’re still in good shape!
If your first 10 reviews are half 5-star and half 1-star, your restaurant will be left with a rating of 2.5. Compare this with most of your competitors or local restaurant, and you’ll realize quickly that you’re destined to lose.
The lesson here is to be proactive instead of reactive. Online Rep Management can give you a legitimate leg up on your competition and can help you manage your online reviews.
Volume Is Your Key To Fighting Yelp
It’s the huge Pink Elephant in the room. Okay, I’m just going to say it – Yelp sucks for small business owners. They filter out many authentic reviews, won’t take down false reviews, and will low ball you for cash if you want anything removed! Time to get scrappy.
The key here is not to fight the system, but to go with the flow. Institute a process by which you’re constantly vetting customers, selecting the most satisfied ones, and getting them all to post their comments on Yelp. Yes – some will get filtered (did I mention that Yelp sucks?).
If you get If even 10 reviews stick after you get 100 people to post, that’s a solid win for you. Playing the numbers game is the only way to win against Yelp, but you’ll be at a disadvantage if all your competitors have invested in a strong process to send their most satisfied customers to Yelp.
Hope this helps. Become a strong Yelp restaurant, win more customers, and increase your revenue!
