Yelp!, I’m addicted. Cleverly written in Biz Journal, Sarah Duxbury wrote a piece titled Restaurant Learn to Yelp. She informs the transformation of user generated reviews.

Here are a few of my points.

Community. If you’re a restaurant owner, you need to have a comment box that people actually use. In this case, Yelp is an interactive virtual comment box. Long gone are the wooden comment boxes that offer a free meal. People trust their friends and despite many writers not being professional food writers, they the most important people, your customers. They pay your bills.

Rule of thumb. “Your customers are your boss.”

Improvement. Small restaurant owners have one major advantage over big franchises, the speed to change a food item. For instance, a restaurant owner reads multiple comments that Brad’s Chinese Shack serves Cajun fried rice that is too spicy. The owner can notify the chef immediately to decrease the spice level. On the contrary, major franchises and restaurant groups need a board of people to approve decisions.

Viral marketing. Satify your customers, and they will be your evangelist. Small business restaurant owners don’t have big ad budgets for hiring a publicist or have advertising dollars so word of mouth advertising is the most cost effective way.

Lisa, the owner of Coco’s Crawfish, is a great example of an owner that actively user Yelp to communicate with her customers. Read Coco’s Crawfish blog:Sucking Encouraged for details.

My Yelp account: rayfil.yelp.com

Thanks Justin for the article.