Yelp Letting Business Owners Respond to Reviews
This is a big change for user-generated review site Yelp, which previously refused to give businesses significant access to its pages. Starting next week, business owners can have more of a voice on the site. [New York Times]
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2 Comments:
As a very active yelper in my hometown I have mixed feelings about this. While I think it would be nice to hear a business owner's side of a negative experience I also worry that people who legitimately had a bad experience will be less likely to share for fear of being publicly blasted or retaliated against by an angry management member. Furthermore I worry that unscrupleous owners may instead of addressing a customer's concerns simply call them a liar or say the incident never happened. I worry that this change is going to put more power in the businesses hands and in effect censor some real opinions. This makes me sad, uncensored, true opinions are what makes Yelp a great resource.
Also the yelp community seems to police itself. I've noticed if there's a "trollish" posting on an establishment, the community seems to rally and post to counterbalance those types of people. Reviewers that only have 1 review either negative or positve tend to be written off by most users of the site.
Martini Me at 3:41PM on 04/10/09
As with any public conversation that happens over the internet, the trolls and the angry and the just plain stupid are bound to get invloved. But I think this was a good move on Yelp's part. As a cook, I've seen enough reviews of places I've worked that were worthy of a response from the restaurant. And the business owners are the ones who are going to be choosing their words carefully rather than the reviewers. The reviewers have nothing to lose, while the restaurauters have an obligation to be professional and businesslike; their reputation relies on it. To flame and curse some yelper would hurt more than it would help.
sailordave at 8:07PM on 04/10/09