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Yelp Sues Reputation Management Company - Careful if you do ORM

by Catalyst eMarketing
16 replies
Taking A Stand Against Misleading “Reputation Management” Companies

We sometimes hear reports about “reputation management” or “small business marketing” agencies that promise (for a fee, of course) to help businesses remove negative reviews and gain more positive reviews on Yelp. Some of these agencies imply that they have a special relationship with Yelp or even lead business owners to believe that they are acting on behalf of Yelp.

These offers are scams, but some business owners unfortunately fall for them and end up paying dearly, both with their bank accounts and their online reputations. Today we’re taking a stand to protect business owners from falling prey to these misleading companies by filing a lawsuit against a recurring offender named Revleap.
There are so many ORM companies using shady tactics. Wish Google would sue some of them, but that's not their style...

I know everyone hates Yelp, I get that. But don't you think there are a lot of ORM companies that violate guidelines, which makes it harder for honest businesses to get legit reviews?
#careful #company #management #orm #reputation #sues #yelp
  • Profile picture of the author winsoar
    That's crazy using shady tactics when doing reputation management. That's going to make a bad situation worse!
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    • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
      Now that is funny. Yelp suing another company for supposedly using tactics it has used. Geez, I guess you just have to be first to the court house to file suit or someone will file against you.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    I don't understand why people think reputation management is simply review management. Good reputation management will offer controlled properties, not just spam reviews.
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    • Profile picture of the author Freebiequeen1999
      I think most do NOT do this, I have not seen any claiming to be affiliated with Yelp
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  • Profile picture of the author chaotic squid
    From the article - "One thing Revleap actually does, it seems, is bombard their clients’ customers with surveys. Customers that respond favorably, and agree to post a review, are entered in a drawing for gift cards in an effort to deceptively boost their clients’ reputations."

    How is that tactic deceptive? Seems like the reputation company is simply going through their client's customers, finding ones that enjoyed the service, and then encouraging them to post a review online for a chance to win a prize.

    They're real customers and they give them a small incentive to take action to post a review. Not like they're fake or simply "paid off"

    Damn, Yelp is a real piece of work! haha
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  • Profile picture of the author Mav91890
    I don't see how it is a deceptive tactic. If you tell your clients they can only get the incentive if they leave a good review, then yes. But I don't see anything wrong if they are just told they will receive a free sandwich next time they come for leaving a review.
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    • Profile picture of the author Matt Lee
      Originally Posted by Mav91890 View Post

      I don't see how it is a deceptive tactic. If you tell your clients they can only get the incentive if they leave a good review, then yes. But I don't see anything wrong if they are just told they will receive a free sandwich next time they come for leaving a review.
      Yelp and others have strict policies against exactly what you're suggesting You can't incentivize your customers to leave a review, especially a yelp review.

      But -What if you incentivize for "feedback"? Where customers would leave a rating and comment on your "feedback" page - that you could use for a testimonial rotator or page. Surely you can incentivize for feedback for your own website.

      The trick is to setup a threshold with the rating system so if they left you let's say 4 or 5 stars out of five - they would immediately be redirected to another page where it says something like - Thanks! Now that you've shared with us, please share with the world!

      Then you can list all of the sites you/your client is seeking reviews for. But i don't know if Yelp would consider this incentivizing or not - since you're not technically offering incentive for the review (just the feedback). I guess you're piggybacking if anything.
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      • Profile picture of the author Catalyst eMarketing
        Originally Posted by Matt Lee View Post

        Yelp and others have strict policies against exactly what you're suggesting You can't incentivize your customers to leave a review, especially a yelp review.
        True Matt!

        It's a violation at Google too and the FTC does not exactly condone the practice either.
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      • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
        Originally Posted by Matt Lee View Post

        Yelp and others have strict policies against exactly what you're suggesting You can't incentivize your customers to leave a review, especially a yelp review.

        But -What if you incentivize for "feedback"? Where customers would leave a rating and comment on your "feedback" page - that you could use for a testimonial rotator or page. Surely you can incentivize for feedback for your own website.

        The trick is to setup a threshold with the rating system so if they left you let's say 4 or 5 stars out of five - they would immediately be redirected to another page where it says something like - Thanks! Now that you've shared with us, please share with the world!

        Then you can list all of the sites you/your client is seeking reviews for. But i don't know if Yelp would consider this incentivizing or not - since you're not technically offering incentive for the review (just the feedback). I guess you're piggybacking if anything.

        Actually a testimony/review can be legally compensated its just that full disclosure must also be given and this is where many run into issues about reviews.

        Even on your own private site if you have reviews posted that were given in exchange for an incentive of any type you have to disclose that as well.

        So in short giving a coupon or a cash award anything of monetary value in exchange for a review is NOT illegal as long as its fully disclosed about the incentive.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mav91890
    I said I don't see anything wrong with it, not that I'm telling people to go out and do it. I honestly don't care about a companies terms of service myself. But if you're representing someone else it's a different story.
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  • Profile picture of the author Freebiequeen1999
    Really why do you assume that most companies that do reputation management pay for reviews?


    I think most 1) try to get positive seo , pr and links for the company to push out the bad reviews
    2) try to make the company pro-active - address a bad review that is legit and try to "make it right"
    3) as Matt said, trying to get more reviews and not paying or giving an incentive
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by Freebiequeen1999 View Post

      Really why do you assume that most companies that do reputation management pay for reviews?


      I think most 1) try to get positive seo , pr and links for the company to push out the bad reviews
      2) try to make the company pro-active - address a bad review that is legit and try to "make it right"
      3) as Matt said, trying to get more reviews and not paying or giving an incentive
      That's because MOST companies that do reputation management do a piss poor job at it and DO indeed pay for reviews. I would say more do that than not.

      Reviews are a very little part of reputation management. The first 2 things mentioned are probably the most important, with 90% of the time focused on #1.
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      • Profile picture of the author DABK
        I know someone who hired a rep mgmt company. They spewed out some 50 webpages (articles, pictures,videos, profiles) on tumblr and such and called it a day. And the quality isn't so good. S, now, at the top of the page for certain keywords, you get the bad stuff about the guy who paid them wanted moved down, followed, on pages 2 - 14 (interspersed with content that already existed before they came into the picture) a lot of crappy content about the client).

        All in all, I think it's worse.

        I think there are a lot of reputation management people who do just that + fake reviews. Why? Because it's the easiest way to do something that can be sold as rep management.
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        • Profile picture of the author savidge4
          I do a bit of rep management. I cant say that I do much, I by no means specialize in it. My take on the industry is #1 there is this overall need or desire to stuff the bad down as low as you can get it, and cover it up with flower and rainbows. Just like lifting the carpet and sweeping the dirt under, instead of getting the dust pan.

          #2 Due to the nature of most peoples business this becomes a monthly charged service. So something has to be done month in and month out. I personally.. just do not see Reputation Management being that type of service. I honestly think the more you do, the more you risk at being an exception, and ultimately flushing all the work you have done right in the do not display bin.

          The very first thing I do with a client... is look over all of the comments. If there are bad comments, even if they are 3 yrs old. We sit down and directly answer that issue. Its something like this that creates a turning point in the social impact of the reviews.

          I then start working on gathering positive reviews. Guess what? I pay for them. I need them consistently 1 every few days for the next few months. how do you get a constant slow drip? you walk up and say "would you like 20% off your bill today?"

          From the base of correcting, or at the best acknowledging past grievances I introduce that slow not even close to daily drip of good comments. At this point. I do the unthinkable. I FAKE a bad comment. And turn right back around and fix the issue the "customer" has. To be honest here I don't ALWAYS have to do this. there have been cases the owners just suck and they get complaints on their own. LOL

          Again, I try and CLEARLY define OLD management traits and introduce NEW compassion based problem correcting management traits. And it all plays out for everyone to see. It seriously looks genuine and honest. - and I hope going through the process with the client ensures it really is just that.
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    Expedia (same company as Hotels.com and a bunch of others) just announced
    they are going to be sending emails to guests during and after their stay to try
    to ward off guests negative reviews. Give the hotelier a chance to resolve issues
    before the guests post a bad review.

    Overall, it could be a good thing.

    I can see this leading to some guests asking for a discount or refund for every little
    thing. Or, trying to blackmail by saying give me this discount and I won't post anything
    negative on Expedia. (To which I would add Yelp, search engines, and especially Trip
    Advisor. LOL)

    I also wonder if Expedia will put pressure on me to refund or discount more than I want,
    especially if IMO the guest does not deserve any break.

    It is a quite common (odd to me, but really common) for a guest to have a lot of nice
    conversations with me and then post a negative review about something I could have
    fixed in a minute - if they had only told me about it.
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