communication

In mid-May, I attended the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s University summit in Miami Beach, FL. It was an amazing time, where I took many notes on various presentations, and learned quite a bit. In an effort to make sure I can better retain the knowledge while sharing it, I’ll be doing a series of posts on the various sessions for everyone’s benefit. Note however that these posts will be written as a mix of notes and personal opinion for time management reasons. If you have a question or comment, please call me or (obviously) leave a comment.

Yelp is a social review engine with 21 million unique monthly visitors and over 6 million reviews, of which 31% are for restaurants, and 23% for shopping. There’s a 6:1 ratio of positive reviews. Business owners get free accounts, and Yelp makes money from local search ads. National retailers should care about reviews - people are checking and giving them. We all have a love/hate relationship with reviews though, whether it be for a brand we own or have an opinion about.

Geoff recalls a carpet cleaning small business owner who he’d met who said that control in the hands of customers is terrifying (branding/reputation). Just in case he accidentally cut off somebody in traffic, he removed all the logos from his vans since he didn’t want to get a negative review. In the past, he’d spent $50-100k on Yellow Pages advertising, but now spends $0. The Yelp effect on his business was that (in terms of dollars) = increased customer service, lower marketing, and increased sales.

Nothing sells better than word of mouth, but it requires thick skin. Customer-provided stories about products and services work far better for sales than advertising. Businesses doing well on Yelp, and notice it, are putting more time and effort into customer service and promoting WOM.

Yelp started their first national ad partnership with Starwood hotels. Interesting backstory though: Scottsdale, AZ hotel had a nightclub. An angry turned-away clubgoer left a bad review of the club. Starwood contacted Yelp and wanted the review removed. What to do? The ad partnership was already signed and Starwood wasn’t very happy. The review wasn’t blasphemous and Yelp thought it’d be unfair to simply remove it. Starwood hesitantly went along. To increase the average rating, you’d have to try and get more people to experience the brand and leave their opinions. Since people use Yelp for finding dining & entertainment experiences, an advertising opportunity presented a good option for further brand exposure, and people who attended via Yelp would have a higher propensity to leave a review.

The temptation to spam is strong. A simple but gray example is of a gentleman who maneuvered the system: some good older reviews went missing due to spam filters, owner wanted them back up, so he set up fake accounts to put that person’s name and original comment back on the site.

Manufactured reputation usually backfires. The crowd knows better and may conduct vigilante justice by posting things like, “BUYER BEWARE: Don’t trust these reviews.”

Negative word of mouth can be good for business though. Geoff recalls an incident where someone left a comment about a coffee shop, “WAY too serious about coffee”, and left a one star review (that person preferred an average non-memorable experience). However, the coffee shop owner proudly took that review and branded it on shirts, mugs, and other identity touchpoints.

It’s worth engaging your vocal customers…gently. According to a small wine retailer, “The customer is the most valuable person”, and had used Yelp to respond to reviews and address customer service issues. Negative reviews turned positive, and those individuals became fans.

Geoff’s parting thoughts: 1) Genie is out of the bottle 2) Better off joining the conversation than not 3) Choose ambassadors carefully

Question: Ethics of promoting reviews?
Answer: Financial incentives (coupons/other) are frowned upon - in other words tying social norms into market norms. Instead, be subtle; consider multi-channel linking (online, creative offline) to the brand’s Yelp page. Directly asking for a review is a bit awkward.

Question: What about having ambassadors for national retailers? How could that work?
Answer: Local people to the retail location are the answer. Ambassadors could be store employees who look after Yelp reviews as a small part of their job. On the other hand, people attuned to social media listening at corporate can work with designated store personnel on customer service and engagement.

Podcast Interview with Geoff Donaker, COO of Yelp - 20min

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