How Reviews Enhance Marketplaces — And How Yelp Did It Right Before Anybody Else

Yelp. Amazon. AirBnB. App Store. Google. Uber. Lyft. Facebook. Trip Advisor. Zillow. BBB (Not Big Baller Brand). Angie’s List. Porch. Tens of billions of dollars of commerce are fueled by reviews.

Is this someone I should do business with?

Reviews, simply, answer that one crucial question better than anything else. It’s a question humans have been asking since the very get go. Today, we have more options as consumers than ever before. Discerning the good from the great from the best from the worst is a task best-suited to the internet.

Service-based, experiential, or high-variable performing-products are heavily researched and dependent on positive reviews.

Word-of-Mouth has always been the best form of marketing. Your shit is so fire your customers spread the word for you. Naturally, people get a kick out of being the one to share the inside scoop on a popular restaurant or something they’ve enjoyed a lot.

Optimizing for WOM is one of the best long-term investments a business can make. It doesn’t happen overnight. The formula to create such value comes at a cost, contrary to what many people believe. Businesses have to make compromises all the time. In some cases they’ll have to give up short-term gain, stick to their values when it seems to work against them, bend over backwards for a…