Yell Reviews - Complete guide

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Accepted Answer

Yell.com Reviews is for customers and businesses
From the Yellow Pages to Yell.com
Is Yell.com free for businesses and reviewers?
Why online reviews matter to consumers
How to leave a review on Yell.com Reviews
Are Yell reviews genuine?
Yell.com reviews content guidelines for consumers
How much does it cost to leave a review?
What should a Yell review include?
Are reviewers penalised for leaving negative feedback?
Protecting people’s privacy
Who can see Yell reviews?
Can businesses respond to consumer reviews on Yell.com?
Does Yell verify or otherwise vet reviews?
How does Yell.com publish reviews?
Yell Reviews guidance for business owners
Business owners can opt out of reviews
Can businesses go ahead and remove negative customer reviews from Yell?
Yell’s advice for businesses who receive a negative review
How businesses can encourage customers to leave a review on Yell
Grow business reviews on Yell.com Reviews

Yell.com Reviews is for customers and businesses

Online reviews are essential for business owners who want to build a trusted online presence.

For consumers today, there is no substitute for reading honest reviews from their peers to help them make buying decisions. And this is where Yell Reviews comes in.

From the Yellow Pages to Yell.com

As the UK’s No1 online business directory, Yell.com offers consumers over 3 million listings for companies across every sector.

Yell.com is the digital replacement for the printed Yellow Pages, which had its final publication in 2019. Today’s online world demands digital solutions for businesses and consumers alike.

And while Yell has had online listings since 1996, which is when yell.co.uk launched as a complementary service to the Yellow Pages, the digital directory and services have expanded massively over recent years.

Yell.com builds on Yell’s 50+ years of experience in bridging the gap between businesses and consumers.

There are now more than 3 million business listings on Yell.com, split across more than 3000 classifications. This makes it easy for consumers to search for a local business for their specific needs. It’s also possible to search by the company name itself.

Is Yell.com free for businesses and reviewers?

Yell offers all businesses a free listing on Yell.com. As part of this, Yell Reviews adds value in terms of helping to build their brand reputation. It also helps businesses understand what’s working, what isn’t and what their customers really think of them.

On the consumer side, Yell Reviews offers descriptions of real-life experiences with businesses they’re interested in using.

We’ve created a community of Yell.com reviewers who can quickly and easily leave reviews and star ratings on our platform. They don’t even need a Yell account, as it’s possible to leave a review as a guest.

The community of Yell.com users generate thousands of reviews every year, across all kinds of local businesses.

Why online reviews matter to consumers

Yell commissioned Critical Research in 2021 to find out exactly what consumers think about online reviews. Do reviews help them to make decisions? Are online customer reviews really worthwhile? This is what the research found out about what consumers think about online reviews:

78% say that it’s important for businesses to respond to any problems raised in reviews.
67% say they’re more likely to select a business that has online reviews over one that doesn’t.
62% say that reviews need to be relatively current in order to be meaningful.
31% say that if a business they’ve used asks them to leave a review they will do so.
60% will consider using a business even if the overall review rating isn’t 100% perfect.
50% say that feedback is less trustworthy if it’s all positive.

And the most crucial fact is that 91% of consumers take action as a direct result of reading positive online reviews.

How to leave a review on Yell.com Reviews

You don’t need to create a Yell account to leave a review of a business on Yell Reviews.

However, if you want to go back and edit a review that has been published, you will need an account.

To create a Yell account, simply register here.

The benefits of having an account include:

You can customise your username.
You can upload a profile picture.
You will join the Yell Reviews community.
You can keep track of all the reviews you have left for businesses.

If you prefer to leave a review as a Guest, then you will need to provide us with your full name and email address as you leave the review. We’ll then email you to verify your details.

To write the review, search for the company you want to rate. When you find their Yell.com business listing, click on the ‘Write a Review’ button, which is at the bottom of their profile page.

Add in a succinct title for your review, select the star rating out of five (remember this must be done at a minimum in order for it to be published), and finally, write the content of the review. When you’re happy with what you’ve written, click ‘Submit Review’.

When you click on ‘Write a Review’, you will be prompted to login to your Yell.com account. However, you do not need to have one to leave a review as a guest. You can also log in with your Google or Facebook profile if you prefer.

Don’t forget to check out the Reviews Policy before writing your review – we go into more detail about this below.

Are Yell reviews genuine?

We’re totally committed in ensuring Yell.com is a trusted online platform for consumers to connect with businesses.

Yell Reviews is at the core of the trust we’ve built up over the years, and we work hard to make sure that existing and brand-new reviews are trustworthy.

To make this a reality, we have devised simple, clear and accessible processes and policies governing review content. We trust both Yell reviewers and business owners to share Yell.com’s values, Reviews Policy and content guidelines.

Yell.com reviews content guidelines for consumers

Yell’s online review platform is set up for consumers to give their honest, genuine reviews of businesses that have first-hand experience of using.

Here are the guidelines for posting a review on Yell.com Reviews.

Reviews must be based on direct, recent, first-hand experience of the reviewer of the business in question.
Reviews can’t be based on hearsay or information the reviewer has heard from friends or relatives about a business.
We define an experience that can be reviewed as where a consumer has actively engaged with the business to buy a product, process or service. For example, if the consumer only got as far as obtaining a quote for a service, then the consumer can only review that experience and not the business as a whole.
Reviewers or their family members can’t have a financial interest in the business that they are rating.
Consumers leaving reviews also can’t be employed by the business, or by a competitor, in exchange for money, or if their experience was more than 12 months before writing.

How much does it cost to leave a review?

It’s totally free for consumers to leave a review on Yell.com Reviews.

Businesses list their details on Yell.com for free, and also have free access to the reviews platform so that they can see what customers are saying.

People can leave Yell reviews on desktop, the Yell consumer app or from any mobile device.

What should a Yell review include?

At a minimum, the reviewer must leave a star rating. This ranges from one star (poor) to five stars (excellent).

We recommend that reviewers leave a decent amount of detail about their interaction with the business under review. This applies whether the review is positive or negative, as the value from reviews comes from the honest information provided.

We advise reviewers who feel they have had a bad experience in particular to communicate with the business via the review. Genuine feedback is always welcome, even if it’s not totally positive, as this gives the business the opportunity to improve their services if necessary. Without the detail, negative reviews can come across as inauthentic and all types of constructive criticism should be welcomed by the business in question.

Are reviewers penalised for leaving negative feedback?

No. Yell encourages free speech and categorically defends every reviewer’s right to express their opinion.

However, we don’t allow offensive language or abusive content on Yell.com, whether this is towards businesses or other Yell reviewers.

The kind of language and content Yell doesn’t allow includes the following. This isn’t a complete list:

Profanities in any context.
Threats against the business, individuals or other Yell users.
Prejudiced comments or any form of hate speech.
Sexually explicit language.

All of the review content generated by people on Yell.com has to follow this Reviews Policy guidance, as well as the Yell.com Conditions of Use.

Protecting people’s privacy

Yell respects its reviewers’ privacy, and we do everything we can to protect it through our Privacy Policy. The policy covers how all personal data is obtained and used by Yell, who has access to the data and what users’ rights are.

Reviewer’s rights include:

The right to be informed on how your data is used.
Right of access to the personal data held by Yell.
Right to rectification if the data is incorrect.
To erasure – this is also commonly referred to the ‘right to be forgotten’.
To restrict processing of personal data or block it under some circumstances.
To data portability directly to a third party.
The right to object to processing of the data.
Right to withdraw consent to processing.
Right to complain to data protection authorities.

Who can see Yell reviews?

Reviewer generated content is visible to anyone who visits Yell.com as soon as it’s uploaded. This means that reviewers should ensure that their written content meets the Conditions of Use for Yell.

User reviews must also be the writer’s own work and can’t include things like videos, images or content from videos, which are copyrighted by someone else. This includes everything from copyrighted music, quotes that aren’t accurately attributed to snippets of music tracks and programmes.

Yell will remove any content immediately if we’re contacted by a copyright owner.

Can businesses respond to consumer reviews on Yell.com?

Businesses are informed by Yell.com as soon as a new review is posted about their services by email and a notification in the Yell for Business app.

They can choose to opt out of being notified about new reviews if they wish.

As long as they have registered for a Yell account, then anyone can respond to an online review about their business.

For the business owner or Yell account holder, they can respond to the review by clicking ‘Received reviews’ within their own account.

When the business owner responds to a review, it’s clearly flagged as a ‘Business Response’ so that the user is clear who is communicating with them.

Responses to reviews also have to adhere to our policies about review content and be non-biased. Yell works hard to ensure that the platform is open, honest and useful for both consumers and businesses.

Comments on reviews are published in real time – there is no waiting time on uploading comments – and are visible to anyone who is reading Yell.com.

Does Yell verify or otherwise vet reviews?

We don’t pre-vet or edit any third-party content before it goes live. So, as soon as a user writes a review about a business listed on Yell.com, it is visible to everyone.

In order to keep Yell unbiased and balanced, we encourage everyone to report a review on our platform that appears to either contravene our policies or is clearly biased, personal or otherwise identifiable as problematic.

Visitors to Yell.com can report any review on any business directly to us by clicking the ‘report review’ link on the review in question.

When we receive reported reviews, we assess the content against our policy and guidelines. Should we discover that the review isn’t in breach of our policy, but the reporting party believes or knows it’s been written by an individual in bad faith, then Yell will email the reviewer within two working days.

At this point, we give the reviewer three working days to provide corroborating information or evidence that their review is fair, truthful and unbiased. If we don’t receive a response or the response doesn’t prove the veracity of the content, the review is removed.

If a review is reported as defamatory then Yell will email the reporter of the review within 10 working days of emailing the reviewer.

However, if we can substantiate the veracity of a review – even if it’s negative – it stays up on Yell.com.

We substantiate reviews by assessing whether it meets the policies and guidelines outlined above. Our aim is to always include honest reviews on the platform, regardless of whether they are positive or negative and regardless of Yell’s working relationship with the business in question.

There is one exception to this. Businesses have the ability to suppress the entire reviews function on their Yell.com listing. If they choose to do this, then all reviews will be removed and no new reviews can be left.

How does Yell.com publish reviews?

Reviews are visible and accessed via the business listing in question.

Each business listing is given an overall star rating by Yell, which uses a specific algorithm to assesses volumes of reviews by their star rating.

Visitors to Yell.com can see the overall star rating for the business within the profile listing.

To see specific reviews of the business, the user should access the business’s profile page. All of their reviews are listed there.

Sometimes, Yell reviews are shown in third party search results. For example, if you search for a business on Google, you may see the Yell Reviews star rating among published results.

Yell Reviews guidance for business owners

Yell reviews can help business owners control their online reputation for no charge. The Yell.com business listing is free for businesses, and the reviews platform is packaged within this offering.

This means that business owners can access real time marketing feedback directly from their customers and use it to improve their business. All at no charge.

Online reviews can massively influence the decisions of future customers, and the way in which business owners manage ad respond to them goes even further to cement their online reputation.

Business owners can opt out of reviews

Should a business consider customer reviews and the Quick Rate feature as unhelpful, then they can choose to disable the entire function.

Yell advises business owners to only disable reviews as a last resort, as there is a lot of evidence available to suggest that online reviews actively help businesses to get an edge over their competitors. This is partly down to the accessibility of vital customer information and opinion, and the effect of positive word of mouth.

However, should any business prefer to have a Yell.com listing without customer reviews, this is an option.

If a business does switch the reviews function off, then all past reviews and comments will also be removed from the business listing. Newcomers to Yell won’t be able to leave a review against the business. The feature can be reactivated at a later date, and the old reviews will be reinstated on their listing to sit alongside any new ones the business receives.

Businesses that want to discuss whether to suppress customer reviews on their business profile page should contact the Yell Customer Care team.

Can businesses go ahead and remove negative customer reviews from Yell?

All reviews should stay online and be visible as long as they are truthful, fair and abide by Yell’s content policy. This is because all reviews, whether positive, negative or middling, help other people make informed choices about the businesses they want to interact with.

Keeping reviews unbiased and genuine is a priority for Yell. As such, the only reviews that are removed are those that breach Yell’s Review’s Policy or the Conditions of Use.

If a business feels strongly that a review left by a customer is unfair, inaccurate or breaches Yell’s policies, then they should click the Report Review button. This is displayed in the same textbox as each review on Yell.com.

Yell’s advice for businesses who receive a negative review

At Yell, we understand it can be difficult to receive a negative review from a customer, particularly if it’s felt that the content doesn’t represent the business. However, it’s recommended that business owners take some time to leave a thoughtful, constructive response to the review.

This kind of feedback is hugely valuable for customers and potential customers, as it demonstrates the business’s open approach to communication and customer service.

Turning a negative into a positive can be integral to a company’s reputation and future success. Consumers respond well to honest and open communication from businesses to address any issues that arise from reviews.

We find that the best way to deal with a negative review is to address it calmly and rationally and ensure that it’s outweighed by positive feedback. One way of ensuring this is to directly request reviews from customers.

Yell includes a feature called ‘Request a Review’, which is accessible through the business account of each listing.

We’ve also written a much longer, comprehensive Guide to Managing Negative Reviews for more assistance in this area.

How businesses can encourage customers to leave a review on Yell

The easiest way to request reviews from customers is to use the Request a review feature, which is accessible from the Reviews section of the customer account dashboard.

This allows a business to create and send emails or text messages (SMS) requesting reviews from their customers.

Business owners can also access this feature through the free Yell for Business App.

Grow business reviews on Yell.com Reviews

By growing the number of reviews on their Yell.com listing, businesses can access more data to improve their reputation and attract new customers.

Our guide to Growing Your Reviews explains more.

Businesses should be aware that in order for their customers to publish a requested review, they will need to create a Yell account or sign in through Facebook or Google.

There are also ways for businesses to promote reviews on Yell.com offline. Yell can provide a batch of stickers that say “Review us on Yell.com” for businesses to stick to their window, van, doors, or anywhere customers will see them.

These are available from the Yell Customer Care team who can be messaged via https://www.yell.com/contactus/ between 8 am and 10 pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively, they can be phoned on 0800 555 444 from 9am to 5pm on Monday to Thursday or 9am to 4.30pm on Friday.

Yell also offers a range of digital marketing solutions to boost the online presence and volume of customers for local businesses. Head to Yell Business for more information.

How can we help you today?

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Yell Reviews - Complete guide