Yelp, of course, is one of the most important local review sites for small businesses. Curiously enough, Yelp is much, much stronger in “blue” states like New York or California than it is in “red” states like Nebraska or Texas. So, especially if you live in a “blue” state, Yelp can be very important to your business.
Yelp Isn’t Easy for Business Owners
Yelp isn’t easy to use for business owners, however. First, the site has a very strange business access point at http://biz.yelp.com/. You can actually end up with two different Yelp accounts – one for you “as a person” and one for you “as a business.” Second, if/when you claim your Yelp business account, do NOT lose your password! Resetting a password on Yelp nearly requires an act of God. (It’s bizarre that such a basic function is so incredibly difficult on Yelp as well as on Google+, but there you go). If you know the email address, you can attempt to reset your business password at https://biz.yelp.com/forgot.
If, however, you do NOT know the email address used to claim your Yelp account… Ouch! In that case, contact Yelp support at http://bit.ly/1nc1zcR, and ask to have your business “reset” to unclaimed. You then need to reclaim your business.
Yelp Support Sites
Yelp has a brand spanky new support site at http://www.yelp-support.com/. This site combines both personal and business support, and does a fantastic job of… hiding the ability to find a way to actually contact someone at Yelp for support. It’s as if Yelp just can’t be bothered with being reachable by “mere” humans and certainly “mere” businesses. But no worries. Here are some ways to contact Yelp when your support issue isn’t in their cookie-cutter help files –
- Business Unclaiming Request – request for Yelp to “let go” of your business, so you can (re)claim it due to a lost password.
- Business Transfer Ownership Request – request for Yelp to “transfer” ownership of your business listing from one person to another.
- Yelp Business Support – this site also has a phone number for help at 888-561-9357.
Yelp also has a Yelp business blog for business owners, and an official Yelp blog. There’s even a Yelp sales blog with a ‘day in the life of a Yelp sales rep’ column! There’s also Yelp investor relations.
