Yelp Help!

joshzingzing

Hello everyone,<div><br></div><div>I'm Josh from Zing Zing Chinese on the Blackstock Road. Firstly, it's been three months since our opening and I would just like to say thanks for all the support we've received. The reception and reaction has been amazing and it's great to be in the neighbourhood!</div><div><br></div><div>I'm wondering if there are any avid users of 'Yelp' out there. We need a bit of help and advice. There may be some free food in it for you as well :-). If you fit the bill, get in touch - josh@zing-zing.co.uk.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks guys and keep eating ;-).</div><div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>

harpistic

What do you need help / advice with? <br>

[Deleted User]

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miss annie

Me too!

ChangN4N6

Josh I wish you were in Stroud Green. We need you. Chang

joshzingzing

Thanks for getting back guys!<div><br></div><div>Actually it's quite a nightmare situation! It turns out Yelp are slightly like the Mafia for small, local businesses! </div><div><br></div><div>Here's the story - I noticed that we were getting a few good reviews on our yelp page, including an exceptionally nice one from a local blogger. :-). Always flattering to hear nice things being said about your business - especially being very new. Anyway, one evening we got a bad review, mainly down to timings and a dislike of our packaging :-(. I immediately registered as the owner of the Zing Zing business and responded to the reviewer, apologising and asking for some further feedback (they were quite vague with their review, and the only way to improve the service is through constructive criticism).</div><div><br></div><div>The next day something awful happened! All our good reviews were taken down and only the bad review was left remaining. I then received a call the next day from a Yelp sales person promising to put up all the good reviews again if we paid them the sum of £399 per week!! Obviously we're still a small business and that's quite a lot of money so I had to decline. Having done a bit of further research, it seems that this is mainly how Yelp makes it's money. In fact, you just need to look at the 'Yelp' profile on Yelp to see hundreds of similar stories to mine: http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/yelp-san-francisco.</div><div><br></div><div>Anyway, it really sucks, so I wanted to talk to some experience Yelpers to see if they had any advice, basically. Any thoughts would be most appreciated!</div>

joshzingzing

@Chang - You do have us! We deliver to Stroud Green - we're only down the road :-). 

[Deleted User]

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harpistic

It's an insanely long article, but here's something on the situation: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635

harpistic

Check it now? There are two new 5-stars review showing now - as you said, it seems to have suppressed any earlier reviews, but looking around, eg on Qype, you've got consistently high reviews everywhere else. Qype seems to be more reputable over here, but I hate the way their sales people keep phoning me up trying to get me to advertise with them - never gonna happen!

joshzingzing

Just checked it - that is good news! The only problem is that I worry I may get another call in a few weeks time, only to have them all taken down again. I'll keep you guys updated. Thanks for the article - a really interesting read!<div><br></div>

joshzingzing

...really want to reply and thank those who left a good review but very nervous to put any sort of response on Yelp. Anyway, if you're local and you're reading this, thanks so much and I'm pleased you enjoyed your meals :-). What a great neighbourhood!

harpistic

I read through some more articles, and funnily, if you type in the captcha to view the filtered reviews, Yelp stresses that they do not penalise customers who choose not to advertise with them. So I think the important thing is to get people to keep submitting positive reviews to keep Yelp happy. I'll keep checking in to see how you're doing. <br><br>(I'm the yellow dino on there) <br>

joshzingzing

Thanks so much @harpistic, that really is a very kind review - let's hope it stays put. Indeed, email me at josh@zing-zing.co.uk and I'll make sure that you get a few freebies on your next order :-).<div><br></div><div>I know Yelp stress that - but not from what I've seen so far. It really does seem to be a really horrible company!</div>

graeme

If it's any consolation, most people I know use Google Maps / Reviews and steer clear of Yelp.  Their 'protection racket' business model is well known by anyone who has spent even a minimal amount of time on food/restaurant blogs, or on the wider internet.  <br><br>I guess the goal should be to 'win' at delivering consistently good quality food and service, not to 'win' at Yelp.  If you succeed in the real world, isn't that the point?  [edit: I do not own small business that may be being blackmailed by Yelp]<br>

joshzingzing

@graeme - yes it pays not to become too obsessive over these things. It's obviously just a kick in the teeth when you work so hard to send out good food and you get held to ransom like this :-S. <div><br></div><div>It's also worth noting that unfortunately Google ranks Yelp highly in it's search results, so when people type in 'Zing Zing Chinese', it appears very near the top. This is my major concern as we rely heavily on internet orders and something like this could put people off.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers for the thoughts though!</div>

miss annie

Well, if it helps to know, I'd never heard of Yelp until I saw this and wouldn't think of looking there for a review.

harpistic

Google has also updated its search results to reflect the new reviews, which is great; I'd noticed that it was only showing the 1-star review until now, which was unfair. <br><br>I can understand that Yelp's logic is to prevent what we see a lot of on this forum - a new business opening and lots of new accounts springing up (mostly from the same IP address) to praise it wholeheartedly; unfortunately Yelp's system is badly implemented, as we know. <br><br>From what I can tell, if you continue to receive positive reviews, then Yelp might unlock the previous ones, as they can tell that actually people really really like Zing Zing, and that the only anomalous review is the bad one. <br><br>And you need more positive reviews to get that average star rating back up! <br>

ADGS

What Annie said, but having read the East Bay Express article, they sound like despicable pieces of work, hiding deeply unethical business practices behind the sort of legitimate anti-sock-puppet concern Harpistic outlines above.

harpistic

Yelp is truly evil. They've filtered out my review, which brings ZZ back down to two reviews and a 3-star average. Boo. Obviously, successful and popular businesses are anathema to Yelp.

ADGS

<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20.796875px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">No, successful and popular businesses<i> which don't pay their protection money</i> are anathema to Yelp</span>

joshzingzing

@harpistic, thanks for the help anyway! at least one good review seems to have stuck for the moment. I think yelp are concentrating on Stroud Green at the mo as I've been contacted personally by a few other local businesses experiencing the same problems as we are!<div><br></div><div>Anyway, onwards and upwards, hopefully one day they'll get their comeuppance. Awful business.</div>

ChangN4N6

Good luck and I hope to pop by. I only wish you were this side of the Tollington line, the Chinese over here are mediocre. Chang

harpistic

That's worrying to hear about other businesses in the area being similarly affected. I also noticed that, while if you search Yelp via web, it'll show you that there are filtered reviews and let you access them, while I mostly use Yelp via app, which doesn't allude to any further reviews, which hurts businesses' reputations all the more. I've always found Qype to be a far more reliable app - more relevant, recent and reliable reviews - but I found out that Yelp bought Qype last autumn, boo. I've got an idea, I'll email you.

joshzingzing

Just an update guys! A win of sorts :-). Yelp have realised their mistake and reset our profile. Good reviews still not showing but at least the single bad one has also gone. Result. Kind of. Many thanks for all the support and help. Shows that a small local business can stand up to the huge multinational.

andy

I ordered zingzing the other day. My impression that it was probably 15%-20% more expensive than normal chinese, but 30-40% better. But on the other hand, chinese is always more expensive than I think it's going to be. <div><br></div><div>The 'dynamite kung pao' was good. If I was being super-picky, I thought the plum sauce with the duck was a bit of a let down, and super goopy plum sauce makes or breaks chinese duck for me. <div><br></div><div>It probably sounds like I'm damning with faint praise, but I liked it, enjoyed it, and it's probably going to be my preferred delivery chinese option. </div></div>

joshzingzing

Hi Andy,<div><br></div><div>Thanks for the feedback, really helpful :-). What we're really going for is all the old favourites (and some new inventions) from Chinese takeaway but with good quality ingredients and no added chemicals. FYI, we totally agree about the 'plum sauce'. We make it ourselves, and have found it to be slightly on the salty side, so have changed the recipe! Again, thanks for the feedback :-).</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>Josh</div>

ChangN4N6

Hi josh Do u deliver to Lorne road? We cud be your biggest customer if the buzz is right!! Chang

rainbow_carnage

Ordered dinner from Zing Zing last night. I think we can safely say that this is the best Chinese takeaway in N4. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean much. We're lucky enough to live in an area with lots of fantastic takeaways and for me, Zing Zing doesn't make it into the top 10.<br><br>We had sweet and sour prawns, Szechuan aubergine, sesame tofu and some noodles. The prawns tasted exactly like sweet and sour prawns from every other Chinese place. The aubergine was too smokey and sickly for my taste. I couldn't eat more than two bites. A shame, really, since aubergine is my favourite vegetable. The tofu was OK. I liked the stickiness, but it lacked flavour. The noodles were cold.<br><br>If we had no other options, we'd probably give them a second chance. But for my money, Dhonia, Dotori, Petek, Pappagone, Hana, Tollington's, Jai Krishna, etc are all better value.<br><br>I did like the packaging, though, and the prawn crackers.<br>

ChangN4N6

They may be better value (10 quid for fish s d chips at Tollingtons is not that cheap tho they are good ) but ZZ is Chinese and it sounds like it it streets ahead of that dump opposite Red Rita's or whatever the Irish landlord is going to call it (bono's bum?) and the place opposite Arthur Simpson library which has quite. Good food but it feel like Moscow in 1972. Go zing zing! Chang