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4 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Yelp Rating

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Yelp Doctor ReviewsYelp is an online review site that helps customers and patients know which companies and doctors to trust in their local region.  It’s a place where people can leave good and bad ratings about the experience they had at a particular business.  Yelp has become one of the most popular review sites available and makes it easy to leave reviews with their mobile app.

Not sure where to start on Yelp or need some help improving your rating?  Here are 3 things to help you get started.

  1. Claiming and Optimizing Your Profile

If you haven’t created a Yelp profile yet, create one by going to the business part of the site located here.  Here you can find and claim your business.  Once you’ve claimed your business, optimize your profile by completely filling out your listing and business information to provide as much information to your potential patients as possible.

You will also want to include a great profile picture and other pictures of you and your employees at work.  Make sure the pictures are of people being happy, smiling, and waving to give a great first impression.  It’s important to note that when you are responding to reviews, you will need a profile picture with only one person in it and not a group picture.

  1. Flagging Negative Reviews

Bad reviews happen.  When they do, there are a few ways to handle them.  The first thing you can do is to flag the review.  When you flag it, you will need to provide a reason why it doesn’t follow Yelp’s content guidelines.  You can find a list of their guidelines here.  Customer service reps at Yelp will review the reason for your flagged review and if they agree, the flag will be removed.  If they do not agree, it will remain on your page and affect your overall rating.

There are other ways to handle negative reviews if they aren’t removed.  When you respond to the review, make sure it has been a few days so you aren’t still upset about the review.  This will allow you to respond calmly.  You can privately message the individual and ask them what you can do to make their experience better or offer them a free service or product to give them a better opinion of your business.  You can also respond to the review publicly to resolve any problems or to clarify the situation.

  1. Responding to All Reviews

Whether the reviews left are good or bad, make sure to respond to all reviews.  This allows you to be personal and involved with your patients.  Everyone likes to know that their opinion made a difference and they will appreciate your comment.  This also helps potential patients see that you care about what people say about your business and you care about your patients.

  1. Getting More Yelp Reviews

If you are finding it difficult to get Yelp reviews, here are a few things that can help:

  • Place a sign, sticker, or card at the front desk letting your patients know you are on Yelp.
  • Publish positive Yelp reviews on your social media pages or in your office.
  • Add the Yelp app on your Facebook page.
  • If you send out a newsletter, create a Yelp button with a link to your profile page.
  • Let your patients know that you’re on Yelp on all of your social media channels.

The best reviewers on Yelp are those who use it frequently.  If a new user leaves only one review and doesn’t have any followers, it’s likely that their review will be removed from your page and not affect your overall rating.  By showing your patients that you are on Yelp through the suggestions above, it’s more likely that those who leave reviews will already active on the site.

Monitoring Your Yelp Account

Taking care of your business and patients while trying to stay on top of social media can be difficult.  At Goldman Marketing Group, we dedicate our time to manage your reputation.  We monitor Yelp accounts to help flag reviews and respond to reviews with your approval.  If you need help with your social media and reputation management, make sure to call us at 818.861.7092.

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