What’s the secret sauce to get your customers to respond to you every time without fail? Well, no one really knows, but Yelp is making an earnest effort to make your leads more valuable to businesses and the chat feature more valuable to customers. How are they doing this? By implementing a ‘Response Quality Score’. In short, service seekers can see how well Yelp rates the responses of businesses to indicate if they are generally helpful in answering customers’ questions. Let’s dive into what this means for customers, business owners, and dispatch teams.
What is Your Response Quality Score?
Your response quality score assesses how helpful and applicable your responses are to customer inquiries. If your scores are deemed “excellent” or “good,” you will earn a response quality badge that is displayed on your Yelp Business Page and in search results. This shows potential customers that your business is good at communicating and may help you secure more leads!
How is the Response Quality Score Calculated?
Essentially, you can earn a good response quality score by responding directly to the needs of customers in their messages. Yelp doesn’t explicitly explain how to respond to earn a high score, but they do outline some tips. To get the highest score, your response should include:
- Avoiding only suggesting a phone call
- Providing your pricing or availability
- Addressing the customer’s project details and questions directly
For business owners, this responsibility lies in the hands of your dispatch team or team member who handles Yelp responses. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to replying to customers. Each lead will have different questions and different needs. Thus, a templated response is not always the best option, especially if you are looking to improve your response quality score. Keep in mind that your score will only be featured if it is “excellent” or “good.”
How to Improve My Response Quality Score?
At iCatch, we are pros at Yelp. Deemed the top Yelp Partner Agency of 2024, we are globally recognized as experts at helping businesses generate leads on Yelp. We have earned this title by helping dozens of businesses find what works best for them when running ads, responding to customers, and securing leads. Our hands-on approach allows us to understand the unique needs of each business and determine how we can optimize each part of the process. We offer comprehensive Yelp management along with dispatch training so that no lead falls through the cracks.
We recommend that dispatch teams respond immediately to leads with tailored messages addressing the customer by name, thanking them for their inquiry, and providing them with service information.
What If My Business Cannot Complete the Service Request?
If a requested service is beyond your scope of work or outside of your service area, you may need to turn it down. Don’t worry, this won’t affect your score!
What If My Business Has Multiple Locations?
If your business has multiple locations, each with its own Yelp Business Profile, each location will receive its own score, even if all messages are being sent to and responded to by a single team member. As of right now, this feature is only available in Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and Indiana.
Will My Score Impact My Leads From Yelp Ads?
At this time, your response quality score will not have a direct impact on leads that come from Yelp Ads or Request a Quote. However, having a higher engagement rate with customers can improve your business’s rank on search results pages. Additionally, having the response quality badge on your business profile could incentivize potential customers to choose you over competitors.
As the Yelp landscape is growing and new features change the way we interact with customers, it is crucial to stay in the loop and take advantage of new opportunities. Teaming up with a globally recognized agency can help your business reach new heights on and off of Yelp. Contact us today to learn more about how we can increase your lead quantity and quality!