Five Minute Fix: Yelp!

[update] It seems that Yelp! already had a version of this idea and has had a Yelp for Business Owners program for some time now.

One phenomenon that has been cropping up more and more lately on Yelp is that owners of businesses are starting to write reviews for their own establishments. These are not really reviews, but statements.

Sometimes these are written as a response to critiques made by negative reviewers. Sometimes the owner writes to let people know that a previous problem has been fixed.

Whatever the case, the owner reviews have prompted me to ask what seems like an obvious question:

Why don’t they have a section for an owner statement?

I have read a shocking number of 1 and 2 star Yelp reviews by people who admit that they haven’t even eaten at the place they are reviewing. Considering this ability of an anonymous person to write a negative review of an establishment, it is only fair that they should allow an owner of a place a chance to state their case.

Or even better, how about provide an actual service by having an “ask the owner” feature. At one point the review for Lakeshore Avenue’s Flavors of India was hijacked by a discussion over the tipping policy of the management.

Such discussions not only don’t belong in a “review” section, but would provide a real benefit by being in their own “ask the owner” section.

How to implement this fix?

• Authenticate owners through the use of bank account address verification, or the submission of a business license number.
• Create a new field in which owners can write their own statement about the business.

• Add a section in which users can submit questions directly to store owners. When an owner responds, display both the question and answer on the Yelp! page.

Monday June 23, 2008