Yelp is a dish best served cold, but when review sites get adversarial for brands and small businesses, tools like Propadoo find the silver lining
Blake Bowyer (@BlakeBowyer)
Media Program Analyst
“The music sucks, the guy behind the counter has an obnoxious laugh he can’t stop sharing with the cafe, and the drinks are overpriced. If you wannabe cool, you can come here and fit right in. If you ARE cool, you know better spots … I’ve been here long enough to know what’s good … “
The above is a snippet from a scathing review written about favorite coffeehouse in Denver. I admit that Café Europa isn’t for everyone. And while the tattered lounge chairs might be a turn-off, I still spend hours there – I’m talking 5 to 6 of them, in a row – snuggling my laptop and immersed in homework. Do I go for the coffee? Or because I prefer sitting on a couch my grandma threw out 20 years ago? Probably both – but it doesn’t matter. Why? Because, chances are I didn’t rave about either on Yelp.
The thing is, I use Yelp – a lot. When traveling in a foreign city and lost in a sea of indistinguishable Thai restaurants, I fire up my Yelp app for guidance. What’s the problem then? Increasingly, I – and a skyrocketing number of others – am leaving my culinary kismet in the hands of a small, opinionated cabal. If we apply the 90/9/1 principle that states 90% of a community’s members just read, 9% contribute occasionally, and an elite 1% produce the majority of the content, the tastes, sensibilities, and perceptions of a few are shaping those of the remaining 90-99% on a site like Yelp.
Seems inequitable, right? Combine that small sample with Yelp offering sponsorship for higher placement, allegations of extorting small businesses, and insider/faux reviews, and suddenly the community seems a lot less credible. I believe in the wisdom of crowds, but this is e pluribus unum and from many diners comes a few reviews to rule us all. Moreover, for businesses and brands that don’t monitor their review-site image, the deck may be stacked against them and dealt with a two-star rating by customers who think the barista has “an obnoxious laugh.”
How do businesses and brands fight back? What is the recourse for Café Europa against the power of Yelp and other review sites? First, let me acknowledge that the best defense is a high-quality product, service, and/or customer experience – those can’t be beat. However, as I stated, the sensibilities of one customer who hates the music isn’t necessarily representative of the dozens of coffeehouse denizens who enjoy it. And that’s where tools like the intriguing startup Propadoo come in.
What’s Propadoo? In short, a web-based platform that facilitates customer testimonials by allowing businesses to collect props at various touchpoints and by making the review process quick and easy. Even if a business’s customers aren’t amateur bloggers or generally loquacious, Propadoo is more inviting and, theoretically, will produce a more accurate picture of opinions by combing a larger sample. In short, that’s good for underrepresented businesses and valuable for prospective customers searching for the best delicatessen, drugstore, or drycleaner.
From an organizational standpoint, utilities like Propadoo augment search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and can rank high during search queries to counteract – or support – ratings on review sites. While I’ve only mentioned Yelp, this is also valuable for businesses facing fire or receiving praise on other communities such as TripAdvisor, Citysearch, and Urbanspoon. The testimonials on Propadoo can also be streamed live on an organization’s website, showcasing props wherever potential customers may see them.
Propadoo testimonials featured on OpenWorld Learning's site
While some could argue quick-review tools have the same issues as Yelp, the benefits are greater and could be complementary to review sites to craft a fuller picture of quality. No matter the crowd, it’s only as wise as the number and diversity of the people who comprise it. By bringing more customers into the fold, tools like Propadoo potentially do everyone a favor by bringing justice to businesses and info to customers. After all, the drinks at Europa aren’t any more expensive than other coffee shops in Denver and I happen to enjoy the music. I better log in to Yelp and defend its honor!
