Yelp has been a breakthrough in reviewing businesses online. Never before could you look up restaurants or dentists in your home town and see how others had experience with them.

There are some ups and downs that come with this responsibility of reviews, especially on the business owner’s end. Yelp is set up so that anyone can sign up for a yelp account and review different businesses. On the business end, a business can either create an account and encourage clients/customers to write reviews – or – a business can claim it’s account if Yelpers (yelp users) have already start reviewing on their own.

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Here’s when things get tricky. Let’s say you own a restaurant and you have an account on Yelp and over the past few months, you’ve gotten some reviews. Most of them are 3 and 4 stars, but you also got some one or two 2 star reviews. At first, you might feel defensive and reactive about how the customer reviewed your establishment and want to react. I’ve read business owner’s reaction to low ratings and it can go either way.

Some business owner choose to use this opportunity as a frustration outlet and lash out at the customer, blaming them and accusing them of behaving badly, ordering the wrong food, having too high of expectations and overall, being defensive. This defeats the whole point of a site like Yelp. On the flip side, I’ve seen some business owners react openly to negative reviews, responding to the customer and asking them to give them feedback to improve the experience. It simply could have been a bad day or night for the business or the staff and it came through to the customer. That happens, but I think it’s so important for the business owner to see how they can be a part of this communication process and turn the corner. Often times,  once the reviewer has communicated with the business owner, they will update their review.

The message is simply – don’t lose out on gaining a customer for life. Bad reviews happen but business owners have the power to turn them around. Your customers are huge part of the new wave of advertising, there’s nothing more powerful than hearing a recommendation from a friend to a friend. It’s magical and it can spread like wildfire.

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Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods is a leader in the grains industry, they provide over 400 products, focusing on gluten-free and organic.  Their slogan is “whole grain foods for every meal of the day”.

How does a business share their community  such as gluten-free baking contest and supporting a cyclo-cross team? Bob’s Red Mill uses tools such as Facebook. Here’s are some great ways they did it right on their Fan page

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• they put a photo of “Bob” as part of their profile, having their business come across very warm and friendly.

• on their wall, they post many time during the week with news about the cyclo-cross events, commenting on other companies products and overall, reaching out beyond their products and themselves

• Using the notes section to share info about tools folks can use in cooking and baking, content info, and more.

• they have their facebook badge on their blog, so readers of the blog can easily “become a fan” of Bob’s Red Mill on Facebook.

Do you know of other companies that have “done it right” with their Facebook Fan page?

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