By Pierre Zarokian from RepEngage

The secret is out: Yelp is not the bastion of honesty that it once was. Countless businesses are finding themselves at the mercy of Yelp reviews that may or may not have any authenticity to them. The system is open to gaming, and Yelp can control your ratings by rearranging reviews. If you’re one of the many businesses hanging up on Yelp sales calls while watching your ratings plummet, read on for some valuable insider tips to improve your image.

Engage Customers

Yelp does not allow you to pay for reviews, and you cannot offer customers any incentives either. Those who attempt to do so are slapped with a notice on their site that brands them as dishonest. Instead, try asking your customers and making it a point to integrate social media within your business.

Honest Yelp ratings from real customers are key to rebuilding a business’ reputation. Try reaching out to customers through email, offering a survey and requesting they post their honest answers to Yelp in order to help your business grow and learn.

Add Plenty of Information

Yelp has become a place for users to learn more about a location before going there. Make sure you take advantage of your profile by adding things like your menu, and updating any contact information you may have online. You can also thank customers for good reviews, and talk with customers who leave bad ones. Be polite and listen to the complaints. You may find valuable feedback from all those Yelp reviews.

My company has come up with a service to increase positive Yelp reviews. We have created an automated platform to send out surveys via email to your customers and ask those that provide positive feedback to post reviews for you. This way you can selectively only ask your happy customers to leave reviews. For more details visit http://www.repengage.com.