Some doctors are complaining that they got reviews that have now disappeared.
Hmmm… why would Yelp delete reviews. Of course all the complainers of deleted reviews are complaining that good reviews were deleted and it is very understandable.
In a recent interview with a Yelp executive the PR answer is they have an algorithm that deletes reviews that look false or manufactured. One example they give is that a receptionist could go create multiple yelp accounts and review a business many times.
There was even a class action lawsuit but fortunately or unfortunately has been dismissed!
You can read about it here:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/26/class-action-lawsuits-over-yelps-review-system-dismissed/
I can see both sides of the problem and there is only one real solution.
Get people who use Yelp regularly to review your practice on Yelp.
Get people that use Google regularly to review your practice on Google.
Get people that use Yahoo (Who am I kidding, no one uses Yahoo anymore) *Humor
You get the point?
Social proof is important and there have been liars since before time so I guess it is good that companies try to protect us from scammers with rules like this. Will it piss some people off yes.
Is it because you didn’t pay yelp. Maybe. Probably.
But these are the rules of the game.
I didn’t make them I just play by them and hope that this will help you play by them and win!
So solicit REVIEWS HELL YES!
But do it smart so they don’t fall down. (or get taken down)
We built a review management software to help you do exactly this Review Wave.
So the moral of the story whether you use software or not… is get more reviews.
Get them on as many different sites as possible.
Work internally to never get a bad review.
Get so many good reviews that a few bad reviews are lost in the mix.
Cheers,
Matt