What is the nicest way to request that someone write a review for your services on Yelp? Yelp is a tricky one because Yelp doesn’t technically want you to ask for reviews.
In fact, Yelp is really annoying, to be honest. I’m sure anyone that has a law firm has probably had a review or two filtered by Yelp, which is a really, really annoying when it happens.
Yelp Filters Reviews
For anyone that doesn’t know, Yelp doesn’t want you to ask for reviews. So, you have to be really careful because it’s already a pain in the neck to get people to leave you reviews. If four or five clients leave you reviews all at once, they all get filtered.
It’s super frustrating. We had a client one time, a personal injury attorney who never listened to any advice that we ever gave them. Except for one day, when we told him that Yelp reviews are important.
What they decided to do was to go out and have 15 clients go out and leave reviews on Yelp, all on the same day. Every single one of them got filtered.
You can imagine they were pretty frustrated, but you have to look at it from Yelp’s perspective. It’s so easy for them to realize what’s going on here.
If you have a Yelp profile for five years and it gets no activity or engagement whatsoever, and then, all of a sudden, it gets 15 reviews in one day, it’s not hard to figure out that you’re asking for reviews.
How To Deal With Review Filtering
What I always tell clients is that anyone who’s not tech savvy or anyone that doesn’t specify that they’re a Yelp user, you can even ask them if they’re a Yelp user, just send them to Google. That’s because it’s very difficult to get reviews filtered on Google. It’s more difficult to get a review to stick on Yelp.
If someone is willing to leave you a review on Yelp, first of all, start by asking them if they’re a Yelp user. You know, when you ask people to leave you reviews, which you should be asking everyone that you’re getting results for.
How To Make Yelp Reviews Stick
An aged Yelp account, meaning the account’s been around for a while, is important. If they’ve already left other people reviews, it will increase the likelihood that your reviews will stick.
If you come across somebody that has got an account like this, you want to treat them very special and you want to do whatever you can to get them to leave that review. The problem is that leaving a review is a pain in the neck and it’s a lot of steps. The second they’re inconvenienced at all, they’re going to just not leave you a review.
How To Get People To Actually Leave Reviews
I always take the what’s in it for my approach, from the client’s standpoint. I always recommend thanking them with a gift card or something like that. Not for leaving a five-star review, but just for taking the time to leave a review in general.
The Theory About Not Telling People About Your Goals
I have a theory about this. There was a Ted Talk not too long ago about how you should not tell people your goals. For example, if you want to quit smoking or if you want to quit drinking or if you want to lose weight, whatever it is, you shouldn’t tell anybody your goal.
That’s because when you tell somebody your goal, you get the endorphin rush in your brain. You get that satisfaction as if you’ve already completed the goal and then you’re less likely to actually complete the goal.
I think it’s the same thing with reviews. If you’re a lawyer and you get a client some great results, and ask them, “Hey, will you leave me a review?” And they say, “Yeah, I’ll go on Google. I’ll leave you a really good review.” I think at that point like there’s really nothing else in it for them.
They already got the satisfaction of saying, yes, I’m going to leave this guy a review. So they already feel good and after that, there’s no incentive to follow up. I think that happens quite a bit. So, you have to remember what’s in it for me.
What I Did
Here’s my solution: when you find that person that has the Yelp account, ask them if they wouldn’t mind taking the time. And then offer a gift card or whatever it is, just for taking the time to leave the review because I really appreciate it.
That’s the easiest and most effective way to do it. We’ve had clients getting 50 reviews, not on Yelp, but we’ve had clients get like 50 reviews in a weekend just because they offered gift cards to their clients.
