Potential Solutions

Yelp can send custom analytics to Oliver about his business using statistics from his page. Yelp can give Oliver a projected increase in sales if he claims his page, curates some of his content, and addresses his reviewers concerns with Yelp Business Management Tools.

1. Custom Analytics

While shopping is the largest business category on Yelp, it only includes physical storefronts. Currently, there is no mainstream platform that validates trust or social proof for online retail companies. Yelp should start a new channel for e-commerce businesses so Sarah can compete for visibility with retail business with physical storefronts.

Content is a powerful branding strategy. Yelp can send Jenny a custom (physical or digital) album of Jenny's best photos and user reviews to display in her storefront. This will evoke positive emotions of Yelp in Jenny's mind. An algorithm can automatically create these albums by pulling the most helpful photos and highly rated reviews from her page.

Yelp Community Managers can employ multilingual representatives to schedule one-on-one sessions with business owners like Zhu to help them set up and claim their business page.

Yelp can train and compensate Yelp Elites to offer a free consultation service where they take beautiful pictures and teach Maya to utilize the various Yelp services. In this way, Maya will feel more encouraged to claim her page because she will see content that is unique to her store.

2. Compensating Yelp Elites

3. Holding 1:1 Sessions

4. Custom Albums

5. New Online Stores Channel

Business Owner Personas

The immigrant business owner who speaks English as a second language and cannot figure out how to claim his business himself.

The indifferent business owner in a commoditized industry who does not feel the need to distinguish her business through Yelp.

The low-key business owner who runs a storefront in Lander, Wyoming (a city where Yelp is not mainstream) and is unaware of the Yelp product.

The digital business owner who owns an online business with no storefront and finds Yelp irrelevant.

3. Zhu Q.

4. Jenny B.

5. Sarah K.

2. Maya L.

1. Oliver B.

The frustrated business owner with bad reviews who hopes that by refusing to claim his business, his upset customers will go away.

81% of local businesses in the US are left unclaimed on Yelp.

*Yelp 2Q17 Investor Presentation

The business claim rate has only increased by 6% in the past two years.

*Yelp 2Q15 Investor Presentation

6.5 million new businesses get started each year.

*Forbes Media

SUPPORTING DATA

Click to Explore this Solution

Out of all the 5 solutions, my recommended solution is to create a new category (i.e. Restaurants, Nightlife, etc.) on Yelp titled "Online Stores." The strengths of this solution greatly outweigh its weaknesses and is the most promising way for Yelp to increase their claim rate.

5. New Online Stores Channel on Yelp

Evaluating Each Solution

1. Custom Analytics

Once Oliver sees the numerous benefits of claiming a Yelp page, he will feel more incentivized to make this step. This is a scalable solution that leverages Yelp's current technology and applies to business owners of all industries.

2. Compensating Yelp Elites

While Yelp may actively recruit Yelp Elites to invest their time helping the Yelp brand, it is not easily scalable. The ratio of the number of Yelp Elites to the number of unclaimed businesses is extremely low.

3. Holding 1:1 Sessions

1 in every 5 American is a non-native English speaker and 1 in every 10 immigrant owns a business. With the 1:1 method, multilingual representatives may diminish any language barriers between businesses and Yelp. Non-native business owners would be more likely to claim if they received step-by-step instructions in their native tongue. Step by step instructions to claim a page is a smaller, more approachable learning curve for these business owners.

4. Custom Albums

While this is an enjoyable keepsake for the business owner and an engaging item for their customers, the business owner may just keep the album for display in their storefront and never get around to claiming their page.

Since Oliver's business on Yelp is unclaimed, it lacks historical data and relevant information about the business, making crucial statistics and projections to be challenging.

Since Yelp Elites are claiming Maya's business without her spending any time and resources, Maya is less likely to hesitate. Additionally, since Yelp Elites are extremely experienced in curating and highlighting the best content, they will improve Maya’s presence on Yelp. With an improved presence on Yelp driving more traffic to Maya's business, she will transform into a Yelp fan.

While non-native English speakers’ businesses will now be claimed, their pages will not be sustainable. If the business owner cannot speak English, it is unlikely they will be able to communicate with their customers in English using the Yelp Business Tools. Yelp Multilingual Representatives will then have spent time getting the business owners to claim their business but the business owner will not be able to reap the benefits.

Since business owners like Jenny are unaware of Yelp's existence, this solution will showcase Yelp's numerous features and benefits. This solution is effective because it highlights the love that Jenny’s business is receiving from her customers in a way that is scalable.

To address this issue, I will be outlining five user personas and five proposed solutions for business owners who do not claim their business on Yelp. From there, I will evaluate each solution for its strengths and weaknesses and explore the solution that I think would be most effective and feasible.

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

5. New Online Stores Channel

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

This solution may be slightly diverted from Yelp's focus towards local businesses. It brings a new dynamic and variance to the product and will definitely be something the current Yelp customers will have to adapt to.

This new category will incentivize Sarah to enter the Yelp product space and compete for visibility with the numerous online retail companies that use the Yelp Business Management Tools every day. This will open the door to numerous new business owners who currently do not have their needs met on Yelp.

Not enough business owners are claiming their businesses on Yelp.

CHALLENGE

Potential Solutions

Yelp can send custom analytics to Oliver about his business using statistics from his page. Yelp can give Oliver a projected increase in sales if he claims his page, curates some of his content, and addresses his reviewers concerns with Yelp Business Management Tools.

1. Custom Analytics

Yelp Community Managers can employ multilingual representatives to schedule one-on-one sessions with business owners like Zhu to help them set up and claim their business page.

Yelp can train and compensate Yelp Elites to offer a free consultation service where they take beautiful pictures and teach Maya to utilize the various Yelp services. In this way, Maya will feel more encouraged to claim her page because she will see content that is unique to her store.

2. Compensating Yelp Elites

3. Holding 1:1 Sessions

4. Custom Albums

5. New Online Stores Channel

Business Owner Personas

The immigrant business owner who speaks English as a second language and cannot figure out how to claim his business himself.

The indifferent business owner in a commoditized industry who does not feel the need to distinguish her business through Yelp.

The low-key business owner who runs a storefront in Lander, Wyoming (a city where Yelp is not mainstream) and is unaware of the Yelp product.

The digital business owner who owns an online business with no storefront and finds Yelp irrelevant.

3. Zhu Q.

4. Jenny B.

5. Sarah K.

2. Maya L.

1. Oliver B.

The frustrated business owner with bad reviews who hopes that by refusing to claim his business, his upset customers will go away.

81% of local businesses in the US are left unclaimed on Yelp.

*Yelp 2Q17 Investor Presentation

The business claim rate has only increased by 6% in the past two years.

*Yelp 2Q15 Investor Presentation

6.5 million new businesses get started each year.

*Forbes Media

SUPPORTING DATA

Recommended Solution

5. New Online Stores Channel on Yelp

Evaluating Each Solution

1. Custom Analytics

Once Oliver sees the numerous benefits of claiming a Yelp page, he will feel more incentivized to make this step. This is a scalable solution that leverages Yelp's current technology and applies to business owners of all industries.

2. Compensating Yelp Elites

While Yelp may actively recruit Yelp Elites to invest their time helping the Yelp brand, it is not easily scalable. The ratio of the number of Yelp Elites to the number of unclaimed businesses is extremely low.

3. Holding 1:1 Sessions

4. Custom Albums

While this is an enjoyable keepsake for the business owner and an engaging item for their customers, the business owner may just keep the album for display in their storefront and never get around to claiming their page.

Since Oliver's business on Yelp is unclaimed, it lacks historical data and relevant information​ about the business, ​making crucial statistics and projections to be challenging.

Since business owners like Jenny are unaware of Yelp's existence, this solution will showcase Yelp's numerous features and benefits. This solution is effective because it highlights the love that Jenny’s business is receiving from her customers in a way that is scalable.

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

STRENGTH

5. New Online Stores Channel

STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

This solution may be slightly diverted from Yelp's focus towards local businesses. It brings a new dynamic and variance to the product and will definitely be something the current Yelp customers will have to adapt to.

Not enough business owners are claiming their businesses on Yelp.

CHALLENGE

Since Oliver's business on Yelp is unclaimed, it lacks historical data and relevant information about the business, making crucial statistics and projections to be challenging.