Maybe you’ve found yourself with a huge number of negative reviews on Yelp. Some people might be tempted to simply purchase some good reviews for their site. Or possibly even write some good ones themselves. This won’t work, trust us. Read on for how to actually get good reviews.
This is your Future
If you are only getting bad reviews, then there is probably some truth to what people are saying. Remember that not all bad reviews are malicious – some are just pointing out that the coffee was cold.
This is a fixable problem. Check your coffee machine, move it closer to the seating areas, put fewer obstacle between the attendants and their destination. The bad reviews will likely stop.
Take what people are saying on board. It is a very easy way of improving your reviews on Yelp. And people will thank you giving them hot coffee too.
Take Stock
Sometimes things do go wrong. Doors stick, tills break. Sites go down, pages freeze. Everybody has to deal with these from time to time. If they are happening often enough that people are leaving reviews, you might want to check what is wrong.
Yes, there will be the odd bad review for almost everything, but take a look. If there are bad reviews for specific things, then you might want to take a closer look. You might have to get your door rehung. You might have to use online reputation management software to show you the best way of coding your site. But if it brings you improved reviews, that can only be a good thing.
Even if things don’t improve right away, people will notice that you are making an effort.
Communicate
Get in touch with the people who use your business. This includes people who don’t leave reviews – good or bad – as well as those who do. Communication will help you to understand any problems that are cropping up in your business, and again, simply the act may be enough to help improve your reviews on Yelp. People like to be involved. They like to feel listened to. Acknowledge what they have to say, and get to work.
Bring Yourself Up to Date
It’s the twenty first century! Bring yourself up to date by getting some of the online innovations we now have access to.
- Social media – give people a way to get in touch with you, and a way to talk to each other. Build a sense of community
- Optimised sites – remember that most people now use smaller devices on a daily basis. Websites that are made for computers don’t translate to them very well. Optimise your site so that it automatically appears in the best format for the device your customers are using. They will love it – it becomes so much easier to navigate.
- Testimonials – admittedly this can be a tricky one when you want to improve your reviews. If you add a review site widget, then you might find yourself getting better reviews. People like things that are easy, and providing them with a one-clock way to a site makes things easy. Plus you can easily add a few positive reviews to your own site, as a way of showing people what your site is like. This can put people in a more amenable frame of mind when they arrive.
