Just ten years after its founding, Yelp is a vital vehicle for businesses to reach out to a wide customer base. It is an online community of locals and travelers who review businesses all across the board.
Arianne Bennett owns Amsterdam Falafelshop in Washington, D.C. She said Yelp has helped bring in a stream of customers.
“We get a lot of people coming in who are telling us that they’re finding us on Yelp,” Bennett said. “We have been rated one of the highest in D.C., and people are looking for a great place to go and everybody seems to use Yelp.”
Bennett said she sees a 20-30 percent increase in yearly revenue even with a few negative reviews posted from time to time.
Both locals and visitors from out of town said they like using Yelp.
“I’ve had a really good experience,” Shawn Rosenblatt, a traveling musician, said. “I’ve been to all 50 states. It’s been nice to have the ability to look up where to eat. I found this place because of Yelp.”
While business owners such as Bennett embrace Yelp, others complain the site allows people to post fake and unfair reviews. Still experts say it’s critical for businesses to be active on social media platforms.
“There [has] been research showing that every star, point that you can get on Yelp, you can increase your revenue as much as 9 percent,” Donna Hoffman, professor of marketing at George Washington University, said. “There’s a significant bottom line impact by having positive reviews on Yelp.”
Hoffman added that businesses could respond to negative reviews by directly reaching out to its critics.
“There are some huge opportunities to get customers’ feedback, market research if you will, in a very efficient manner because they are the wisdom of the crowd and the crowd begins to speak,” Hoffman said.
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