Restaurants: Here's How Getting a Good Review on Yelp Is Done
PR blogger Jared Rivera unearths a restaurant in San Francisco that's essentially bribing customers with a 20 percent discount to write reviews of it on Yelp. Sure, it doesn't say a positive review, but as Gawker points out:
...But if you didn't enjoy your meal, a 20 percent discount on the next one isn't going to motivate you to do anything, including writing a Yelp review. Those who do write up a review will be inclined to add extra star-age, since they'll be presenting the review directly to restaurant staff. It all adds to an easy way for the restaurant—in this case, Mel's, an unremarkable 1950s style diner — to juice their online ratings.
Mel's Drive-In: 801 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94103
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11 Comments:
The Sofa Company offers a similar incentive - 20% off for a review on Yelp or City Search. There was no clause about it having to be a positive review, but I agree that you feel swayed to write a favorable one as you have to email it to the assoiate who assisted you.
juliebean at 2:11PM on 09/01/09
Neat. Never knew of PR blogs. This one is kinda interesting.
chinolam at 3:11PM on 09/01/09
By the same token, if you did enjoy your meal, and that 20% discount gives you the nudge required to go onto Yelp and write a positive review, what's wrong with that? There's nothing about this that is necessarily going to lead to fraudulently positive reviews, so I don't see an ethical problem here.
While most unhappy customers will take the trouble to give bad reviews, most happy customers don't. So your overall ratio of positive/negative feedback doesn't reflect the actual satisfaction of your customers.
Pants McCracky at 3:18PM on 09/01/09
Sadly Mel's is a pretty sub-standard chain. SF is crazy for yelp, huh?
JudgeFudge at 3:18PM on 09/01/09
Yelp is a fixed system anyway.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/yelp_and_the_business_of_extortion_2_0/Content?oid=927491
freakyhair at 3:41PM on 09/01/09
Reminds me of all the shill reviews that pollute Amazon. At least on YELP the shills tend to stand out as reviewers with a count under 5 total reviews.
This new EVIL undermines the whole YELP system.
All users who took bribes should be banned and their reviews pulled.
peekpoke at 3:45PM on 09/01/09
Wouldn't it help if they didn't have a spelling error?
It looks like it in the image
"want 20% off? go t to Yelp...."
Perhaps I'm illiterate or too anal about that stuff tho
hungrychristel at 5:51PM on 09/01/09
Hmm...the last time I ate at that particular Mel's Drive-In, I waited almost an hour for my food at lunch time, when there were probably about five other customers. Maybe there's a reason why they need enticements to bring people in...
toastykitten at 1:43AM on 09/02/09
I'm so sad. I love Yelp and writing reviews on Yelp. But now that I know they are allegedly corrupt, I don't know if I can continue with them.
:(
lollie at 12:25PM on 09/02/09
@lollie: HEY! "Lollie" used to be my nickname in High School......weird!
hungrychristel at 10:29AM on 09/03/09
Please... if someone didn't like the restaurant, are they seriously going to go back for a 20% discount? NO!
This incentive may bump up a review from 3 to a 4 stars at most - I think most reviewers are pretty judicious with their 5 star ratings.
spayellow at 3:28PM on 09/22/09