Everyone's a critic: Yelp reviews hold great power
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Next time you write a restaurant review on Yelp, you could be deciding the fate of the establishment.
A one-star increase in a restaurant's Yelp rating translates to a 5- to 9-percent increase in revenue, according to a 2011 Harvard Business School study.
Just as good reviews can help raise a restaurant's revenue, bad ones can really hurt.
When the San Francisco restaurant Jake's closed in December, it posted a note on its website saying, "Reading reviews and ratings on Yelp such as, 'I hated the color of their T-shirts, I'll never be back. I give them one star!' or being criticized for the taste of food that we have never even served at Jake's, was both amusing and demoralizing, not only to us as owners, but to our co-workers who put all of their efforts into giving each guest a great experience."
Meanwhile, a San Diego restaurant called Craft & Commerce has started playing the one-star reviews it has received on Yelp over the bathroom speakers.
They do tend to lose some of their power when read aloud:
See more videos from Real Actors Read Yelp.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Dear reader,
Political debates with family or friends can get heated. But what if there was a way to handle them better?
You can learn how to have civil political conversations with our new e-book!
Download our free e-book, Talking Sense: Have Hard Political Conversations, Better, and learn how to talk without the tension.
