How Yelp Reviews Can Make or Break Your Business

The other day, my co-workers and I had an unfortunate dining experience during lunch. Despite the restaurant’s 2 1/2 star rating on Yelp, it was a place that we had previously gone to with above average happy hour, so we wanted to try their lunch.

All sloppily put-together décor aside, we all unanimously agreed that it was an overall unfortunate food experience. One co-worker had rubbery shrimp, another had overcooked steak, and I had a crabcake that seemed to taste less like fish and more like breadcrumbs. Overall, we were left feeling full yet disappointed. A co-worker ended up writing a review on Yelp that wasn’t sure to help its already meager rating.

How Yelp Works

Yelp is a website for users to find and rate businesses. It provides information on various businesses based on accommodations, specialties, and user reviews. For users, Yelp allows for stating a true opinion, no matter how glowing or scathing.

It seems like nowadays, even the written word travels fast. Individuals look to Yelp for reviews, and in turn, businesses rely on Yelp for feedback and ratings. Since the customer is almost always right, multiple posts from unsatisfied individuals can severely hurt the business, especially if the posts have consistently negative comments.

With this particular restaurant, we put up a review on Yelp to show our particular dissatisfaction to the owners and to warn others of our experiences.

What Businesses Can Do

User reviews are something that should be taken extremely seriously in order for businesses to secure relationships with current customers and bring in new customers. Since improving ratings, means targeting the problem area itself, businesses can start by paying attention to their customers. By taking these comments in mind, businesses will know what aspect needs fixing or what they should continue doing.

I hope that the restaurant we reviewed will fix the way they prepare their food, so that customers leave satisfying reviews.