reDesign

February 23, 2012

How small businesses should use Yelp

Filed under: advertising, local search, yellow pages, yelp — Rakesh Agrawal @ 11:08 am

Although I’ve strongly criticized Yelp‘s business model in recent weeks, Yelp is an incredibly important platform for small businesses to be aware of and engage with. And unlike Groupon, which has almost no redeeming value, Yelp has created a valuable consumer resource. I consider it the best resource for ratings and reviews of restaurants, bars, and local retailers in the United States.

According to the review site’s S-1, more than 60 million people turn to Yelp each month for its ratings and reviews. Small businesses should pay attention, because Yelp has become an important tool in the consumer decision flow. Yelp provides businesses a lot of tools for free.

If you run a business that regularly interacts with consumers, I recommend that you do this on Yelp:

  • Claim your business page. This allows you to edit key business information. According to Yelp, more than 600,000 businesses have already claimed their pages.
  • Add hours of operation. This is especially important for categories like bars, restaurants and retailers, where hours of operation can vary dramatically. With Yelp’s “Open Now” filter, consumers can restrict their search just to businesses that are listed as open.
  • Add photos. Photos convey a lot more information than words. In many cases, ambiance is an important part of the decision-making process.

That’s the minimum.

If you have the time, I also recommend reading and responding to reviews. It may be tempting to dismiss Yelp reviewers as unrepresentative of the overall population of your business. Yes, some of them are entitled hipsters who think the world owes them something. But many of them are your target market. Regardless, their opinions shape buying decisions. Yelp provides a helpful guide on how to respond to both negative and positive reviews. It’s not necessary (or wise) to respond to every review. But if a review materially misrepresents your business or if you’ve changed something about your business since a review was written, it’s worth pointing out.

One way that people judge a business is by how it responds when something goes wrong. Any business, even a 5-star restaurant, will have an off night. Showing that you care about it and are willing to fix things goes a long way toward instilling confidence in your business. By reading reviews, you might also discover areas where you do need to improve.

Yelp is an important tool for small businesses in competing with chains and franchises. One of the important functions that chains provide is to de-risk purchase decisions. If I go to a Starbucks or Quiznos, I know generally what to expect. There’s a lot more variability among independent business — some can be outstanding, while others are terrible.

It’s unlikely that I’ll have a terrible cup of coffee at Starbucks — corporate works to prevent that from happening. When faced with uncertainty, people will often choose the consistent.

It’s also unlikely that I’ll have an outstanding cup of coffee at Starbucks. Yelp helps to de-risk selecting an independent business. Yelp’s reviews make it easier to pick out the 4- and 5-star places that provide great products. These can be much better values because they don’t have the overhead that chains have.

By providing more information, you’re making it easier for people to select your business. And you can do all of this without paying Yelp a penny.

About these ads

August 19, 2010

Heading toward the Facebook recommendation engine

Filed under: facebook, lbs, local search, maps, yellow pages, yelp — Tags: — Rakesh Agrawal @ 9:13 am
Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

There’s an interesting thread over at Mike Blumenthal’s blog on the effect of Facebook Places on the local reviews space.

My view is that reviews and updates will coexist, much as blogs and Twitter coexist. People who were less committed to reviews will migrate their activity to Facebook Places updates. But Places could lead toward the ultimate recommendation engine.

In the local space, there’s really only one review site that matters: Yelp. They’ve got a strong set of tools and an active and engaged community. New restaurants and bars, which are often of the most interest, will have a dozen reviews on Yelp a year before they even show up on many Yellow Pages sites.

There are three big challenges with Yelp:

  • It’s been too successful. Many restaurants have hundreds of reviews. Although Yelp provides great tools for analyzing the data, it can still feel overwhelming. It also discourages participation from more casual users. In the early days of Yelp, I was an active reviewer. That’s tapered off substantially — what’s the marginal benefit of me writing the 426th review of a place?
  • These aren’t my real friends. I don’t know how compatible their tastes are with mine. It also affects the propensity to write reviews. People are more likely to do something that helps their friends than something that helps a generic audience.
  • Skewed demographics. Yelp primarily caters to a young, urban demographic. If you’re a mom in the suburbs, its value is more limited.

Facebook Places lowers the bar to participation and ties it into real-life social networks. Instead of writing out a long review, a few clicks is all it takes. Combine that with Facebook’s large user base on mobile devices — its monthly uniques on mobile devices is 4x Yelp’s monthly uniques on the Web — and we’ll see a tsunami of local data. (For more on importance of massive amounts of data, watch Google’s Peter Norvig’s talk.)

While each blip may not be as rich as the data in Yelp, you could build a recommendation engine to infer a lot from that data.

If I see that a place I am considering visiting is regularly frequented by my friends with families, I can infer that it is good for kids. Positive reviews can be inferred by friends going back to a place regularly. There are some friends who I have negative taste relationships with. If I know that they’re regulars somewhere, I know not to go there. Facebook can also make recommendations based on places I’ve visited and the overlaps with places my friends have visited. Facebook also has real demographic information which could be used to tailor recommendations.

Status updates in the social network also prompt discussions. Even if the original poster doesn’t write a review, it may be followed up by “hey, I was thinking of going there. what did you think of it?” Facebook could also close the loop by prompting people to add star ratings, Like or add comments a few days after a check in.

When it comes to restaurant reviews and recommendations, most people are looking for “good enough”. While you could spend hours reading every Yelp review of several restaurants and possibly get a better answer, a recommendation based on your friends’ activity is probably nearly as good. Facebook has done really well with good enough; Facebook Photos dominates online photo sharing, despite many functional weaknesses when compared with flickr.

I built a prototype of this when I was at AOL Search and even with a few users in the system, it worked really well.

More on: Facebook, local search, Yelp

See also:

September 1, 2008

Why don’t local businesses use the Internet?

Filed under: advertising, lbs, local search, marketing, newspapers, yellow pages — Rakesh Agrawal @ 2:15 pm
John makes a burrito with his goose sauce

John makes a burrito with his goose sauce

Back in the mid 90s, I frequented The Weinery, a total dive of a hot dog place in the Cedar/Riverside area of Minneapolis. Jerry, the then owner, collected email addresses and would occasionally send out specials. Say the password when you placed your order and you got a discount.

The other day, I received an email from John at Pedro & Vinny’s. John ran a burrito cart in downtown DC. (I wrote about John’s honor system earlier.) He moved away a while back. Friday’s email announced that his burritos will be hitting the DC streets soon.

But John and Jerry are rare among small business owners. In the last 13 years, Internet use has exploded and tools have gotten easier and easier. Yet few local businesses do a good job of communicating with their existing customers and reaching out to new customers.

To be fair, they haven’t been in the habit of advertising. Before the Internet, the key local outlets were newspapers, television, radio and the yellow pages. You essentially had to buy the entire DMA for thousands of dollars. Direct mail (Valpak etc.) and Entertainment coupon books were among the few options that made economic sense.

The Internet has drastically changed the economics. Publishers can slice and dice virtually infinite inventory into smaller and smaller buckets and make advertising affordable for small businesses.

So why aren’t small businesses advertising online?

  • No one is asking them.  Publishers (by and large) haven’t changed their compensation systems for sales reps. If I were a sales rep, I’d much rather work on selling the full page ad for $10,000 than an online presence for $100.
  • It’s too complicated. Search advertising seems like a prime opportunity for local businesses because it can be highly targeted. But the interfaces and the structures are well beyond the skills or interests of small business owners. They’re too busy running their businesses to run keyword campaigns.
  • They’ve been burned. Most restaurant sites look like they were built solely to show off the Flash skills of the design firm. The restaurateur spent hundreds or thousands of dollars for a site that doesn’t drive any foot traffic because it’s unusable and doesn’t show up in search results (because everything is Flash or an image).
  • It’s hard to see the return. Online advertising is a slam dunk for businesses that can complete the transaction online. They can see what they’re getting for their money. It’s harder to show that value to businesses that rely on foot traffic.
  • No need #1. In a town of 500 people, there’s no need to advertise. Everyone knows who you are.
  • No need #2. If you’re the hot new restaurant in town and there’s always a wait to get a table, why spend money on ads?

May 25, 2007

GPS for Blackberry and Calendar come to Google Mobile

Filed under: google, gps, iphone, local search, maps, mobile, mobile search, wireless, wireless data, yellow pages — Rakesh Agrawal @ 1:27 pm

Blackberry 8800 with Google Maps GPSGoogle announced GPS support on the Blackberry 8800. This is a huge move. It’s great that a major U.S. carrier, Cingular AT&T, is allowing free access to location data. I would have expected them to disable GPS access.

I love Google Maps Mobile, but the lack of GPS support has been a major turn off. Ever since discovering WHERE, I’ve all but stopped using Google Maps Mobile. It’s much easier to pop open WHERE and find what I’m looking for.

This also highlights a key omission in the iPhone: no GPS support.

Google also released a mobile version of Google Calendar. I keep my personal calendar on Google and this is a welcome addition. Previously, the only way to access Google Calendar on a mobile device was a clunky SMS interface.

More on: Google, wireless.

March 20, 2007

Cleaning up my digital neighborhood

Filed under: aol, google, local search, yahoo, yellow pages, yelp — Rakesh Agrawal @ 5:27 pm

My neighborhood undergone a lot of change in the three years I’ve lived here. It’s been very exciting to see new businesses come in and sad to see some old favorites go away. (I’m still puzzled as to how the tombstone store stays in business in a neighborhood where a 1 bedroom condo runs $400k.)

All this makes local search virtually useless. I tried to clean up my digital neighborhood the other day by identifying businesses that have closed.

Knowing what businesses have gone under since the last Acxiom or InfoUSA update is more valuable than reviews. There are few worse experiences that local search can provide than sending people to business that don’t exist.

But most local search sites don’t make it easy to provide this input:

  • Yahoo! has a multi-step process.
  • AOL has a link to report closed businesses but it takes you to a nonexistent page.
  • Google doesn’t have an option.

Part of the reason they make it difficult is fear that pranksters (or competitors) will erroneously report that businesses have closed.

There are a number of ways around this:

  • Let users police the listings. Display user reported closures as “unverified” and allow other users to agree or disagree. Have a line on the listing that says something like “This business has been reported closed by 25 users.” At the very least, this will signal to users that they should call first.
  • Use telephone verification. This can be automated to a degree. If the business closes up shop entirely, chances are the phone has been disconnected and calling the number will result in a three tone. Calls that are answered can be routed to a call center.
  • Use direct mail verification.

March 16, 2007

AOL launches local beta

Filed under: aol, city guides, google, local search, maps, yahoo, yellow pages — Rakesh Agrawal @ 4:43 pm

AOL Local has a beta of a new map-based search product. It’s a solid first effort, and one that is competitive with offerings from Google, Yahoo! and Yelp.

AOL Local plays up AOL’s primary differentiator over the competition: exclusive content from AOL CityGuide. AOL has a team of editors and freelancers that write reviews of restaurants, bars and local attractions. Places that have been rated “City’s Best” are highlighted with a yellow marker. Unfortunately, there’s no way to restrict your search just to City’s Best locations. I would love to be able to pull up a map of just the City’s Best Italian.

The map markers include photos of many restaurants and bars. Unlike Google’s photos, which are selected by crawling other Web sites, the photos on AOL Local are taken and edited by the AOL CityGuide team.

The list of results updates as you move the map to show places in the new map area. This makes it easier to explore an area. It works reasonably well, but it’s not as polished as Yelp’s Maptastic or Yahoo! Maps. Only panning affects the results; zooming in or out doesn’t restrict or expand the result set. AOL offers the ability to lock the results that appear. This is useful if you find a business you like and you just want to move map to get a better sense of the area.

One major problem is that improperly geocoded places still show up on the map. In this search of restaurants in 22201, the top 5 places don’t actually exist in that location. They’re put there because that’s the center of 22201. They should either be omitted from the map entirely or there should be an indicator that the mapping is inaccurate.

AOL Local hits a pet peeve: the map’s height is fixed. On smaller screens, you will have to scroll to see the map. On bigger screens, you’ll have white space. Google and Yahoo! automatically resize the map to make the best use of the screen real estate you have.

Disclosure: I didn’t work on this product, but two of the people who did are close colleagues – literally. They sit about 20 feet away.

March 8, 2007

Top trends and predictions for satellite navigation

Filed under: aol, cars, city guides, consumer electronics, flickr, google, gps, local search, maps, mobile, mobile search, satellite navigation, wireless, wireless data, yahoo, yellow pages — Rakesh Agrawal @ 5:22 pm

Yesterday, I wrote about my experiences with various types of satellite navigation. Here are some of the major trends in the space and my predictions for what we can expect to see in the next three years.

Trends that will continue

  • Integration of live traffic data – There are already some in-car and portable navigation devices that incorporate live traffic data. XM offers live traffic data feeds for a number of OEM and aftermarket units. Predictive traffic and routing will also be integrated.
  • Falling prices – Prices for PNDs have already fallen dramatically and that trend will continue. The falling prices for PNDs will put downward pressure on OEMs for both the navigation units and data updates. It’s hard to justify paying $2,000 for a navigation system and $300 for an update DVD when you can buy an up-to-date PND for $300 or less.
  • More branded content – You’ll be able to see guide information from major brand sources. Some Acuras already let you pull up Zagat ratings. Expect to see more of that. You’ll be able to pull up hotel reviews from Frommers and AAA, movie reviews from Ebert & Roeper.

Predictions

  • Google- and Yahoo!-branded PNDs – Google and Yahoo! will leverage their strong online brands and partner with a PND manufacturer to develop a custom device. (There was a Mapquest PND, but it was purely a rebadged TomTom.) The device will use similar map styles to the online mapping services. You will be able to access your online address book to set your destination.
  • More data – Look to see weather, restaurant ratings, parking lots with space available, aerial views and other similar information overlaid on maps.
  • User generated content – The Google and Yahoo! PNDs will take their troves of user-generated data to provide more up-to-date point of interest data. Navigation systems today use point of interest data that is 3-18 months old from aggregators like InfoUSA and Acxiom. Google Maps has much fresher data; you’ll be able to access that from your PND. The Yahoo! PND will let you pull up geotagged Flickr images of your destination. It might even show you interesting places to visit along the way.
  • Two-way communications – As wireless Internet comes to the car (likely through Bluetooth integration), you’ll be able to make restaurant reservations, get alerted to new email and a lot of other things you shouldn’t be doing while driving.
  • More personalization – The systems will learn how you drive and adapt. If you routinely drive on roads that don’t exist, they will be added to the system. (And optionally uploaded to the map provider.) My car will avoid I-66 for most routings.

March 6, 2007

Text to self: buy milk

Filed under: aol, gps, im, local search, mobile, sms, wireless, yahoo, yellow pages — Rakesh Agrawal @ 7:27 pm

I finally broke down and signed up for an SMS plan. Since then, I’ve been texting myself key nuggets of information:

  • Airline and hotel confirmation numbers
  • Addresses and phone numbers of new restaurants I’m trying
  • Shopping lists

The easiest way I’ve found to do this is AIM. You can add any U.S. cell phone number to your Buddy List. If your phone number is 7032655000, you just add “+17032655000″ to your Buddy List. Type out the message (or cut-and-paste) and it’ll be on your phone in seconds.

It beats printing out an entire page to get a few lines of text or trying to keep track of little scraps of paper.

Sites like Yahoo! Local let you send text messages directly from the Web page. Click the “Send to Phone” link on a restaurant details page and you get the vital statistics sent to your phone. The message includes a link to the mobile version of Y! Local with maps and user reviews.

If only my phone could send the address to my car’s navigation system.

November 29, 2006

Rooftops and Google Maps

Filed under: aol, google, local search, maps, yellow pages — Rakesh Agrawal @ 3:36 pm

I was flying into Atlanta yesterday and as the plane descended to the runway, I noticed that one of the buildings on the ground with a giant bullseye on it – Target. Next to it, there was a building with a giant BJs and another with a big Lowe’s logo.

A few years ago, I saw the Northwest logo painted on the roof of Northwest Airlines headquarters near Minneapolis. It was a novelty back then.

Google Map with Target image

With the increasing use of aerial images in local search applications such as Google Maps, the rooftops take on new importance. On this map of the area near O’Hare, there’s no question where Target is. (If you’re going to Target, pick up their slick MP3 gift card.)

Last year, when aol.com launched, they painted a giant logo on the grass in the center of campus. Now, you have to know what you’re looking for.

This brings up a couple of questions:

  • How long until Google, Mapquest etc. allow you to digitally “paint” your rooftop? This would save on maintenance costs and make it so you don’t have to wait for the image to be updated. (The Northwest logo is an old logo. It could be an outdated image or maybe they haven’t repainted the roof.)
  • Will competitors be able to buy your rooftop?

November 20, 2006

Abuse risks with Google click-to-call

Filed under: google, local search, maps, yellow pages — Rakesh Agrawal @ 9:35 pm

R. Franklin pointed me to a blog entry by Lauren Weinstein about the potential risks of a service like Google’s click-to-call

Because Google doesn’t verify that the number you enter belongs to you, it is easy to use the service for pranks and to harass people.

A relatively benign use would be to have the service call people in the middle of the night and have the business blamed for waking up someone. A more serious scenario would be to have the service connect someone to an escort service. (“Honey, why is there a call from an escort service on the caller ID?”)

This type of use is less dangerous than some of the caller ID spoofs out there because it connects the recipient to a known number. For example, having someone connected to Bank of America will likely just cause confusion and can’t be used for phishing.

But there is enough potential for causing trouble that it’s worth exploring mechanisms to address it.

One solution is to only display the business’ number on the caller ID when the user is logged in and has verified that the number is associated with their account. For some people, this will raise privacy issues with Google having phone numbers associated with their account.

Calls to numbers not associated with the account (or from unauthenticated users) would have a Google number displayed on the caller ID, with a preamble that says something along the lines of “This is Google’s click to call service. Please hold to be connected to the business. If you did not initiate this call press 1 for more information.”

Older Posts »

Theme: Silver is the New Black. Blog at WordPress.com.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 103 other followers

%d bloggers like this: