This is a guest blog post from Chad Swaney.  Chad is social technologies researcher who is passionate about helping people and communities share information and build knowledge. He is currently an instructional designer for a major national retail chain and is completing a doctoral dissertation on how people use twitter to learn to do their jobs better. Chad is an active user on Yelp and as a Yelp 2010 Elite member he provides an interesting perspective for those businesses on Yelp who want to understand how a consumer thinks and best way to connect with them:

In my experience, no social media site strikes as much fear in the hearts of business owners as Yelp, and it’s easy to understand why. It can be stressful to know that so much of your business’s online reputation is out of your direct control. Just remember, people have been telling their friends about their experiences for hundreds of years–what’s great about Yelp is that it offers you the chance to listen in on those conversations and use that information to make your business better.

I have seen Yelp from both sides, both as an active Yelper, and as someone who is deeply involved with the Yelp strategy for a large national retailer. The key to a successful Yelp strategy is to understand what is important to the Yelp community. When it comes down to it, it really isn’t that hard to stay in Yelpers’ good graces.

Here are three basic things that tend to be important to the Yelp community. If you keep these in mind, your business will be on the way to a successful Yelp presence and a 4+ star rating.

Good Product

Yelpers are sticklers for quality. Offering a good quality product at a reasonable price is always going to be a win in a Yelp reviewer’s eyes. Yelpers are also pretty understanding if something goes wrong, as long as you make it right quickly and seamlessly.

Good Service

Service with a great attitude is important to Yelpers, too. If you make a personal connection with your customers, they are going to feel a lot more invested in your business, and are going to have great things to say about you.

Responsiveness

I know, you have put a lot of your personal energy and time into your business, but if someone posts something about your business that maybe isn’t too flattering, be careful how you  respond. Take a few deep breaths. Writing a sarcastic or caustic response to a Yelper will likely only make them even more angry, and won’t help anything. Remember, Yelp is a very self-regulated community. Most Yelpers can tell when the person who is writing a review is off base, a jerk, or worse. If you stoop to their level, you will only make your business look more out of touch. Yelp offers some great advice for dealing with negative reviews on their website.

If you look at Yelp as an opportunity to get an open, unfettered glimpse into your customer’s mind, and find ways to make your business even better, it won’t seem quite so scary.