Yelping at Yelp!

This article isn't exactly new, but it's worth looking at Yelp! again. Business owners get bent out of shape about negative reviews. I choose to look at a negative comment as a chance to communicate with the customer. Just responding to someone's concern can be very powerful. The trick is to detach your ego from the response. Their comments usually reflect more on them than you.

Yelp! What happens when an online review site itself becomes the subject of harsh public scrutiny? Such is the case of Yelp, the review site that carries the motto, “Real People. Real reviews.” In recent weeks, Yelp has been hit with three class-action lawsuits from businesses claiming that Yelp sales representatives tried to press the businesses into advertising by offering — or threatening — to manipulate reviews. Jeremy Stoppelman, a Yelp co-founder and its chief executive, has seen the tables of Web 2.0 turned against his company as angry business owners have taken to Internet boards to pan Yelp. A condensed version of a conversation with Mr. Stoppelman follows.

Facebook at Bottom of Customer Satisfaction

A recent consumer index by ForeSee Results, ranks Facebook at the bottom in terms of customer satisfaction of all the major social media sites with just 64 out of 100 points. Google by contract, was at the top with 80 out of 100. Highest, yes, but down seven points from 2009.

I guess I'm a little surprised, but just a little. Facebook tends to be talked about most when it comes to privacy issues and has a fondness for revamping its site. Does that make Facebook vulnerable to defections? It would seem not, as FB is celebrating its 500 millionth user worldwide and seems to have overcome threats of mass exoduses by disgruntled users.

It is a bit ironic that I got wind of this survey from a Google alert, delivered to my AOL account, and that it will be broadcast to many of you through my Twitterfeed link to my Facebook account. And, of course, I haven't been particularly thrilled with the lack of access to customer service reps, but that seems to be a pervasive problem in the online world.

You can see this article on ABC.com for recap of the rankings.