A Little About Yelp
Founded in 2004, Yelp is the world’s largest crowd-sourced business review platform. It allows customers of various businesses to rate the service they got when they visited or patronized. In the rating system, the least satisfactory business gets a one star while most satisfactory are rated five stars. As someone that isn’t familiar with customer reviews, one might dismiss the ratings but businesses know better.
Traditionally, only business owners had access to reviews left by a customer. Yelp reviews are visible to the public and therefore have a significant impact on businesses. A 2011 study revealed that a one-star change in rating had an almost 10% impact on a business’s sales. It has also been found that a change from 3.5-star rating to four-star rating can boost a business’s sales by about 19%.
In light of this information, business owners are taking Yelp reviews very seriously. In many instances, businesses owners have taken time to make it up to customers that have given them a negative review. Yelp is more than just a business review platform; It is a referral system and it is also pushing businesses to improve their service delivery.
Yelp and Businesses
For the first four years, businesses didn’t have an avenue via which to respond to the customers. This changed in 2008 when the company was allowed to reply to the reviewers either in public or through private messages. Business can also claim (create) free Yelp profiles that they can use to communicate details about their businesses such as business hours and deals. This further improves the interaction between businesses and their customers.
Businesses can also place their adverts on Yelp. In fact, this has grown to be Yelp’s main source of revenue. As of 2016, the revenue from advertisements was on a stable increase rate of 30% per year. Business that have taken advantage of the platform to advertise their businesses have are already reaping the benefits. On average, businesses have reported a $23,000 increase in revenue after starting to advertise on Yelp.
Learning from reviews and emerging trends
Upon realizing the impact that reviews have on business sales, Yelp created a service and which they train businesses on how to respond to the customers. With reports that some businesses were harassing reviewers, the inception of such a service was long overdue.
Over their short history, Yelp has proved that it is very possible for a company to use the reinvent itself to cater to their customer base.
For instance, the founders’ original idea was to create an email based referral service. However, after running it for a short while, it became apparent that people were not enthusiastic about it. Instead, they were more than willing to unsolicited reviews. In essence, you can say the real Yelp concept was put into action following feedback.
The company has also embraced the smartphone wave to increase its customer base through the Yelp app. Today, almost half of the Yelp website visits are from mobile phones. The feature has also been useful for tourists and people on the move.
A gadget-intensive workplace
Being a technology-based company, almost all of Yelp’s daily operations involve the use of gadgets. Gadgets such as iPads require to be held firmly when in use and this can impede the user’s efficiency. When handheld, the device is also at a higher risk of falling and getting damaged. At Tryten, we have designed stands to secure the device to keep your hands free for other operations. It’s just how we roll.
Recently, Tryten sold iPad Flip Stands to Yelp that we believe is ideal for their operations. We look forward to delivering them with more accessories to facilitate their operations.
