‘No Yelpers’ Says One Local Cafe
I was taking a break from the screenwerk yesterday and having coffee with a friend in the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood of Oakland. We were at a place I’ve been to before called Café Rooz.
I noticed the sticker below (”No Yelpers”) on a computer behind the counter at the café and so I asked about it. The story I heard was an interesting illustration of the challenges and potential issues caused by user-generated content and pervasive ratings and reviews of local businesses.
What I was told, in a nutshell, is that the café staff has encountered a stream of would-be critics “with attitude,” predisposed to take issue with or be critical of the business. Whether or not this is a correct perception, there are many more outlets (Yelp being only one) for customers and consumers to voice opinions about businesses on the Internet. And there’s little most of these businesses can do about it, for better or for worse.
The staff said to me rhetorically, “If you’ve got a problem with something, you should tell us first rather than going online and posting.” They also expressed the view that amateur reviewers, in this case from Yelp, were not making distinctions between local coffee houses and large corporate outlets like Starbucks. They were, the cafe staff argued, being “snarky” for entertainment reasons or to impress the Yelp community but not being respectful or mindful of the potential impact their reviews might have on a small businesses.
(One could argue “the truth will out” in the aggregate body of reviews.)
To combat some of the negative discussion about the café that was appearing the staff encouraged loyal customers to go online and write positive reviews. You can find the discussion, especially of the sticker, here (scroll or search for “no yelpers”).
On balance it appears the controversy has helped rather than harmed business, although there was no plan for that to happen — there was even an apparently aborted Wall Street Journal article about the controversy. Here are a few verbatim excerpts from the Yelp discussion:
The “no yelping” aspect of this has my panties in a bunch.
How DARE you ban my opinion??
And for this, I shall not return.
EVER.
Not the best business plan in the world buddy.
Another user:
Dyed hair, dirty, gothic type staff. Very rude. This business will collapse into an utter pile of vile soon enough due to the Cafe Nazi.
Was in SF on business, will never step foot in here again.
Oh and the place has more “rules” than an elementary school.EDITED 8-17-07 (I edited the cursing, not him)
Response from the Stan, who I assume to be Steve/Cafe Nazi’s lover:who gives a F%%K what some red neck from Texas thinks about this shop in Oakland!
Everyone in oakland probably comes across as a goth to someone from Texas…
Lame ass hick…..Hmm, I’m a hick? You have 457,000 people in Oakland. My metroplex in Houston has 5 million +. You exude class, it simply drips from you. I like your flippant use of the word F**K in your emails to customers. Class..you got it in spades.
Another user:
I feel like such a renegade yelping this place.
“NO YELPERS!”
Oh man, yelping a place with THAT sign while sitting at one of its lovely tables “planning” my school year? I’m so bad ass. Watch out now.
Rooz is a great cafe on Piedmont near Pleasant Valley Road. Perfect for people-watching if you can snag a table by the windows. If you’re turned off by the hoards of people at Gaylord’s or are sick of the creepers hitting on you at Starbucks, I suggest giving this place a try.
Another (partial post):
I know people have complained about the service here. Not sure what to say about that. Should one bad experience with an employee change your entire opinion of a place? Here’s my experience-she says hello. I say hello. I ask her a question about what’s on the veggie bagel. She answers my question. She makes my bagel and latte. She says thank you. Gives me a little smile. Fine. It’s not like I’m at Delmonico’s Steakhouse where I expect them to actually lick my ass before I leave the restaurant.
And I did look for the infamous NO YELPERS sticker. It’s small, behind the counter. Owner guy is taking somewhat of a risk having that up and I admire a man who takes risks. I also think it’s hilarious that he wrote someone back explaining why he got treated like shit when most owners would either contact you and totally apologize or ignore you. I’m a firm believer that the customer is not always right-I have huge respect for people who support their employees.
It goes on and on.
The debate within the reviews has equally become about the cafe’s attitude toward “Yelpers” as much as it is about the food or the service. If you read carefully through the discussion you get a sense of the darker side of the user-generated content phenomenon and the problems it poses for small businesses. (See the similar discussion of the Community Generated Local Search panel debate at SMX Local-Mobile.)
The Rooz café staff felt that many of the comments were personal and unfair. They also complained that they had no official way to respond to these reviews (they could have become a member of the community and responded accordingly.) They cited Citysearch as an example of a site that did provide business owners with recourse.
There will have to be a set of best practices that emerges around allowing businesses to react or respond to unfair reviews. The cafe staff said that the owner did attempt to contact some of the people writing the negative reviews.
I’ll say this, however:
- Online reviews are here to stay
- Yelp provides a valuable service
Yet there are elements of some of these reviews that reflect a cavalier and one might argue irresponsible attitude on the part of the writers. I tell this story not to be critical of Yelp or the phenomenon of online reviews, which I’m an advocate of, but to illustrate some of the challenges for everyone that accompany it and the need for some mechanism by which local businesses can respond to or address what may be unfair reviews.
That said, recent research with Opus showed SMBs were largely positive about online ratings and reviews and embracing the phenomenon.
October 16, 2007 at 8:59 pm
For the very first time, and before I read this article, I read emails from Yelp and Yahoo local. Both of course referenced me into their sites and the volume of content for my local region (washington dc area). Clearly the reviews were the most compelling aspects of the sites.
That sign is hilarious. It is an invitation to post a review. If businesses are that sensitive to the impact of reviews the natural response from management should be to improve and enhance service.
Quite humerous.
October 16, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Wow! Greg, do you think this is evidence of a sort of backlash? Granted it might be an extreme example, but perhaps we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg here. Part of me thinks that the whole ‘review thing’, while here to stay, still needs to mature.
October 16, 2007 at 11:09 pm
[...] Greg Sterling is a local SEO with a lot of knowledge, an ability to write heaps of quality content and some good stories on local search to boot. [...]
October 17, 2007 at 3:24 am
[...] Sterling at Screenwerk has an interesting post about a local café in his home town of Oakland called Rooz, which has posted signs saying [...]
October 17, 2007 at 6:08 am
Very good post Greg. It probably is an extreme example of what a lot of businesses are feeling about online reviews. Yelp can itself be seen to be a bit extreme due to the target market it serves which is probably why there were some very “interesting” comments about the cafe’s stance and probably why the cafe took that position in the first place.
Being able to respond to reviews is one thing businesses seriously want. We’re currently working on that now for the http://www.bizwiki.co.uk full launch. I am a firm believer in allowing customers to have their say but I also think it’s only fair to allow the business the opportunity to reply.
I also think that sometimes reviewers can tend to get a bit “outrageous” with their comments, trying to either vent their anger or maybe even drum up a bit of popularity for themselves rather than actually presenting a well written review for the sake of sharing their experience in the hopes of informing another would be customer. I think it’s down to each site to come up with innovative ways to encourage their users to write constructive and helpful reviews.
October 17, 2007 at 2:38 pm
The problem is not the web/media, its poisonous personas. I wish it were just tech.
Here’s a phrase that might describe this “negative meme” poison that shallow small minded people find so entertaining; for the oment let’s call it “bully mouth”.
Bully mouth is what happens when your standing at your locker in 7th grade wearing a stupid shirt you Mother insisted your wear and you get called out by the bully mouth creating a meme that sticks to you all through High School. Bully Mouth is the rich little fashion puppet that with her other mindless trend whores targets an overweight book worm who’s labeled a sexless loser. Bully mouths create Columbine; their victims go insane.
On the web there is both the wisdom of the crowd and the madness of the mob. The problem is the self righteous bully mouth who thinks hate speech and toxic sarcasm is something they invented and have a right to spew. If it were just speech the range is relatively contained but on the web Bully Mouths have a global range. Although being a bully mouth used to be the actions of a 15-22 year old, now because of its pop culture amplification i.e; gangsta rap and Hollywood star drunks, Bully Mouth afflicts people into the late 20s. It would be sad and pathetic if it weren’t so pervasive and perverse and intuitive on the web. Too bad people in their late teens and early twenties don’t have more insight to the real personal and intellectual power they have. They can lead us all to a better now.
Memes are a powerful virus on the web and are part of the ecosystem. But bully mouths , which always been part of the online landscape, need to be called out and intimidated for their worthless and destructive bullshit. Better yet they need to get validated as real people, get a good life and heal their torturous cultural wounds.
The web has a mild case of turrets that needs a non-tech remedy. Sure Rooz is going a little insane, someone needs to out the buzzkill and let Rooz be what it is.
October 17, 2007 at 3:26 pm
[...] Creates ‘Positive’ Culture Andrew Goodman cites my No Yelpers post and discusses the issues it raises, pointing to Tornoto’s OurFaves as an example of a kind of [...]
October 17, 2007 at 4:45 pm
[...] Greg speaks about an experience he had the Cafe Rooz where a sign said that Yelp’ers are not welcome. After speaking with cafe management, he noted, "What I was told, in a nutshell, is that the café staff has encountered a stream of would-be critics “with attitude,” predisposed to take issue with or be critical of the business. Whether or not this is a correct perception, there are many more outlets (Yelp being only one) for customers and consumers to voice opinions about businesses on the Internet. And there’s little most of these businesses can do about it, for better or for worse." [...]
October 17, 2007 at 4:52 pm
In most instances, reviewers are going to write negative comments, people rarely write positive comments; that’s just human nature. Morever, some of Yelpers are actually paid to write reviews. There’re many sites out there such as herfablife.com, metro mix etc that actually provide more neutral reviews.
October 17, 2007 at 5:13 pm
[...] Greg speaks about an experience he had the Cafe Rooz where a sign said that Yelp’ers are not welcome. After speaking with cafe management, he noted, "What I was told, in a nutshell, is that the café staff has encountered a stream of would-be critics “with attitude,” predisposed to take issue with or be critical of the business. Whether or not this is a correct perception, there are many more outlets (Yelp being only one) for customers and consumers to voice opinions about businesses on the Internet. And there’s little most of these businesses can do about it, for better or for worse." [...]
October 17, 2007 at 5:28 pm
[...] By the way, here’s an example of a local café trying to control their brand in an internet age and having the opposite of their intended effect. var [...]
October 17, 2007 at 6:03 pm
[...] Greg speaks about an experience he had the Cafe Rooz where a sign said that Yelp’ers are not welcome. After speaking with cafe management, he noted, "What I was told, in a nutshell, is that the café staff has encountered a stream of would-be critics “with attitude,” predisposed to take issue with or be critical of the business. Whether or not this is a correct perception, there are many more outlets (Yelp being only one) for customers and consumers to voice opinions about businesses on the Internet. And there’s little most of these businesses can do about it, for better or for worse." [...]
October 17, 2007 at 6:14 pm
It’s a fascinating story, Greg, and you’ve identified something that may indeed become not only a problem for local businesses, but also for Yelp. I have used Yelp successfully to help me find local businesses, and I like it. I’ve also posted a couple of reviews.
Bad reviews are as helpful as good ones; if a company has mixed reviews, I look at whether factors important to me have been criticized.
What would not be helpful to me as a user would be if every set of “reviews” was full of the interpersonal, message-board type ranting and back-and-forth in the Rooz reviews.
Every internet mailing list or forum seems to eventually degrade into such aimless animosity, as the most vocal and opinionated people drive everyone else out. If people flock to Yelp, this bored-at-work syndrome may replace serious reviews with drivel and Yelp will cease to be useful.
One thing that might help would be moderating the reviews. A live human editor might delete reviews that don’t meet guidelines, such as, “address the business, not other posters.” Of course, that would eliminate Yelp’s business model of making a pittance while spending no money on content.
October 17, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Having a sign that says “No Yelpers” seems like a great way to promote the Yelp.com AND to ensure tons of bad reviews for the cafe at the same time!!!
Quite a marketing strategy……
October 17, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Susan, you’re right that negative reviews are often more valuable than positive ones.
October 17, 2007 at 7:55 pm
In this case I think many people will now stop at ROOZ when they are in Oakland. It’s getting to be like the Soup Nazi in Sienfeld. I think if they are innocent they did the right thing taking a stand. Best of luck to whoever is telling the truth.
October 17, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Is this really any different from many book, movie, restaurant and music reviews in the mainstream media? MSM reviews usually hide their bile in a veneer of analysis, but a witty put-down is more fun to read than a bland analysis.
October 17, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Dude. It was a @#()!@* JOKE. That is some guy’s Sticker Nation sticker.
October 17, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Haha.. You would think somebody at this company would have known that this would be a big hit on wordpress!… what ignorance.. maybe i should add something like this to my blog about things that piss me off.
October 17, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Here’s the thing. Sure, people are generally more likely to complain about something negative than praise the positive. This rule is seen less and less on Yelp in the Bay Area these days - you’d better believe that stories like these are big “news” on Yelp and most people are aware of situations like these. Also, because Yelp has such an active user base in the Bay Area, people tend to write reviews for the positive things as well - I don’t think that reviews on Yelp are skewed towards complaints. Do some research.
October 17, 2007 at 10:24 pm
[...] ‘No Yelpers’ Says One Local Cafe « Screenwerk (tags: yelp ugc reviews) October 17th 2007 Posted to Links [...]
October 17, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Running an online restaurant site with reader generated reviews, I know that ‘online complaints’ can be a SERIOUS issue for restaurant owners. A complaint with foundation should be brought forward to the restaurant owner FIRST, so it can be addressed. But what is seen more often is that reviewers brow-beat a restaurant’s reputation without accountability or repercussions. Additionally, the restaurant owner’s competitors are pretty savvy guys, and you can bet some of those complaints come from them.
MenuNetwork.com not only has reviews, but a place to find just about anything on restaurants – services, coupons, ratings, reviews, menus, even live events. Online ordering of over 2000 restaurants– we love dining out and we love our reviewers! Yet, our customers are restaurants, so we had to really think about what type of reviews we want to encourage.
Grant it, we’re a new site, still gaining content with more than 660,000 listings across the US – but we want to have staying power in the market. So, we decided that only members can post reviews and we have a moderator that keeps to our commitment to our clients; the restaurants and people using out site.
MenuNetwork.com promises to provide Real Content: Usable, Relevant, Distinctive, Searchable, and Integrated so that diners searching for a great place to eat can find it on our site—without nasty, sometimes cowardly comments that aren’t reflective of any actual dining experience.
To meet that commitment we encourage authentic reviews – the kind we ALL like to read when searching out restaurants, but our site is not a gathering place for complainers. We want to provide an open forum that shares hot dining spots, experiences, and generates genuine content for people looking for great food and good times.
Don’t get me wrong, complaints are welcome as it keeps the restaurants on their toes, but it is not the focus of Menunetwork.com.
I agree that ‘Restaurant Reviews are here to stay,’ but I believe that Americans want to read reviews of substance so they can discover new restaurants and share good times with their friends and family.
October 17, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Basic manners are an endangered species. With every right comes responsibility. A criticism is much more effective when constructively presented.
October 18, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Oh, please. This is clearly just a bid for attention from a coffee place that is overshadowed by the other million coffee places on that five block stretch of Piedmont Ave. God forbid that customers fight back against bad service! Instead of whining, maybe they should pay their employees more so they actually have some sort of job satisfaction, and hence, better attitudes towards their customers.
October 18, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I agree with Kathleen above. Some comments are posted from competitors and businesses themsevles. There are fake reviews showing up in the “local search” services. Messages have been tracked to competitors, and fake good reviews have been tracked to businesses themselves. I can usually spot the fake positive reviews. I tend to look for a mixed review — after all I have never been someplace that was perfect.
October 18, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hurricane Shirley wrote:
“Basic manners are an endangered species. With every right comes responsibility. A criticism is much more effective when constructively presented.”
and boy to I agree with THAT statement! I admire a coffeeshop owner that doesnt collapse under pressure, but I also think online reviewing is an untamed beast. Saying anything you like in an offensive manner and hiding behind “free speech” is unhelpful. Also, lets be fair even some people with dyed hair and piercings have manners, and aren’t necessarily dirty, that kind of pigeonholing went out with the Ark, surely?
October 18, 2007 at 4:24 pm
[...] I’ve never had as much traffic to my blog or to a post as did yesterday, with ‘No Yelpers’ Says One Local Cafe. The post got over 3,000 views, which is larger than normal for [...]
October 18, 2007 at 4:37 pm
this is like a dork on the playground putting a “don’t kick me” sticker on their back.
as for the user-generated reviews…i like them. to me, living in L.A. and probably similar to Oakland, “blue hair” isn’t going to be enough to turn me away from anywhere. however, reading repeated comments about slow service or lackluster food is helpful to me.
thing is, living in L.A., there are so many foodies around me that i tend to go to places recommended by word of mouth, rather than word of internet. but i will use yelp.com often to learn more about the place, and get specific order recommendations.
i also wonder if the negative reviews actually correlated with less business. or if they were just paranoid by butthurt online trolls. i have seen many posts where biz owners come on and defend their establishment, and that is helpful as well.
GREAT POST!
October 18, 2007 at 4:42 pm
> If businesses are that sensitive to the impact
> of reviews the natural response from
> management should be to improve and
> enhance service.
You’re approaching this with the presumption that there was something wrong with the service in the first place, and the yelper wasn’t just someone wanting attention for themselves on some web space.
October 18, 2007 at 4:57 pm
You’d think a small shop would have enough to do with making decent espresso drinks, keeping fresh pastries in stock, etc., without spending half an hour a day scanning the Yelps of the world for random dissing.
You might even get an attitude if you see lots of people buying a $2.75 coffee, abusing the “2 hour max Wifi” sign (IIRC), and connecting people that you’ve had to shoo out to the appearance of crap on some website. It’s always struck me — I go there about 1x/month — how many people have a laptop and an empty coffee cup on their tables.
And be real: it’s a NEIGHBORHOOD CAFE where you spend a few minutes and $2.75, not a $60/head destination restaurant. Trying to make sense of a “review” that simply sez, “bad service” is an utter waste of time. Hard enough to make sense of the less anonymous Zagat or CitySearch sites when you have an evening and $$$ at stake. There must be a dozen cafes, S***bux and Peets on that little stretch of Piedmont Ave. There aren’t any except local businesses, and no hotels, so anybody who isn’t within range of the local buzz is extremely unlikely to check before they head into the area. They can look in the door and either drop in or go 3 doors up or 8 doors down the street.
Either the owner is displaying a bit of stressed-out behavior or has cleverly stumbled onto a publicity stunt to draw in non-locals to see the kerfuffle. This story is mostly about how much crap is out on the web.
October 18, 2007 at 11:44 pm
The issue at hand here is that there really are NO repercussions for users who choose to completely debase a business online. Unlike in the real world, where if you say some of the things said on yelp to a business owner or manager, one would be forcibly removed from the venue, and at the worst, a fight would likely break out. People are protected online and speak freely, perhaps overstretching the truth for the sake of entertainment.
One of the biggest problems I have with yelp is the voting feature for members to use. The options are: useful, funny, cool.
In an attempt to be voted best review, the funny button in particular seems to draw out a lot of venemous and angst-ridden posts from users, in an attempt to be witty, snarky, spiteful, etc. Sarcastic humor is usually wasted upon me; I much prefer anecdotes and stories based on experiences. Generally speaking, many users of yelp seem to respond well, if not better, to the disdainful “attitude” displayed in negative commentary and business-bashing.
October 19, 2007 at 8:29 am
Very interesting debate. I’ll have to check this place out just on principal and being a frequent yelp user.
October 19, 2007 at 5:13 pm
“Dyed hair, dirty, gothic type staff. Very rude. This business will collapse into an utter pile of vile soon enough due to the Cafe Nazi.
Was in SF on business, will never step foot in here again.
Oh and the place has more “rules” than an elementary school.”
I don’t have dyed hair, I’m not dirty, or gothic. But I gotta admit, when I read that, I thought, “Gee, maybe I should check this place out, it sounds fun.” Didn’t anyone else have that reaction.
October 20, 2007 at 4:38 am
[...] Cafe Bans Yelpers While some businesses love the attention they buy receive from Yelp, others are growing annoyed with the empire of would-be critics. Such is the case at Rooz Cafe in Oakland, [...]
October 20, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Greg:
Great post. User reviews of businesses may yet turn out to be far more of a minefield than yet imagined. At this point in time, most of America’s small businesses don’t really know how to do local search marketing. I think that’s still a given. Much less do they know about these reviews that can be written about them with the touch of a mouse. Look down the road a year or two. When user reviews become common knowledge in the small business community, I see two things happening:
1. The business owner asks his/her entire staff and extended family to each write a positive review of his/her business
2. Fewer, but still many, business owners ask his/her entire staff and extended family to each write a really bad review of the competition
I think it’s only a matter of time, and it may muddy the waters enough to make many user reviews worthless.
Just because technology facilitates something, such as anonymous reviews of commercial, competitive enterprises, does not mean it’s ultimately a useful idea. In this arena, human nature, and the desire to protect your own business, may yet outweigh other factors. I think the jury is still out on the true utility of these kinds of reviews.
October 21, 2007 at 2:54 pm
[...] need to keep an eye on what people Yelp about [...]
November 12, 2007 at 5:58 am
[...] of wil laten zien waar je mee weg kunt komen. Café Rooz is een onbeduidend café in Oakland (VS) dat bepaalde bezoekers (Yelpers) weerde omdat zij op Yelp allerlei negatieve kritieken gaven op de zaak. Uiteraard voedde dit de volgende [...]
November 14, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Isn’t this just a variation on the same old is-blogging-journalism argument? Yelp, like blogs, has blossomed because the “official” review outlets weren’t providing enough information or credible information or relevant insight. Yelp fulfills a real need. And while some reviewers may be snarky, the total reviews for any given business reveal a fair-and-balanced viewpoint based on multiple, variable customer interactions between a variety of employees and customers over an extended period of time.
November 15, 2007 at 11:18 am
[...] and user generated content. Worth a read. The subject of UCG and how to ensure quality is a hot topic for discussion. A corollary of the micro-elite principle is that one of the best ways to help a [...]
December 6, 2007 at 4:03 pm
[...] [photo by Greg Sterling] [...]
January 6, 2008 at 9:45 pm
[...] to find some credible sources about the previous Yelp scandal (see above), but in the process found this blog post about a coffee house in Oakland that had been getting some pretty bad reviews on Yelp. In [...]
February 27, 2008 at 10:57 pm
[...] to establish a “Yelp Day” in the city (there has also been a small but interesting Yelp backlash as there is with any social phenomenon). Expect more of this kind of marketing in new [...]
March 3, 2008 at 6:16 am
Yelp is pretty limited. It works if you are a single white male between 22-30 with lots of disposable income, otherwise the opinions are really worthless. All of the reviews of SF venues by bridge and tunnel can be crossed out, and the “Talk” section if proof positive why most of the USA laughs at SF culture/politics.
Yelp is a Bay Area phenomenon, and it does not translate outside of the Bay. Compare the NY and Sf boards for proof.
March 3, 2008 at 11:50 am
They claim to have 8.3 million uniques, which would mean it’s more than a Bay Area phenomenon.
March 10, 2008 at 7:53 pm
[...] Read more about this topic from the author here. [...]
March 31, 2008 at 3:23 pm
[...] ‘No Yelpers’ Says One Local Cafe « Screenwerk There’s no stopping it, might as well play along. There are always going to be people who have what you think are the wrong opinions, but at least you can respond these days, or, you know, provide a service that people are excited about… (tags: yelp nationalmechanics interweb) [...]
April 11, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Yelpers appear to be another manifestation of that unpleasant phenomenon so common among 20-somethings, and tp a lesser extent 30-somethings: the self-perception of being “special,” combined with an over-developed entitlement mindset. Sifting through countless reviews reveals less in the way of thoughtful evaluations of products, goods, and services, and far more in the way of ” I am young, hip, have money, and damn it PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!” This too shall pass.
April 24, 2008 at 9:17 pm
[...] disconnected from the others. Incidentally, this talk was also the first I’d heard of the “No Yelpers” signs. Kenton O’Hara (formerly with HP labs in Bristol) gave a fascinating insight into the [...]
April 29, 2008 at 4:00 am
[...] by the ratings site when a few vocal customers posted poor reviews. They went so far as to declare No Yelpers. But still others have benefited. According to Yelp, Joe Alexander’s San Francisco based [...]
April 29, 2008 at 3:07 pm
[...] カリフォルニア州オークランドのコーヒーショップ「Cafe Rooz」のような店は、不満を抱いた客にYelpでけなされたのに腹を立てて、「Yelpに投稿する客はお断り」を宣言している。しかし多くの地域ビジネスはYelpのおかげをこうむっている。elpによると、たとえば、サンフランシスコのJoe Alexanderのマットレス・ストア、「Keetsa」は月間の商売の80%が直接Yelpから来ているという。 [...]
May 2, 2008 at 9:01 pm
[...] ‘No Yelpers’ Says One Local Cafe Screenwerk Cool story about how an Oakland cafe attempted to fight Yelp reviewers after negative feedback impacted their business. A good example of the power of sites like Yelp. The staff said to me rhetorically, “If you’ve got a problem with something, you should tell us first rather than going online and posting.” … They were, the cafe staff argued, being “snarky” for entertainment reasons or to impress the Yelp community but not being respectful or mindful of the potential impact their reviews might have on a small businesses. [...]