Engaging with customers on Yelp

Social media gurus like Chris Brogan and Mitch Joel encourage companies to engage with their community online. You should be jumping into Twitter (and other online social hubs, blogs etc), seeing what customers are saying about your business and being part of the conversation. You should be building trust by responding to customers in an open and honest way.

Of course I’m over-simplifying what these and other media experts have shared with us over the years in their blogs and published books, but I couldn’t agree more.

Many companies aren’t doing this yet. Part of the problem is that you need to tap into a community or create your own community where you can engage with clients, customers, or potential customers. You can start identifying these communities and conversations by “listening” on the web for what people are saying about your company or product in multiple ways, like Google Alert, Twitter Search and others. Then you can respond by leaving comments on blogs, replying to tweets or building your own blog to create a platform for discussion between yourself and your customers. But it takes time and work and effort.

But now let’s say you own a restaurant in the Bay area or elsewhere in the States. Most of this work has already been done for you. Why? Because there is this thing called Yelp, where customers leave reviews about your restaurant. So you have a community already set up for you, and all you have to do as a restaurant owner is show up to the party. But its not happening.

What amazes me is that restaurant owners don’t take time to respond to reviewers on Yelp, even when very poor reviews are written. I have written dozens of reviews and only one restaurateur has ever responded.

In this regard, kudos to Eric at Los Altos Grill who took the time to send me a message on Yelp. This goes a long way to earning the trust of customers, and I will definitely be back to Los Altos Grill for another try.

But the point is that far more restaurants, shops and other services could easily be doing the same thing, with minimal effort – and for huge gain over the longer term.