Speaking Sensis

Following the launch of global ratings and reviews company, Yelp.com.au in Australia at the end of last year, I thought now is a good time to share a few tips and hints on the huge opportunity ratings and reviews present to Australian SMEs.

1. Why ratings and reviews are important to SMEs.
Because it’s another way for customers to find your business. You want your business to be found by potential customers, right? Well more and more, consumers are starting to rely on ratings and reviews to help them make their decision about which business to choose. And according to recent research, a one-star increase in Yelp rating can lead to a 5-9 per cent increase in revenue ! Engaging reviewers via Yelp’s free business tools provides an opportunity for Australian small businesses to develop much deeper relationships with their customers.

2. Ratings and reviews positively impact your search engine optimisation (SEO)
The more your business is mentioned online, the higher it appears in search engine results. Another shared desire among many small business owners is for their business to appear near the top of search engine results. Well, ratings and reviews are another avenue for businesses to improve their search engine ranking. The more a business is talked about online, the more chance it has of appearing earlier in search engine results.

3. Good reviews
Good reviews encourage more people to try your business. It’s always nice to receive a glowing review about your business online – it’s a money-can’t-buy, independent, thumbs-up from a customer for all to see. And when a consumer reads a positive review of a business, they’re more inclined to give it a go.

4. The opportunity that comes with bad reviews
The reality is that you can’t please 100% of your customers 100% of the time, and as such you should expect to see both positive and negative reviews. Should you pay close attention to the negative reviews? Only if you happen to see a trend, this type of information can prove extremely helpful for correcting something about your business that you didn’t think was wrong.

Once upon a time, (in the unlikely event that a customer had a poor experience with your business), they’d probably go home and tell their friends and family – maybe a total of 10 people would hear. Frustratingly, your business probably didn’t receive this feedback, which means you did not have an opportunity to review the situation, provide an explanation or make any changes to improve the experience this customer had. Now customers have the opportunity to share their feedback on ratings and review sites such as Yelp.com.au, businesses can hear straight from the people they’re most wanting to please: their customers.

5. How to respond to negative reviews
Efficiently, using simple and non-condescending language and share any changes that have been implemented in your business as a result of their feedback. The idea of having a negative review of your business for the world to see can be, well, frightening. However, think about it this way: you can’t change what you don’t know.

Stay calm. Allow yourself a 24 hour colloing off period if you need it. It’s important to start by thanking the reviewer for taking the time to provide feedback. Tone is hard to gauge online, so you need to ensure your response is sincere, simple and adding value to the initial comment. Has the feedback led you to make any changes to your business? If so – include this in your response. Are you sorry the customer had this experience? If so, tell them.

Use common sense and don’t be defensive or question the reviewer. You should write your response using the same language you would use if they were right in front of you and try and build a genuine connection. This can help to earn trust and a change in perspective, and if you get it right, could turn your greatest critic into an advocate for your business!  It’s amazing how an unhappy customer (and all the people reading the reviews) can be turned around by seeing some quality after sales care.

6. Growing positive online reviews
In the same way good businesses are rarely short of customers, positive reviews will follow good businesses. If your business is committed to providing a great experience for your customers, the positive reviews will follow. According to Myles Anderson, reliability, friendliness and value for money are the three most important business traits that lead recommendations. So keep doing what you’re doing!

So there you go, a few insights into ratings and reviews to help small business owners make the most of the opportunity. And if you’re a Yellow Pages advertiser, that means you’re already on Yelp, with ratings and reviews now also accessible on Yellow Pages® online, mobile and iPhone applications. The syndication provides Yellow Pages advertisers with the benefit of being able to connect consumers with user reviews and ratings on their Yellow Pages business profile page.

Visit www.yellowadvertising.com.au for more information.

I’d like to officially welcome Yelp to Australia today, a global leader in local ratings and reviews. I encourage everyone to visit www.yelp.com.au and share their experiences of local businesses by posting ratings and reviews.

Why rate and review? Aside from the fact that it’s the fun and easy way to talk about great (and not so great) local businesses, it’s sites like Yelp that are playing a big part in how we Aussies make purchasing decisions these days.

According to the Sensis® Social Media Report, social networkers read an average of six reviews before making a buying decision. So rather than waiting for a review of a business to be published online or in the local paper and then deciding whether or not to give the business a go, we are getting on the front foot and seeking these reviews out for ourselves. Yelp.com.au makes this very easy. 

Yelp first started in San Francisco in 2004 and today’s launch in Australia marks the 13th country it has opened its online doors in. In Q3 2011 the online ratings and reviews company received an average of 61 million visitors a month (up 63 per cent from the same time last year), has generated 22 million reviews on its global network as of September 2011 (an increase of 66 per cent over the same time in 2010) and saw an average of five million unique views a month on its mobile app. With results like these, it’s evident that ratings and reviews are becoming an increasingly important component of consumers’ pre-purchase behaviour.

While I’m personally excited about Yelp’s launch in Australia today, it’s also a big coup for Sensis®’ Yellow Pages®, after announcing our ground-breaking partnership with Yelp back in July. 

Yellow Pages® local business listing data has been integrated into Yelp.com.au (including mobile site and apps), which means our Yellow Pages® advertisers will be able to be found by more potential customers. And in a couple of weeks, Yelp Reviews and Ratings will be displayed on Yellow Pages® Online and Mobile. I’ll tell you more about that shortly. In the meantime, visit www.yelp.com.au to rate and review a local business near you.

Sensis’ and Yelp partner to create new opportunities for Australia’s local searchers.

Today is an exciting day for Sensis as we announce our latest ground-breaking partnership between Yellow Pages® and Yelp, the global leader in local reviews and ratings. Together we’ll work with Yelp to launch an Australian version of the Yelp website, where Aussie’s will be invited to rate their dealings with local businesses and write reviews about their experiences.

Ratings and reviews are growing in popularity in the Australian market place. Did you know that, according to the recent Sensis Social Media Report, almost two thirds of social network users (63 per cent) read online reviews before they make buying decisions? Or that they read an average of six reviews each time? Given this enormous interest, we believe this partnership will be a huge win for the Australian community.

When Yelp launches in Australia they will integrate Sensis’ Yellow Pages® local business listing data into yelp.com.au.and, tap into our leading local sales force to launch and embed yelp.com.au in the Australian market. 

Not only does this mean the launch of a leading new ratings and review website in Australia, but through the partnership, Sensis will syndicate Yelp content, ratings and reviews to yellowpages.com.au, Yellow Pages® Mobile and the Yellow Pages® iPhone application.

So our advertisers can be really excited about the opportunities this partnership presents to them in the form of a deeper way to engage with potential customers online.

Yelp is a really exciting business to work with and I’m personally looking forward to the next couple of months as we work together to bring this leading product to market.

Yelp launched in 2004 and has rapidly expanded its user-generated ratings and reviews websites across North America and Europe. In fact, in June 2011, Yelp had more than 53 million unique visitors worldwide and to date more than 20 million local reviews of businesses have been posted to Yelp sites.

We anticipate yelp.com.au will be fully operational by the end of 2011 with Sensis’ Yellow Pages® media advisors offering Yelp advertising options to customers in 2012.

Simon B