Blog

About

Careers

Contact

Solo's blog provides the resources that microbusinesses, solopreneurs, freelancers, and other super-small businesses need to start, operate, and grow.

Blog for starting, running, and growing your business | Solo.co

Blog - All Posts

In this article:\nWhat is live chat?\nWhat are chatbots?\nHow to decide which to use\nOptions for live chat a chatbot services for business websites\nIt’s not a matter of whether or not you should have chatting capabilities on your business site (you totally should), but a matter of which type of chat serves your business best. Consumers are relying more on online communications with businesses as they do their research for a service or look for customer support. In fact, 70% of customers today prefer messaging to voice for customer support. \nIn this guide, we’ll walk you through live chat and chatbots and tips on how to decide which is best for your business. \nWhat is live chat and why is it important?\nLive chat gives your business the capability to chat with a customer in real-time via an online messaging platform. This can be hosted directly on your website or on another platform that you send customers to with a link. Facebook Messenger is a great example of this. A customer can message a question and an employee can promptly respond, ideally helping the customer within that same conversation. \nLive chat is important for businesses that want to provide real human interactions with real-time support. It adds an additional outlet for customers to reach your business and contributes to higher customer satisfaction. \nWhat are chatbots and why are they important?\nChatbots are preprogrammed chatboxes that are embedded into your website. Generally, a business will provide a list of common questions and answers that customers might ask when they arrive on their site and give these to their chatbot provider.\nMany chatbot solutions are getting really powerful with AI technology that allows them to generate an answer to a user’s question without them even having to select a pre-programmed question. \nChatbots can range from super simple, where they just welcome a user to the site and then ask them to wait for an employee for live support, to extremely complex (on the development side of things), where they allow the user to type in a question and can hold an entire conversation to help answer the users’ questions without any human interaction at all. \nLike live chat, chatbots are important to use for those customers that prefer to do their own research or don’t want to pick up the phone to call. Unlike live chat, chatbots can work for you 24/7/365. They can help your customers answer questions without needing an employee to be logged into your chat system. \nIs live chat or a chatbot better for your business?\nTo determine which solution (or combination of the two) is best for your business, you need to outline your customer service goals and what you want that experience to look like. \nIs it important for customers to be able to “reach” your business outside of business hours? Or do you want to make sure a customer is always talking to a real person?\nLet’s discuss a few different goals that you might have and if live chat or a chatbot will work better for each one. \nResponse time\nFirst, how quickly do you want to be able to respond to your customers’ questions? Is it important to you that they get an immediate response?\nCustomer satisfaction goes way up when you can get back to them quickly. It may take several hours or even a day or two to get back to a customer via email or on Facebook Messenger. Even live chat can take a little bit of time if your queues are full. \nIf you want customers to receive an immediate response when they hop onto your chat, then a chatbot may be the best route here. If you aren’t worried about a little bit of wait time scaring customers away, especially outside of business hours, then live chat should work just fine. \nYou can even have the best of both worlds with a live chat option that has a few pre-programmed responses to help with simple questions that can then redirect customers to an employee as needed. \nCost savings\nIt’s generally safe to assume that business owners like to save money and want their operations to be as cost-effective as possible. Both solutions can help you increase your bottom-line, it just comes back to your goals and current budget. \nLive chat is generally very affordable, so long as you have the personnel to monitor and run the chats. Beyond its affordability, live chat also helps increase customer retention with real-time communication that prevents sales funnel dropouts. \nChatbots are a great cost-saving solution in that they don’t require personnel to get the job done. Around 80% of customer queries on chatbots have been resolved without human supervision. This can save your business a lot of the time and money that it takes to answer simple questions over and over again. You could preprogram your FAQs into your chatbot to help give your customers the answers they didn’t search your website for, too. \nAccuracy\nWhile chatbots are getting better at handling more complex answers with improving AI and Machine Learning capabilities, they don’t get it right 100% of the time. It can be frustrating for a customer to ask a question to a chatbot to get an answer they’ve already seen or something that doesn’t answer their question at all. \nIf your company’s products and services tend to do get a little more complex, you may want to consider live chat, or at the very least program your chatbot to direct customers to your employees when a query falls outside the simple answer.\nThat being said, there is a range of chatbot solutions that you can choose from to help mitigate this problem. You can use chatbots that only have pre-programmed questions if you wish, so a customer has to select from a list that your chatbot provides. That will ensure accurate answers from your chatbot, but then it functions more like your FAQ page and doesn’t allow the customer to search for the specific question that brought them to your site. \nIf you need to answer simple questions quickly, without human supervision, a chatbot is the best solution here. But if things are more complex, then live chat will give your customers a better experience and, hopefully, earn you more sales. \nPersonal touch\nCustomers that feel a human connection to your business and have successful personal engagements generally turn into repeat customers, or at least spend a little more. Live chat helps achieve the desire for personal connection with real-time assistance, increasing customer satisfaction. \nIf your ideal customer prefers human interaction, then live chat may be the best solution for you. Chatbots are better if your customer wants a fast, self-service answer to a simple question so they can purchase quickly and move on with their day. \nSome live chat and chatbot solutions to consider\nOnce you’ve determined which solution works best for your goals, you can put a plan into action. \nHere are a couple of popular solutions we’ve found that you can try:\nFacebook Messenger. Facebook has a \nchat plugin\n that allows your web developers to embed your Facebook chat into your website. You just have to be logged onto Facebook and connected to your business Facebook page to respond to questions as they come in. This eliminates the need to redirect customers to your Facebook page to chat with someone. And, it’s free! This is definitely a live chat solution, but Facebook does allow you to program some simple questions into the chat, too\nLiveChat is considered the industry leader in live chat solutions. It has tons of integrations with different software you may use—Google Analytics, chatbots, email marketing services, CRMs, and more. It does start at $16/month per agent that you have available to chat, so there are some costs to consider here\nChatBot is a great chatbot option for businesses. For $50/month, you get an active chatbot with 1000 chats/month (then $0.01/chat thereafter), all integrations that the software provides, unlimited conversation scenarios, basic reporting, and data security \nThere are also several industry-specific chatbot solutions out there too, so definitely look around to find the best solution for your business. Maybe even check out what your competitors are using and test it out to see if that would fit your needs. 

Which is better for business: live chat or chatbot? (pros and cons)

In this article:\nWhy use Google My Business for your pet service business\nWhat’s the local 3-pack and why do you need it\nWhat to include in your pet service business’s Google listing\nGoogle is the most widely used search engine by far. It holds more than 90% of the search engine market share, and that should be reason enough to list your pet service business on Google, even if you're a super-small, one-person business.\nBeyond simply listing your business on Google though, there are several things you should include on your Google business listing to optimize it well for converting new customers. \nWhy use Google My Business for your pet service business\nWe’ve established that Google gets a ton of traffic, so that’s definitely one key reason you want to use this free directory for your pet business. \nBesides that, Google is the number-one place that people go when they are searching for a new business like your vet clinic, groomer, pet boarding center, or other pet-related business. Listing your business on Google will help those people who are searching for your services to find you easier. \nSome advantages that Google My Business can offer your pet service business include:\nIncreasing brand awareness\nBetter customer conversions with more online reviews\nEasy access to contact and location information for your customers\nMore opportunity to reach new customers\nGet started: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\nGoogle’s local 3-pack and why you want to be there\nGoogle’s local 3-pack, also called the “map pack,” has replaced the phone books. This is the part of the search results that get the most clicks when people do a search for local services like “vet clinic” or “pet groomer.”\nHere are three important steps you can take to help your pet business appear in Google’s local 3-pack:\nCreate a Google My Business listing and optimize it (with the tips we have listed below)\nGet online reviews consistently streaming in and respond to them\nAdd your pet business to other \nfree business listing sites\nThese tips should be a part of every local business’s SEO (search engine optimization) strategy to help them improve their online visibility. Take advantage of the valuable opportunities that these free tips can add for your pet service business. \nGo deeper: \n15 free tips for better local search rankings\nThings your pet service business should include on your Google business listing\nThere’s more to creating the optimal Google My Business listing for your pet business than just claiming and creating it. You need to add the kind of information that potential customers are searching for. \nMake sure your Google listing’s information is always kept updated and displays accurate information or your rankings could suffer. \n1. NAP information\nNAP information is your business name, address, and phone number. These are the most important pieces of information for you to display on your Google My Business listing, and you can’t set one up without them. \nPro tip: Make sure your NAP information is the exact same across all of your online directory listings. Use the same version of your business name, same phone number, and same address everywhere. If these are inconsistent, it can confuse the search engines and harm your ranking opportunities. \n2. Category for your pet business\nThe next most important piece of information is a category for your business. This is a huge factor for when Google decides to show your business to its users. \nIf you’re a pet groomer, then find the most appropriate categories for the services you offer. Do the same if you are a vet clinic, boarding service, or any other pet-related business. \nFind the best category for your business so you can show up when users are searching for your services. \n3. Open hours\nListing the hours when your business is open is absolutely crucial. You don’t want customers to show up when your business is closed and decide to go somewhere else, or worse, leave a negative review because of it. \nList all of the hours that you are open each day, and be sure to include any special hours for holidays. \n4. Business Website\nInclude your business website on your Google listing to help customers learn more about your pet business. Most people like to see a website when they are in their initial research phase for a new service business. \nThe quality of the website associated with your Google My Business listing can also help send the right signals to Google (meaning you could rank better). Having good content on your website and getting other websites to link to it can help with this. \nGoogle will also use your website to help improve the experience for its users. For example, if someone does a search for “pet haircuts near me” and your website talks about “pet haircuts,” Google will indicate that your website mentions that particular service. \n5. Photos, photos, and more photos\nPeople are very visual. We like to see photos of the places that we’re going to visit and the services that we are going to get. We want to know what experience we’re going to have before we ever arrive at your business. \nSo include lots of photos. \nSome great pictures to include on your pet service listing could be staff photos, candid shots of staff working with pets, your location (interior and exterior), your logo, and of course, the pets!\n6. Description of your pet service business\nGoogle has a field on your Google My Business listing where you can enter a description of your business. This is a great place to tell more about your business, what you do, and share your story. \nGive as much information as you can so customers get a feel for who you are and know that their pets will be safe in your hands. \n7. Services and products\nList your services and, if applicable, products on your Google My Business listing. Include prices if possible. The more information you can provide here, the better chance you have to convert customers.\nPeople want the best service for their pets, but they also want to make sure they are paying the right price. \n8. Attributes\nEvery Google listing has a place for you to include special attributes for your business. These could be things like wifi accessibility, wheelchair entrances, payment options, and so many others. \nGoogle will determine what attributes seem relevant for your business and give you options to add to your listing. Watch for this section and update it whenever you see a new, relevant attribute. \n9. Google posts\nYou can create posts from your Google My Business listing to share new deals that your business is offering, fun events that you’re involved with, and so much more. These posts can be between 100 and 300 words and only last for seven days, so it’s a good idea to post at least once a week.\n10. Reviews and responses\nReviews can make the difference between you getting new customers or sending them running to your competitors. Work with your staff to come up with a solid strategy for obtaining new Google reviews on your business listing. \nA few ways you can do this include asking for reviews, posting “rate us on Google signs,” and sending text or email invitations to your customers to leave you reviews. \nWhen you do start getting reviews on Google, it’s important to respond to them within a day or two as well. Your response is just as important as the review itself. \nGo deeper: \nHow to respond to Google reviews\n

10 things every pet service business should have on their Google Business listing

In this 7-minute read:\n21 free listing sites for your retail business\nManage your listings with reputation management software\nOne of the most important things you can do for your retail business is to increase its online visibility. This allows you to get reviews online, helps your business to get found by more customers, and increases cash flow.  \nA great way to help improve that visibility is to claim all of your free online directory listings, commonly referred to as citations. Research shows that when businesses claim multiple free listings, they earn 78% more money than businesses that don’t claim any. \nLet us help you get started with these free listing sites for your retail business. \n1. Google My Business is essential for retailers\nGoogle My Business is always the first place that you want to start. This is how you get into the Google maps and show up on the first online source people use when looking for a new store. \nList your retail business on Google with our guide: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\n2. \nFacebook is a must for your retail shop\nFacebook is another huge one that consumers are using more and more to contact businesses. When someone has a question about your store and they can’t find the answer on your website, they’ll often ask a question through Facebook’s messenger app before coming into the store. \nThis is also one that tends to show up on the first page of Google when someone searches for your business (if you have a business page, of course). \n3. Don’t forget Bing Places \nBing is a popular search engine as the default for Microsoft's web browser. Don’t miss out on valuable opportunities by missing this one. The best part is, if you have your Google listing claimed, you can just sign in to your Google account on \nBing Places\n and import your store’s listing. \n4. Retail on Yelp? Yes!\nMillions of people are on Yelp every day searching for new places to shop and take their business to. As the third most popular review platform, this is definitely a place you want your store to be. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\n5. \nTripAdvisor is good for retail also\nMany people use TripAdvisor when they are traveling, and whether you have a souvenir shop or simply a grocery store that someone will need during their travels, it’s a good idea to list your retail business here. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your listing on TripAdvisor\n6. \nFoursquare is helpful\nWith 55 million users every month, Foursquare is a pretty popular listing site. On their platform, your store visitors can “check-in” to your store and leave helpful tips for other visitors. Get more feedback for your retail business by listing it on this site. \n7. \nBetter Business Bureau (BBB): a no-brainer\nHaving your store listed on and rated by the Better Business Bureau sends huge trust signals to customers and potential employees. This is important for any business. So get your store listed on BBB.org today with \nthis form\n. \n8. \nYellowbook: specialized local digital marketing \nYellowbook is another “yellow pages” directory site. They are run by a digital marketing company called Hibu. Hibu specializes in local digital marketing and they know what it takes to help retail businesses like yours show up better on Google and other search engines. \nList your store on Yellowbook with its simple-to-use \nform\n. \n9. YP.com (remember the Yellow Pages?)\nThe traditional “Yellow Pages” has digitized its platform to bring us YP.com, a huge online directory service that gets more than 60 million visitors every month. They know the importance of improving your online presence. \nYou can go to \nYP.com\n to claim your free YellowPages business listing. \n10. MerchantCircle for local retailers\nMerchantCircle is all about directing users to the best local merchants—that’s you! They separate merchants by category to help their visitors easily find the service or products that they are looking for. \nGet started in claiming your MerchantCircle listing with \nthis form\n. \n11. People still use \nMapQuest\nAnother popular one for travelers, MapQuest is still a widely used directory site. Their support team is awesome and will help you get your store added to their database quickly. \nJust \nsubmit a support ticket\n to MapQuest and see your store’s listing in days. \n12. Manta for cross-platform listings\nManta is a little different from these other sites in the extra features that it offers you. When you put your business information into Manta, they will scan other business listing sites to make sure your information is consistent across multiple platforms. \nThis consistency is super important to the search engines in order to provide customers the most accurate information for your store. \nManta makes it simple to sign your store up for a free listing \nhere\n. \n13. Citysearch: essential for local retail\nCitysearch wants to provide users with the best experience in finding great businesses in their neighborhoods. Customers shouldn’t have to travel far to find what they are looking for. \nCitysearch prioritizes fun with cool features like voting for your favorite places, special deals, and award badges. \nAdd your store to Citysearch by adding it to the \nCityGrid\n database. \n14. Hotfrog: the “freshest” local business directory\nHotfrog boasts itself as the freshest local business directory in the United States, and for good reason. Its directory is constantly growing with more businesses each day to help users find the best local places to be. \nGet your store listed\n on Hotfrog for free today. \n15. Local.com\nLocal.com wants to help customers find the hottest local happenings in their cities. Make sure your store is one of them!\nLocal.com will provide driving directions, reviews, and contact information for each listing on its site to help give customers the best information available. List your store on local.com by signing up for an account \nhere\n. \n16. Verify your retail shop with ExpressUpdate\nExpressUpdate is a big one that you want to make sure your store is listed on. They are what’s known as an “aggregator,” meaning once your store’s information is verified on their site, they’ll pass it along to other partner sites. So you just got multiple free listings from one site. Pretty neat, right?\nExpressUpdate does require a little more on the verification side of things than some of these listing sites. Once you’ve added all of your store’s information, they’ll do a phone call verification to confirm that your info is accurate. Then, the listing is all yours and ready to go. \nGet started by \nsearching your business\n on ExpressUpdate. \n17. Solo profile\nWith a free Solo profile, even the smallest local retailer or pop-up can have a helpful, functional SEO-friendly online presence for free. Building and maintaining a traditional website is simply too much for many small retailers to deal with. This is one reason a Solo profile can be such an amazing benefit. \nYour customizable Solo profile can list your business’s location, relevant contact information, links to your social pages, and any business details you want included. Sign up at\n \nSolo.co\n.\n18. Brownbook: comprehensive retail listings\nBrownbook.net is a fun one because it allows you to add so much more information than several of these listing sites. You can add tons of images, videos, history, business accommodations, and so much more. \nJust make sure you get your business name spelled correctly the first time, because they don’t allow you to change it (without contacting their support team anyway). \nList your store on Brownbook.net with \nthis form\n. \n19. Instagram is huge for retail\nInstagram is super popular among younger demographics, so if the target audience for your store falls in that category, make sure you are active where they are! \nIf you are going to get into Instagram, just be sure to have lots of awesome photos and “heart-worthy” content that will get you tons of followers. \n20. YouTube? Yes tube!\nYouTube is another great social media channel to take advantage of. Create a channel for your store where you can show off new products, give fun tutorials, and share advice about the different ways your products can be used. \n21. Local chamber of commerce\nYour local chamber of commerce is all about helping its community succeed—and that includes helping small businesses like your store get found. Most chambers have an online directory in their community, as well as free resources to help businesses market themselves better, so take advantage. \nManaging all of these listings sites and then trying to get new reviews to these sites on top of that can seem like a lot of work. But online reviews and engagement is super-important, even for the smallest retail business types, so make sure you develop a plan to stay on top of it.

21 free online listing sites you should add your retail business to

In this article:\nClaim your Google My Business listing\nGet customer reviews and respond to them\nAdd your restaurant to other online directories\nSteps to improve local SEO\nUse Google Ads\nThink about the last time you needed a new service or wanted to try a new restaurant. Where did you go to find it? If you said Google, then you’re right there with about 90% of your customer base. \nConsumers often ask Google first when they are searching for a cool new place to dine out. That’s why it’s so important that you know what you can do to promote your restaurant on Google and improve your search rankings. \nWe have some great tips to help you do just that. \nClaim your restaurant’s Google My Business Listing\nThe first thing you need to do to help your restaurant show up in what we call the local search results (also known as Google’s map pack) is to create and claim your Google My Business listing. \nGoogle My Business is a free platform that allows your business to show up better on Google, get customer reviews, and help guide customers to your restaurant. Most people’s phones are connected to Google Maps to get from place to place, so in order to help them get directions to your restaurant, you need to be on Google My Business. \nHere’s a quick guide to help: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\nOnce you’ve created your restaurant’s Google My Business listing, be sure to include all of the following information on it to best support your customers:\nBusiness name\nBusiness address\nBusiness phone number\nCategory (what type of restaurant?)\nOpen hours (including any special holiday hours)\nWebsite\nRestaurant description\nPrice range\nPhotos of your restaurant, branding, and food\nGet more Google reviews and respond to them\nOnce your Google My Business listing is out there, it’s time to get some customer reviews for your restaurant. \nThe problem with online reviews is that happy customers don’t always think to leave you a review and unhappy customers are all too willing to go online and share their distaste. We have a few solutions to help with this. \n Simply let customers know you appreciate their feedback. Find the opportune moments to ask your customers to leave you a review on Google. \n Post “Rate us on Google” signage strategically throughout your restaurant. This can be in menus, in the lobby, or on the door on the way out. Just give a little reminder that you’d love your customers’ feedback on Google. \n Consider reputation management software. Solutions like this will help you streamline the process of getting your customers directly to your Google listing to leave you a review. \nOnce you have reviews coming in, it’s important to respond to them promptly. It’s also crucial to respond to all reviews–good or bad. Give those good reviews a personalized thank you message. Respond to the negative reviews with a sincere apology and ask the customer to reach out so you can resolve the issue. \nCheck out our guide on \nresponding to Google reviews\n for some deeper insights. \nAdd your restaurant to other online business directories\nGoogle My Business is not the only online directory that you should add your business to. One way to help improve your online visibility and increase your restaurant’s local rankings on Google is, ironically, to add your restaurant to other online directories. \nGoogle uses other references to your restaurant across multiple sites to help verify that your information on their platform is correct. The more reputable online directories that list your restaurant’s information accurately, the better chance you have to rank higher on Google. \nHere are a few directories and guides you can use to get started:\nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\nHow to create and claim your Facebook business page\n\nHow to add your restaurant to OpenTable\n\nGet even more listings for your restaurant with this article: \n24 free listing sites every restaurant should be on\nBoost your restaurant’s Google rankings with SEO\nBeyond adding your restaurant to other online directories, there are several things that you can do to boost your Google rankings through search engine optimization. Here are a couple suggestions to get you started. \nProvide well-written and relevant content on your website\nContent is king. In order to rank well organically on Google, your website needs to have good content that is valuable for your users and optimized well for the phrases that you want customers to find you with. \nMake sure your contact information is listed on your website\nProvide valuable information about your menu and prices with lots of photos\nStart a blog that offers free tips for people whether or not they choose to visit your restaurant\nGet other websites to link to yours\nA huge factor in ranking higher on Google is getting other websites to link to your website. When another website links to yours, it sends trust signals to Google that help them to know your website can be trusted by their users. \nTry out some of these ways to get links to your website:\nGet involved in your community. Host local events, sponsor community sports teams, get involved with non-profit organizations. This kind of involvement will likely result in mentions on the websites of these organizations. \nGet into the local news. When local news organizations do a story on your restaurant, be sure to ask them to link to your restaurant in their online article. \nGuest post on other blogs in the food industry. Within the bio for your guest article, link back to your website. \nGo deeper: \n15 free tips for better search rankings\nTry advertising your restaurant on Google\nGoogle has some powerful advertising capabilities that you should definitely take advantage of for your restaurant. \nWhile traditional SEO takes a lot of time and effort to show up at the top of the search results, Google Ads can place your listing near the top—if you pay for it. \nGoogle Ads have great targeting capabilities, so you can select the target audience for your restaurant—location, age, interests, other demographics—to show your ads to the customers who will most likely visit your restaurant. \nGoogle Ads are pay-per-click, which means that you pay a specific cost each time a user clicks on your ad. So it’s important to make sure that the cost you are paying will result in profits. \nLet’s say it costs $1.50 for each click your ad gets and you only get a new customer for every 20 clicks that your ad receives. That’s $30 to convert one customer with your ad campaign. If you have a higher-end restaurant where customers pay this much or more for a meal, it may well be worth it, especially if they turn into a repeat customer. \nJust do the math as you determine the costs and decide if the investment is worth the return. \nUltimately, you’ll get a better return on your investment with organic SEO because the efforts you take with this strategy compound over time and stick with you even if you stop doing SEO. With Google Ads, you might see immediate results, but as soon as you stop paying for those ads, your restaurant will no longer be showing up well in Google search results. \nThis is why Google Ads are a great supplemental strategy to help you show up on Google while you’re starting up your SEO efforts.\nRead more: \nGoogle Maps advertising for local business\n

5 ways to promote your restaurant on Google

In this article:\nWhich types of reviews can be removed from Yelp\nHow to flag Yelp reviews for removal\nWhy you shouldn’t be paralyzed by a bad Yelp review\nHow to improve your online reputation\nA bad Yelp review of your business can leave you feeling powerless—and for good reason. You’ve worked hard to build a good business and serve your customers. But since 9 out of 10 people report that they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from family or friends, online reviews can have a real effect on small business revenue. \nWhen business owners receive a bad Yelp review, they often ask: “How do I remove Yelp reviews?” or “Can I turn off Yelp reviews for my business?” Think about it: if someone walked around in front of your business with a huge sign saying “Don’t shop here!” you’d probably try to have them arrested.\nUnfortunately in our new digital marketspace, anyone and everyone can say pretty much whatever they want about your business, with a few exceptions (which we’ll discuss later). \nSo, is it possible to remove Yelp reviews?\nIn some cases, yes, but the issue is a complicated one.\nYelp will remove reviews if you can definitely prove that they violate \nYelp’s review policies\n, and the onus is on you to do so. We’ll elaborate those policies in a moment, but first let’s clarify what types of reviews you \ncan’t\n remove from Yelp.  \nYou can’t ask Yelp to remove reviews simply because you feel they are negative, “mean,” unfair, or even if you feel the customer totally misrepresented their experience.\nIf Yelpers actually patronize your business and simply share their experiences, then it’s a good bet those reviews aren’t going anywhere. In fact, Yelp’s policies specifically state, “We don’t take sides when it comes to factual disputes.”\nIf the majority of your negative reviews would likely be described as “factual,” the most effective approach is to assume the review is legitimate, engage the customer in good faith, and attempt to resolve any issues you can.\nYou might also like: \nHow to respond to negative reviews\n\nWhat types of Yelp reviews can be removed?\nWhile you can’t remove Yelp reviews just because they’re negative, Yelp may remove reviews they determine have violated their content guidelines.\nLet’s take a look at the 7 main types of reviews that Yelp prohibits:\nInappropriate content: Threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, and other displays of bigotry.\n\nConflicts of interest: Reviews of your own, your friends’, or your relatives’ business, or reviews of your peers or competitors in your industry, or of businesses in your networking group. \nPromotional content: Yelp generally frowns upon promotional content in reviews.\nIrrelevant content: Rants about a business’s employment practices, political ideologies, or other matters that don’t discuss the consumer experience. \n(Ostensibly, fake Yelp reviews would fall under this category, but we can find nothing in Yelp’s official documentation that says they will remove “fake reviews.” However, there is some reference to reporting “questionable” reviews and they will ostensibly be removed if Yelp deems them fake.)\nViolations of privacy: Other people’s private information, or close-up photos or videos of other patrons posted without their permission are prohibited, as well as posting other people’s full names (unless the business is known by or commonly shares their full name).\nIntellectual property: Content stolen from other sites or users. \nDemands for payment: Yelpers may ask for a refund, but may not not use removing or posting your review as a way to extract payment from a business, regardless of whether they’ve been a customer.\nObviously anything else that is illegal to post online in general should also be flagged if you find it in a Yelp review. \nHow to remove Yelp reviews that violate the content guidelines\nIf you’re sure that a review of your business violates Yelp’s content guidelines, you should definitely report it. You can read our “\nhow to remove Yelp reviews\n” article for details, but the TL;DR version is click the “flag” icon next to a desktop review, or click the three dots to the right of a mobile review and select “report review.”\n\nIt can take several days for Yelp to evaluate the review, so you’ll need to be patient. And you may not receive a response at all. But you will likely eventually receive a response from Yelp about the status of the reported review and a decision about whether or not they will remove it. If you disagree with the decision, you can contact them and resubmit the review for reevaluation.\nWhy a bad Yelp review may actually be a good thing\nStudies have revealed that negative reviews aren’t nearly damaging as business owners might fear.\nIn one study, businesses whose reviews were only 0% to 5% negative actually earn 21% LESS in annual revenue than the average business, while those whose reviews were 10% to 25% negative earned the most revenue.\nThere are several probable reasons for this, but one likely reason is that when people are searching for local businesses online, they may be used to seeing a certain amount of negative reviews in order to feel confident in patronizing a new business. \nBusinesses should use a bad review as an opportunity to not only improve their products and services, but to show potential customers their good character by posting a thoughtful, helpful response to a bad review.\nSurprisingly, data shows that even businesses whose reviews were \nup to 50% negative\n earn nearly the same as the average overall business. Additionally, of all the major review sites in the study, a low rating on Yelp correlated with the smallest drop in average revenue, which suggests that people may be more accustomed to seeing negative reviews and lower ratings on Yelp than on other review sites.\nneon yelp sign for remove reviews\nDon\n’\nt be paralyzed by a bad Yelp review, but take it seriously\nIt’s helpful to know that Yelp does have guidelines in place to help guard your business against the worst types of online behavior. But remember that it’s not likely that you’ll be able to remove Yelp reviews from your listing most of the time.\nNo matter how harsh a review might be, we always recommend that you treat your Yelp reviews like you would an in-person complaint. Take such reviews seriously, take the high road, and follow our guidelines for \nhow to respond to bad reviews\n, and you can often turn the conversation around and come out looking even more credible and reputable than before.

7 types of Yelp reviews that can be removed (and why bad reviews might be a good thing)

In this article:\n15 local business resources in Atlanta, GA\nAs you’re looking to start or improve your small business in Atlanta, you may be wondering where to start. There is a lot that goes into creating and maintaining a successful business, and sometimes we just aren’t aware of everything that we should be. \nThroughout this article, we’ll provide you with resources to help guide your entrepreneurial journey. Learn the best places to go to learn more about business management, funding your startup, networking, and much more. \nWe’ve broken this list down into five categories to help you easily find the resources you need for your Atlanta business:\nComprehensive business resources\nBusiness mentors and courses\nFinancial resources\nLocal chambers of commerce\nRecruitment and employment resources\nComprehensive business resources in Atlanta, GA\nThis first category includes comprehensive business resources that will help you in every aspect of starting and running your small business. \nCity of Atlanta\nThe City of Atlanta has an in-depth “\nHow to Start Your Business\n” guide with a list of all the resources you will need to start a business in Atlanta. From the best places to get funding to the licensing and permits you’ll need. \nTo contact the city:\nAtlanta City Hall Annex
55 Trinity Ave SW
Atlanta, GA 30303\nPhone: 311 or (404) 546-0311
Website: \nhttps://www.atlantaga.gov/doing-business\nYou may also like: \nTop questions to ask before you start a business\n\nGeorgia Small Business Administration (SBA)\nThe U.S. Small Business Administration seeks to help small businesses grow and thrive across the nation. The Georgia District Office runs the SBA branch in Atlanta to help further the economic development of this area. \nThrough this office, your small business can receive business counseling, guidance on business loans, training, and even federal contracting (when applicable). \nGeorgia District Office
233 Peachtree Street, NE Suite 300
Atlanta, GA\nPhone: (404) 331-0100
Website: \nhttps://www.sba.gov/offices/district/ga/atlanta\nAtlanta Business League\nThe Atlanta Business League seeks to help with the growth, creation, and development of small businesses owned by African Americans in the Atlanta, GA metropolitan area. They provide business meetings and seminars for local networking opportunities. \nThis organization also offers membership benefits such as:\nDiscounted ad placements\nReferrals\nExpanded networking events\nAtlanta Business League also has collaborated training and events with Clark Atlanta University, Georgia SBA, Goodwill of North Georgia, and the Georgia Minority Business Development Center. \nContact:\nAtlanta Business League
931 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive NW
Atlanta, Georgia 30314\nPhone: (404) 584-8126
Fax: (404) 584-0445
Website: \nhttps://atlantabusinessleague.org/\n\nBusiness mentors and courses in the Atlanta area\nThe following resources provide training programs and mentorship opportunities for small business owners and entrepreneurs in Atlanta, GA. \nSCORE Atlanta\nSCORE Atlanta has more than 100 business mentors in the Atlanta metropolitan area who are ready to help. You don’t have to learn how to start your business on your own. You can get free mentoring, attend low to no-cost local workshops, and take advantage of a list of free resources that SCORE Atlanta keeps up to date on their website. \nContact:\nAtlanta SCORE
233 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30303\nPhone: (404) 331-0121
Email: admin.0048@scorevolunteer.org
Website: \nhttps://atlanta.score.org/\nThe Atlanta Business Alliance\nThe Atlanta Business Alliance creates networking and mentorship opportunities for Atlanta business owners. They host a weekly forum for businesses to gain education, share business experiences, and make new professional connections. \nContact the ABA\n for an invitation to attend their weekly meetings, held every Tuesday at 7:30 am at The Georgian Club. \nUrban League of Greater Atlanta Entrepreneurship Center\nThe Urban League of Greater Atlanta has an entrepreneurship center that focuses on raising economic self-reliance in individuals. They offer training classes, one-on-one consulting, and additional resources. \nThey want to help business owners take a business from the pre-venture stages to growing enough to hire employees and beyond. \nContact:\nUrban League of Greater Atlanta TEC
229 Peachtree St NE #300
Atlanta, GA 30308\nPhone: (404) 659-1150
Website: \nhttps://ulgatl.org/the-entrepreneurship-center/\n\nAtlanta Small Business Development Center\nThe Small Business Development Center seeks to boost the local economy by providing business owners with the resources they need to succeed. \nThey offer specialized training for experienced entrepreneurs and break it down to the basics for those who are just starting out. They have workshops, training programs, and mentors to help business owners every step of the way. \nContact:\nAtlanta SBDC
75 Piedmont Ave, NE, Suite 700
Atlanta, GA 30303\nPhone: (404) 413-7830
Website: \nhttps://www.georgiasbdc.org/atlanta-office/\nFinancial resources for Atlanta businesses\nStarting your small business may require some financial assistance. So, we’ve included some helpful places that you can contact to help fund your new venture. \nInvest Atlanta\nInvest Atlanta holds seminars and offers informational resources to help you learn more about the business loan process. They also keep an updated list of local and state business loan opportunities that your small business may be eligible for. \nContact:\nInvest Atlanta
133 Peachtree St. Ne, Suite 2900
Atlanta, GA 30303\nPhone: (404) 880-4100
Website: \nhttps://www.investatlanta.com/businesses/small-businesses/small-business-loan-programs\nACE – Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs\nACE provides small businesses in Georgia with small business loans as well as business coaching to help ensure success. With financing and education, ACE has been able to loan more than $69 million to entrepreneurs since 2000. \nObtain a loan up to $50,000 when you meet \nACE requirements\n. \nContact:\nACE – Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs
504 Fair Street SW
Atlanta, GA 30313\nPhone: (678) 335-5600
Email: info@aceloans.org
Website: \nhttps://aceloans.org/\nSBA Loans Atlanta\nSBA Loans Atlanta is powered by Signature Bank and partnered with the U.S. Small Business Administration and Georgia District Office to help Atlanta businesses get the capital they need to start successful ventures.\nThey have several loan options and a quick online application process to help make loan acquisition simple and convenient. \nContact:\nSignature Bank
6065 Roswell Road
Sandy Springs, GA\nPhone: (404) 609-0234
Website: \nhttps://www.sbaloansatlanta.com\nLocal chambers of commerce\nLocal chambers of commerce all seek to further the economic development of their communities. Through membership benefits, networking events, marketing resources, workshops, and much more, local chambers help small businesses get started on the right foot. Contact one or more of the following chambers in the Atlanta area to see what resources are available to your business. \nMetro Atlanta Chamber\n191 Peachtree Street N.E. Suite 3400
Atlanta, Georgia 30303\nPhone: (404) 880-9000
Website: \nhttps://www.metroatlantachamber.com/\nGeorgia Chamber\n270 Peachtree St Nw
Atlanta, Ga 30303\nPhone: (404) 223-2264
Website: \nhttps://www.gachamber.com/\nCobb Chamber\n1100 Circle 75 Pkwy. Suite 1000
Atlanta, GA 30339\nPhone: (770) 980-2000
Website: \nhttps://cobbchamber.org/\n\nYou may also like: \nChamber of commerce basics, what they do, and why you should join\n.\nRecruitment and employment resources in Atlanta, GA\nWhether you need employees from the get-go or you plan to grow your business, you’ll want to be aware of the local recruitment resources available to you. List your job openings with these resources and gain an education on the obligations that you will have as an employer. \nEach of these organizations can provide you with additional resources regarding tax and payroll laws, compliance, and tips for recruiting new team members. \nGeorgia Department of Labor\nVisit the \nEmployer Page\n with the Georgia DOL to learn more about recruitment opportunities and gain valuable recruitment resources. \nMetroAtlantaJobs.com\n\nMetroAtlantaJobs.com\n will help you find the best candidates, promote your brand, and they provide regular webinars for recruiting tips and compliance. 

210 articles found in “All”

Which is better for business: live chat or chatbot? (pros and cons)

10 things every pet service business should have on their Google Business listing

21 free online listing sites you should add your retail business to

5 ways to promote your restaurant on Google

7 types of Yelp reviews that can be removed (and why bad reviews might be a good thing)

Atlanta: 15 best local resources to help small businesses

Recommended

How to spot fake online reviews

25 free business listing websites every small or local business should be on (Updated for 2022!)

How much does it cost to rent space for a small business?

The 6 elements of an effective customer loyalty program

Important market research questions to ask before starting a new business