Hawaii Yelpers Have Much More Aloha Even If They’re Yelping Negative Reviews

If you live here in Hawaii and you own a business, there’s a good chance that there might be a review on you on a site called Yelp.  Yelp is a site where anyone can join and share their experiences with a restaurant, bar, service, school etc…  You name it, it can be Yelped about – good or bad.  If you haven’t already and you own a business, you should see if anyone has posted a review about your company – Go Get YELP!

Here in Hawaii, I have been tracking various local Yelpers for a social media study that I’m prepping for a client to see what the percentage was of out-and-out “haters” versus organic reviewing.  As well, my study thus far is showing me that there is no real “brand mobbing” in Hawaii compared to other places I have checked out.  (Brand mobbing is when a team of Yelpers gang up on a business……in most cases as a ploy to blow-down the business). 

Yea, there are some heavy hates for some of the business here in Hawaii but after analyzing the verbal framework of the comments, it’s real easy to see that most people who hit hard just had a single bad experience versus a business that is getting ganged up on.  I also find that local yelpers can be very supportive with their tone of  “advice” for the business owner in most cases even during a harsh review.  Overall, I find that 90% of Hawaii yelpers to be very straight forward.  Maybe because it’s more Aloha oriented in the fact that we all live on a small island and even under anonymity, everyone knows everyone.    That being said, I wanted to share with a messed up way a Yelper in Studio City tried to get his way.

I was recording some music in Studio City when I took a break and went to a mid-level restaurant.  I sit down with a friend, chill with a Margarita when I hear in the booth behind me some customer ruckus about poor service and food.  Okay, I get it, even I get pissed about bad service and poor food but this guy went too far.  He threatened the owner with a horrible yelp review if the owner didn’t give into his request of not being charged for more than half eaten food.  It got so bad that my friend had to stop me from getting stupid on the guy cause not only was he loud and messing up the dining experience of other customers, he started to use profanity and I was just about to tro-slippahs!  What a world-class asshole!

IMO – If you use Yelp as a social revenge towards being treated poorly, bad food, bad service etc…  that’s cool and that’s what it’s for.  You get the difference right?  If you have a great experience, you’ll yelp and return.  If you have a crap experience, don’t say anything, slam them and don’t go back.  But, if someone is going to use their Yelp power to squeeze change for a personal benefit like not paying a bill or getting a free hand-out in fear of your yelp, you completely suck.

Hawaii Yelpers for 5 Stars for consitancy…..like you care  🙂