Business owners are constantly bombarded with marketing messages from companies in our industry:
“#1 Google Rankings Guaranteed!”
“5000 Facebook Followers in a Week!”
“Get Rid of Negative Reviews!”
Yelp released a PSA to their business owners warning of reputation management companies who claim to work with Yelp to perform services such as removing negative reviews, boost ratings, etc. We get these same SPAM emails, and we also get phone calls from people claiming to be with Google. Not because they really think we need their help, but because they are blanketing the world with their scams in hopes to find those consumers still looking for the magic pill to solve all their marketing pains. Think about your marketing solutions like this: Remember those burn-fat-at-nite pills didn’t work for you, but exercise and a smart diet did? Your marketing solutions are going to present themselves in the exact same way. Fads will waste your time and money, but dedication and strategic planning will begin to solve your daily business challenges.
The content of the Yelp PSA is below for your reading enjoyment:
Important Public Service Announcement
Darnell Holloway, Business Outreach
We’ve recently seen several new reports about “reputation management” companies that claim to work with Yelp to remove your negative reviews, recommend certain reviews, or otherwise boost your ratings for a fee (of course!). If you’re wondering how these companies can make good on this offer, the answer is simple: they can’t. Consumer trust is our top concern, so businesses can’t pay Yelp or any third party to alter or remove their reviews. It’s also worth noting that brazen attempts to manipulate ratings and reviews on Yelp could result in a Consumer Alert being placed on your business profile.
If you’ve been contacted by someone offering something along these lines, we’d love to get the details so we can prevent them from preying on others. Please use this form to loop us in. For general questions, contact our user support team at www.yelp.com/contact.
Finally, as we’ve said in the past, the best strategy for reputation management is to provide great customer service and respond diplomatically to your reviewers.