About a month ago, Yelp introduced a new feature. They now allow their reviewers to leave reviews from their mobile phone. In the past they have been a source for consumers to find businesses via mobile, leave tips about the businesses they visit, but have never allowed consumers to actually write reviews until they were sitting in front of their computers. Yelp's CEO was quoted in 2009 saying:
"Well imagine what it would be like if reviews were done in SMS shorthand:
"OK so, IANAE, but AFAIC this place has THE best Cfood. It was gr8! ADBB"Um, yeah.
We love the witty quality of the reviews and the insight that Yelpers share in their detailed accounts of their experiences. We've found that Quick Tips and Draft Reviews are mobile features that provide eager Yelpers with an outlet to catalog their immediate experiences or jot notes that they can then add to or edit when they get back to a computer. While we're not saying that writing Yelp reviews on your mobile device is out of the question, we feel very strongly about maintaining the high level of content you all provide. Saying that, we know mobile is increasingly a part of everyone's everyday life (I mean, my iPhone is practically sewn to my hand!), so you can continue to expect many great things from our mobile team on a variety of platforms in the very near future.
"Maintaining the high level of content..." This begs the question... Why have they changed their minds now?
Well, it's pretty safe to say that Yelp is beginning to feel the pressure of its competitors. Reviews on Foursquare are growing faster than those on Yelp, and Facebook has recently partnered with OpenTable to allow it's users to book tables directly through the Facebook app, which could very soon turn into a review site of its own.
With reviews growing at such a rapid rate and business owners already feeling the pain of many of those reviews, we thought we should take a look at what being able to leave mobile reviews on Yelp means to you, the business owner. But as we started to look deeper into this, we realized our opinions might not be as strong as some that are already out there, so we've compiled a few quotes from some larger publications, and well, here you go!
"Personally, the only times I've thought about pulling out the app and writing a review at a restaurant was when something went really wrong."
— Tomio Geron, Forbes
"The company in the past has not given its users much credit when it comes to mobile, worried that people would post something negative in the heat of the moment that they would later regret."
— Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch
"Enabling mobile reviewing creates a system of 'live reviewing' in which users can review as they experience, not having to take time nor energy to think through what they are writing before posting. A potential side effect might be immediate low reviews for restaurants with long waits, crowded bars, or a full house. Philadelphia chef Joe Cicala was once threatened with a low Yelp review from someone who couldn't get into his restaurant, Le Virtu. The phenomenon of Yelp extortion isn't new, and surely threats of bad reviews from unhappy Yelpers will be more likely realized if posting a review is just a matter of taking out a phone. Restaurants take heed: Yelp may just have opened the floodgates to vindictive amateur critics headed your way.
— Hillary Dixler, Eater
This most likely means a broader range of reviews for each restaurant as customers will no longer be as "distanced" from the experience by the time they get home and sit in front of their computer. This also means that most restaurants will be receiving a lot more reviews, which ultimately means that getting direct, real-time feedback from your customers is more important than ever. If you don't have the immediate feedback to improve a guest's experience, all that guest has to do now is pull their phone out of their pocket and voila, a new review is born.