Posts Tagged ‘Yelp’

It’s no wonder that people turn to Twitter for tech support. In the heat of a frustrating moment, it is much easier to fire off a quick question on Twitter than to wait on hold for an operator. But how effective is the microblogging site as a customer service tool? Here’s how Spotify, LinkedIn, Pinterest [...]

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

It doesn’t matter that we’re coming up on the end of Q4. There’s A LOT happening in the social media IPO market right now! Check out these 10 companies:

This week, Dailymotion is hiring a new senior editor, and Yelp is looking for a part-time community manager for New Jersey. As we told you on Wednesday, RDA International is looking for a social media strategist, and Total Beauty is on the hunt for a social interactive marketing manager. Get all the details on these [...]

If you want to find out the inside scoop on that new restaurant that opened up down the street or are wondering if your that neighborhood is worth moving to, Yelp is the ultimate resource. However, it’s also a great place for which to work. Here’s the thing: with so many users, reviews and comments, [...]

Are any of these companies really worth what people are willing to pay?

If you’re a restaurant or retailer, you ignore Yelp at your peril. The online forum put businesses’ reputations in the hands of everyday consumers – consumers who mete out reviews based on their individual accounts of quality and helpfulness. The success of the site ushered in a return to customer service becoming a vital part of B2C marketing success.

According to Joe Chernov of Eloqua, now it’s the B2B industry’s turn to get Yelp’d.

Insiders compare Dianping to Yelp and report the China based social rating site is very popular, involving 2,000 cities in China, with more than 1 million local businesses on its website. The monthly active visitors are over 30 million with over 20 million ratings and reviews on those local businesses.

I can see right away the Darwin theory applies to this program. Like the Nordstrom sales people pool, the fittest and most aggressive “TreatFeeders” survive, making the most money off those at the bottom rung. I am sure the top “TreatFeeders” will have their bragging rights posted on TreatFeed’s home page.

mbStartups is pleased to announce the Startup of the Week: a weekly post dedicated to the newest faces in new media.

In honor of President’s Day weekend sales, this week’s featured startup is Tello, a forum for thanking businesses for providing excellent customer service. The company’s logo evokes the aesthetics of the 1950′s, said CEO and founder Joe Beninato, “when service used to be good.” We recently met up with Benitato to talk about this latest spin on the rate-it site and the new business model that goes with it.

How it Works

Customers can already voice their opinions on Yelp, but with Tello, instead of skimming through the comments to find out which bridal consultant or massage therapist to book by name, they can check out a local business and instantly see who has gotten the best feedback. “Yelp is about the place – we’re more about the people in the place,” Beninato said. The content is crowd-sourced, with options to add both the name of the business and the employees who work there.

The mobile app, launched February 9th for iPhone, iPad and Android, connects to Facebook and Twitter, and will eventually have a check-in function as well. We tried it out on Baked, the Brooklyn bakery where we conducted the interview. The address popped up, along with a map.   Rather than giving a star rating, customers are asked to decide if the experience was positive or negative, and leave a comment if they’d like to elaborate. “People tend to be polarized,” Beninato said of the star-rating system. A simpler question to ask is, “would you recommend it or not?” We didn’t catch the cashier’s name at Baked, but whoever he was, we clicked the icon to give him a thumbs up. A public complaint board runs the risk of subjecting poorly paid cashiers and new hires with too much negative publicity, but Beninato says that so far, 80% of the users have used the service to leave compliments rather than complaints.

Beyond local eateries and shops, Tello is good for any company that relies on customer service to stay competitive, like car dealerships, hotels and airlines. For example, Beninato credits good customer service for moving Virgin America ahead of the competition in an industry that’s suffered from heightened security. “They’re thriving when others are having trouble,” he said, and the pink mood lighting doesn’t hurt, either.

Read more

This morning Google officially announced their Google Places application for iPhone and after playing with it for a bit, it appears as though the company just stole Yelp’s business, something that’s much cheaper than acquiring them.