Florists have a chance to better connect with their customers who are either happy with their bouquet or upset about wilted flowers, with a new business service recently launched by Yelp.com.

Yelp.com, as E-Brief reported in July, gives site members, or "yelpers," the ability to create reviews of their favorite and least-liked local businesses and rate them on a one- to five-star scale.

The only way for business owners to respond to reviewers, up until recently, was to join as members themselves and post a message to the members. Naturally, some owners couldn't resist the temptation to post positive reviews of their businesses, a practice that tried-and-true yelpers, needless to say, didn't appreciate. 

So Yelp.com launched "Yelp for Business Owners." The new feature allows businesses to provide their own information and communicate with users. Technically, nothing is stopping owners from still posting their own reviews, but Jeremy Stoppleman, Yelp co-founder and CEO, says the new service encourages owners to "constructively participate" with reviewers.

Business owners who sign up on the site can send messages to customers, see how many have reviewed their page, update business information such as hours and promote the positive reviews on their own Web site with graphic tools, among other features.

Yelp also offers businesses sponsorship programs, advertising and other ways to communicate to the millions of visitors to the site each month.

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 

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