There are two complaints we regularly hear from restaurant owners about Yelp: 1) most Yelpers have no idea what they're talking about, therefore 2) the critiques are often ridiculously unfair, and if they get their say why don't we have ours. Well, folks, seems someone at Yelp is actually listening. Today they launched "About This Business," described in the press release as "a free feature that allows small business owners to describe their business to prospective customers in their own words." In Citysearch-esque fashion, business owners can create an account and supply info (who we are, what we do, why we rock) which will then show up on a separate tabbed page on their Yelp profile. See, Danny Coyle's in San Francisco likes it.
While we expect no more than your basic ad copy in a not-so-easy-to-find spot, it's a tool that Yelp hopes will lead to a "positive Yelp experience" for the consumer, something to counteract all those negative Nancy's ripping your place apart (sort of like the just released Snapshot feature). It's a move in the right direction---better experience for the consumer, better experience for the business owner. But you're still SOL if someone trashes your restaurant and it's stuck at the top of the reviews---unless you pay to have something more positive replace it.
· Yelp Releases Snapshot Feature, Entertainment Ensues [~ELA~]
· Yelp Exposed [~ELA~]For more stories from Eater LA, go to la.eater.com.