How To Delete a Yelp Review: Business Management

Nothing quite matches the feeling of receiving a bad review. We know the feeling. It’s that sinking pit in your stomach and flutter of anxiety as you dare yourself to read it in full. Or perhaps you’ve passed that point and are now just full of rage at the audacity of this customer’s comments. Regardless, we understand why you are now furiously researching how to delete a Yelp review.

It might not be much consolation, but every business owner gets a bad review here and there. It’s all part of working with the public and in a service role. Not everything can go smoothly all the time, and there’s always one customer who’s slightly less tolerant of business hiccups. However, what’s really vital is how you move forward.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to deal with that negative Yelp review. Whether you delete or keep it, these strategies will keep your online reputation solid. We’ll cover Yelp’s deletion policy, the power of good and bad reviews, and whether you should keep the bad ones. It’s a fine dance; we are here to show you the ropes.

What Is Yelp?

Yelp is an American company that works internationally to provide a database of service-driven businesses. You’ll find doctors, restaurants, schools, and hair salons; each has a profile with business reviews.

It is a little like setting up a Google My Business (GMB), and it’s a great way to start building your online reputation. It acts as a neutral platform that allows users to advise each other on the best businesses.

For business owners, there’s nothing quite as useful as having a great online reputation. Yelp is a great tool, and it’s free to start. You can just list your business on the site and input key information like location and images.

If you want to, you can then invest in paid advertising further down the line, with extra Yelp services available.

Yelp is essentially one big Yellow Pages directory, but online and with online reviews. As a customer, it’s great to get a taste of all the different businesses out there. And you can relax with the support of other reviews, knowing that you are making a wise service investment.

Can You Delete a Yelp Review?

Kind of. Whether or not you can delete a Yelp review depends on your grounds for doing so. The site has a strict deletion policy to ensure its business profiles represent the true customer experience. After all, you wouldn’t want someone removing all bad reviews, would you? Therefore, the question of “Can you delete a Yelp review?” is slightly nuanced.

Yelp’s content guidelines are simple; you’re not allowed to do the following:

• To leave fake reviews
• To leave a defamatory review
• To promote alternative businesses in a review
• To rant about irrelevant aspects of your business experience

As you can see, judging by these criteria, Yelp may remove a negative review for you. In essence, it is possible to delete Yelp reviews that are unfair or unjustly damaging. Think character assassination versus constructive feedback on waiting times at a restaurant.

Hate speeches and inappropriate content won’t fly on Yelp, so if your review fits that bill, it’s worth deleting. Simply look over the review and see if it matches with any of those guidelines. If you’re unsure whether it fits the criteria, we’d suggest getting an objective party to read and judge it as well.

In the end, you can submit the review to Yelp for examination. Ultimately, it’s their choice whether it’s eligible for deletion, so brace yourself for a “no” just in case. But if you’ve got a truly outrageous bit of public feedback, it’s worth giving it a go.

How To Delete a Yelp Review From Customers

With all of the above in mind, what if you decide that your review qualifies for deletion? Easy. Now, you can proceed to learn how to get rid of a Yelp review. As we explained, you must submit this to Yelp and wait for their final decision. Here’s how the process works.

1. Select the Problematic Review

Log onto your Yelp Business account and click the Reviews tab on your dashboard. Select the problematic review that you’d like Yelp to remove. This may take a little while to scroll through all the reviews you already have.

2. Report the Review

Clicking on the three dots to the right of the review brings up several options. From these options, click Report Review. This will bring up a questionnaire-type page where you can input important details, including your grounds for removal.

3. Wait

Now you wait; it can take a few days for Yelp to make its final decision. Distract yourself by investing in collecting positive reviews and providing great service.

How To Delete Your Yelp Review

What about if it is your review you want to delete? Did you leave a negative review that actually seems too defamatory in hindsight? The beauty of Yelp is that you can remove your reviews instantly. Just follow these steps:

Go to Your Reviews

Log onto your Yelp account and click the Reviews tab on your dashboard. Then, find the review you’d like to remove.

Click Remove

You can remove it instantly by clicking Remove, which may also show as a trash can. Click confirm, and voila—the review is gone.

The Power of Reviews: Good and Bad

Managing your Yelp reputation is essential. You know that and so do we. However, deleting bad reviews isn’t always the best approach. Here’s our take on the power of good and bad reviews.

Firstly, negative reviews aren’t always actually bad. Sometimes, they just point out room for improvement in a fair way while also emphasizing your business’ positives.

For instance, they say they loved your menu, pricing, and location but that your service was slow. To a potential customer, this isn’t massively off-putting, just realistic. Work on the fix, reply politely, and don’t worry too much.

Even awful reviews can actually be useful. For instance, if you get a ridiculously angry review, it gives you the chance to respond professionally.

Sometimes, the worst reviews show themselves up, especially if they get a fact wrong or use bad language. If the review is a one-off and totally ungrounded, it’s a great chance for your business’s professionalism to shine.

We all know the power of good reviews. Of course, they build trust and prompt further new customer engagement. But we’d caution you to consider the benefits of bad reviews as well.

In summary:

• Good reviews build trust in your business.
• Good reviews can prompt new customer engagement.
• Constructive reviews aren’t off-putting as long as you respond professionally.
• Constructive reviews guide you to improving your business.
• Awful reviews give you the chance to show professionalism.
• All bad reviews allow you to reinforce your brand ethos and image.

Beambox: How To Utilize WiFi for Better Reviews

As you can see, there’s no need to frantically search “how to remove Yelp review” when you receive one bad review. There are levels to this, and sometimes, what seems like a bad review can actually be beneficial to your business.

In fact, some customers trust businesses with “bad” reviews more than businesses with suspiciously all glowing reviews

There is a way to encourage more positive reviews, though, and that’s WiFi marketing. At Beambox, we provide an all-in-one WiFi marketing platform that allows you to prompt customers to leave reviews.

When they connect to your WiFi, it triggers a captive portal page. This page requests details like their email address or a review so they can proceed.

Start your Beambox free trial today, and you can quickly build reviews for your business. Move past the question of “How to delete a Yelp review” and instead focus on accruing better reviews.

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