Yelp Sucks

I noticed that Yelp is removing reviews as “not recommended” when the reviews are organically gained. I’m a solo esthetician and Pmu artist, I don’t ask for reviews, clients just post them after 1-2 sessions with me because my work is that good.

They also overcharged me for ads when I was using their credits.

Long story short, we were reviewed poorly by the mother of a customer who seemingly was told the wrong information about what actually happened. You can read more about it in our review response if you really want to: https://yelp.com/biz/lucky-puppy-claw-arcade-spring-valley?hrid=nJmInphGslnlDUn3gdraGQ&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=biz_post_share&l=en_US

I thought Yelp needed to be first-hand customer experiences only, so I asked AI to make sure and the response was "No First-Hand Experience: Yelp’s Content Guidelines state that reviews must come from individuals who have a direct, personal consumer experience. Writing a review based on a family member's experience is strictly prohibited."

Then I looked at the Yelp guidelines link on their website that says "Personal experience: We want to hear about your firsthand consumer experience, not what you heard from your partner or co-worker, or what you saw in the news or on social media. Tell your own story without resorting to broad generalizations and conclusory allegations."

So I think ok, I can probably report this and have it removed since we only interacted with the daughter and her sister. But they responded saying they are leaving it up. I thought, hmm, that's odd. I thought for sure they'd remove it. So I did the request another opinion option and this was the response:

Hi,

Thanks for writing in. You've asked us to take another look at Caroline P.'s review of Lucky Puppy Claw Arcade. I'm writing you back to let you know that we have taken another look at this review and to clarify our policies as they pertain to cases like this.

We see a firsthand consumer experience as an event when someone interacts with a business, regardless of whether they complete a financial transaction, and will allow reviews that describe experiences like this to remain in place. This includes reviews posted by the guests or partners of a customer, as long as those reviews don't misrepresent the reviewer's identity or rely solely on the opinions or experiences of another person. In the event that an individual appears to be able to comment on the offerings and service of a business based on their personal experience, we allow them to stand by their review.

With that in mind, we've taken another look and we stand by our original decision to leave the review up, as we did not find it to be in violation of our guidelines.

It looks like you've already taken advantage of the messaging feature on your business account to post a public comment in response to the review. You also have the ability to directly message the reviewer; you can learn more at https://www.yelp-support.com/article/000006832. And for additional guidance on using your business account, visit https://biz.yelp.com/support-center/Yelp_Business_Page/Getting_Started.

Regards,

Mariah
Yelp Support
San Francisco, California

I guess I don't understand how this can in any way be considered a "firsthand consumer experience" when the reviewer never spoke to or worked with us? Just because she's related to the actual customer? Seems very unfair to businesses, and some clarification should be added to their policies.

What has been your experience with using Yelp internationally? (I know Yelp is not popular internationally)

Since I have to travel a lot for my work, I seen the differences when going to different countries like Germany, Brazil, London, UK when it comes to how people write reviews. I also check the places I go to Google review too since Google is main place for reviews internationally. I'm a big contributor to the Google Map platform.

I have to go to Japan soon so can't wait to get that check in badge and check out some cool Ramen, sushi places.

Hi!

I am a wedding photographer with a 2.5 rating on Yelp and I was wondering is there any way from coming back from this?

For the last 2 years we have been doing all of the things within the TOS to, nudge/ever so gentle let past clients know we have a Yelp account.

We even remind them to add a pic, etc etc.

And over that time period we have TRIPLED the amount of reviews we have on Yelp (all 4-5 stars) however those reviews always end up in “not recommended” and the star rating has not changed.

Also in the time period, thankfully we have gained zero reviews below 4 stars.

I don’t want to get into the debate of “not recommended and Yelp is a scam.” But I do need some real help as to what we can do.

We even did a $400/month advertising package for family mini sessions for 6 months and that lead to ZERO bookings. The few leads we did talk to were scared off by our rating.

As a small business what can we do to improve this rating because the current path is not working.