Powills: Rewrite your wrongs when dealing with Yelp

You see, Cerretini tried playing friendly with the review giant. In fact, he spent $270 on advertising, only to see his reviews turn negative and a top review get removed once he stopped paying the ad fees. Unfortunately, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Yelp is completely within its rights to do that. Yelp is a pain for most business owners, and this is why: It’s the mean girl of social media. As much as we want to fight it, we are desperate to love it. This love-hate relationship makes it very challenging to find success. However, creativity can go far. Fighting for the worst rating was “the best business move I made in years,” Cerretini told the San Francisco Chronicle (http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2014/09/17/richmond-restaurant-owner-encourages-bad-yelp-reviews/). Are you just fighting for perfect reviews? Are you listening to your customers? Don’t cry about it — get even. I once saw a restaurant that took bad reviews, printed them on shirts, and wore them in the restaurant as uniforms so that it wouldn’t happen again. Yelp is not just a bully site, it is a listening site. You don’t own Yelp. But, Yelp doesn’t own you. When social media burst onto the scene for businesses, tons of independent and chain brands invested tons of resources into the giants. Great, but you don’t own any of the technologies. When Facebook decided to start charging you to reach your audience, they did it because, well, they can. When Yelp decided to bully you into paying more for advertising to gain access to your reviews, many of you listened. But why? They are not interested in a long-term relationship. I still would love to see Yelp evolve into more of a Facebook-control mentality, allowing the business owner to reply. Perhaps they could still protect the end user with a satisfaction score on the response. Yelp really fights for the small guy — but it doesn’t realize that you are a small guy, too. Even as a part of a larger group or franchise, you are a small-business owner doing your best (in most cases). Reviews hurt. It is bullying. And, people would rather use review sites for revenge than for sharing good news. Although most people understand that, they often forget it when looking at reviews. Be creative in the way you approach it. What about a Yelp response board on your Web site, showcasing that you care about the customer’s feelings? What about the T-shirt idea? What about pushing for really crappy ratings? Be creative. It will help you sleep at night.