Web 2.0 Consumer Review Site Yelp Gives Small Businesses a Voice

Google, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and the rest of
Web 2.0 have all given consumers much more of a voice when they are
dissatisfied with a business’ services, and more businesses have started paying
attention to their online reputations.

Now that will get a little easier as Yelp.com, a popular site hosting reviews
of all kinds of businesses written by consumers, plans to launch a way for
businesses to post their responses to customer reviews. It’s a new feature for
Yelp, which previously has only allowed comments and reviews from customers.

Yelp, on its blog, has
recently been addressing the issue by posting interviews with business owners
and case studies, both positive and negative, of those business owners’
experiences with Yelp.

In addition to adding the new business response feature, Yelp is sending out
notifications to its top reviewers to let them know about the change and to
solicit feedback.

Yelp’s review categories include Professional Services, IT Services and
Computer Repair, and Computers, among others. In the heart of Silicon Valley, a handful of companies that have classified
themselves as IT
companies received reviews ranging from 4 to 5 stars.