Yelp has been in a world of trouble lately. Several small businesses have filed lawsuits against them claiming that Yelp has unfair business practices – namely, soliciting paid accounts for favorable reviews and removing favorable reviews when a business declines. True or not, these allegations have tarnished the reputation of Yelp, whose entire business is built on the trustworthiness of its review system. They could have continued to play the PR war, but instead they decided to use the negative feedback to improve their business.
Yelp uses a filtering system for reviews to remove ones it deems untrustworthy – providing consumers with a better review system (hopefully). The problem is these reviews were removed entirely from view, so neither consumers or businesses knew why or what they said. The transparency in the system was lacking and caused a lack of trust. Yelp took the concerns to heart and is making major changes to it’s system:
Specifically, we’re adding the ability to see reviews filtered by our review filterand we’re discontinuing the “Favorite Review” feature that’s part of our advertising package. – We’re Increasing Transparency and Eliminating ‘Favorite Review’ (Yelp)
Another major change is removing the ability for businesses to choose a review as a “favorite review” which shows up at the top of their listing. This also makes sense for a business built on trust and reputation. Yelp’s also forming a small business advisory council so they can continue to get input from their business customers.
It may have taken them awhile to respond, but I believe Yelp did the right thing. These changes actually improve the trustworthiness of their system and also address the concerns of the small businesses they rely on for advertising revenue. They could have just ignored the lawsuits and allegations and played a PR war. Instead, they listening to their customers and used the feedback to improve their business for everyone.
What do you think? Did Yelp do the right thing? Do their changes improve their business?
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