Commit yourself and your employees to having your business dominate Yelp in your city and in your industry in that location.
tion center, a mobile collector or you run any other retail business. As with LinkedIn, it’s good to have a
goal in mind when you start out. Commit yourself and your employees to having your business dominate Yelp in your city and in your industry in that location. Don’t passively sit back and wonder about when a Yelp review will come in, set a goal of get- ting 10 reviews per month with an average rating of 4.5/5 per month. Communicate Yelp activity to your em-
ployees with monthly reports on how your business is doing and recognize employees that are inspiring positive reviews, which are good for your overall brand.
Yelp profile tips 1. To get started on Yelp, set up your busi- ness page at
biz.yelp.com.
2. Put up a Yelp badge in your store, and in your communications pieces (email, brochure, receipts) and encourage people to submit a review on their way out the door.
3. Be active with responding to your nega- tive reviews. Even if those negative re- viewers do not respond or change their reviews, people will see that you’ve responded to it, you are following those reviews and you are acting on them to beter your business.
4. Show your appreciation to your posi- tive reviewers. You can offer perks but a simple thank you is best, lest it appear that you are trying to buy good reviews.
5. Drug testing facilities might not seem like the most obvious business to be featured on Yelp, but you can use that to your advantage. If yours is the only drug testing facility or service on Yelp in your area, it’s the only one that will come up in a search for that particu- lar location.
6. Yelp deals do not do well for all busi- nesses and locations and, again, the drug testing industry doesn’t lend itself to Yelp deals but at least test it out. You might be surprised. (It’s only $100 any- way.) Tere might be competitors’ ads on your Yelp profile and bribing Yelp with advertising can get those taken off.
7. Add events to Yelp for your business like small, informal seminars/webinars on drug testing to local businesses or parents. And link your Twiter and Face- book accounts to your Yelp account. Yelp is especially great for targeting cus-
tomers if you have a retail location or facil- ity. It will help them find you and by virtue of your outstanding customer service and professionalism (let’s not forget the basics, here) they’ll help others choose your busi- ness with their positive reviews. As great as LinkedIn and Yelp can be,
it’s important to remember they are only tools and will only work as well as you use them. Don’t expect immediate results with them. Just signing up won’t automatically mean tapping into a ready-built network. As you keep building your profiles and accounts your network will grow and pay dividends in time. If you want to see some examples, screenshots and more tips, visit
TestCountry.com/DownloadTips. ❚
Serhat Pala is the President and founder of TestCountry, one of the first and the lead- ing provider of wide variety instant test kits and lab-based services covering a number
of areas such as substance abuse, air & water quality, health and wellness. In 2007, TestCountry was recognized as an INC 500 fastest growing private companies. That growth still continues with cost effective and easy to manage employee workplace drug testing solutions that TestCoun- try provides to thousands of companies.
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datia focus
winter 2013
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