For business owners who feel helpless against over-exaggerated, mean-spirited and oftentimes fabricated reviews on popular sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Citysearch, it’s time to let your voice be heard!

Now that customers have the ability to share their feedback instantly online, popular review websites like Yelp and TripAdvisor have evolved into the center of a business’ reputation. And although a few of these sites give employees the opportunity to reply, many owners still feel powerless against these ratings that can make or break their business. Don’t get me wrong, when used correctly, review websites are a great resource for both customers and businesses, but without any qualifying criteria or validation required to post a rating, these emerging platforms can be a little unfair.

How Pizzeria Delfina Fought Back!
The story of Pizzeria Delfina is an oldie but a goody about a small business in San Francisco that fought back against Yelp reviewers who, in their opinion, were abusing the platform. The pizzeria owner’s frustration with Yelp stemmed from her inability to have any say in the matter, since the platform does not allow businesses to publicly respond to or dispute false reviews.

Determined to have a voice, Delfina owner Anne Stoll cleverly took her fight offline and had her employees serve customers while wearing T-shirts quoting the bad reviews found on the popular website. So when customers ordered a Salsiccia pizza, their servers would bring it to them wearing a shirt that could have said, “The pizza was soooo greasy. I am assuming this was in part due to the pig fat.” The clothing artist who partnered with Stoll took the most outrageous and funny reviews to print, in hopes that these shirts would not only encourage happy customers to post their own reviews but also help take the seriousness out of Yelp.

Since the launch of the T-shirt tactic, Pizzeria Defina has received a lot of positive feedback on Yelp, so it’s safe to say that the bad reviews were likely not a product of low quality food or service. At first, some thought that the T-Shirt scheme would backfire, with people writing reviews just to get on a shirt, but Stolls welcomed this kind of behavior because it helped prove her point, saying, “Are they doing it to get on a T-shirt or did they have a bad experience? They can’t trust it.”

Letting your Voice be Heard
As a business, your online reviews and ratings are an important aspect of your reputation, and with the instantaneity of the Internet, one wrong move can reach the screens of millions in a matter of minutes. This is why it’s important to have a crisis management program in place that includes both online and offline efforts to reach customers from every end. After all, as seen through the story of Pizzeria Delfina, the internet is not the only way to get your point across to those that matter most.

Image Source: The New York Times