Yelp Reviews Do Not Paint An Accurate Picture Of A Car Shipping Company
Why are so many Yelp reviews for auto transport companies negative?
Understanding the purpose of each site will help you to better understand the differences between Yelp reviews and other sites such as Google for car shipping companies is key. Yelp was initially created to allow people to review restaurants or hotels. Although it has grown to be more than that, it is still very much in its infancy.
Google and other sites like it have always wanted reviews to be open for all types of businesses. Transport Reviews, for example, has always wanted reviews that were specific to vehicle transport companies.
This might make you wonder, "What's the problem?" Yelp filters reviews based upon several factors.
How many reviews an individual has previously posted is the primary factor. If someone has posted 100 reviews about restaurants or hotels, then a review for a car shipping company will stick. A review that has no or few reviews will be removed. Yelp considers the number of reviews a person has written in the past, regardless of how relevant they are to the current review.
Yelp also takes into account other factors such as the length of a review or how many friends a person has on Yelp to determine whether or not a review should go through filtering and removal.
Auto transport companies face a problem because many people who have shipped cars don't have Yelp accounts. Yelp considers the review they have left for the auto transport company that they used recently as spam and will remove it from their account. Only a few customers of car shipping companies can voice their opinions on Yelp.
Yelp's inequal filtering of reviews
Yelp is very strict about removing negative reviews. Negative reviews are rarely removed or filtered by Yelp. Yelp's primary goal is to ensure that businesses don't inflate their ratings by buying or posting fake reviews. It sounds great, right? This is a problem because it's much easier for positive reviews to be removed than for negative ones.
It even got to the point where Yelp was accused of intentionally suppressing positive reviews from businesses that don't advertise on Yelp to extort them.
The primary reason why you'll see more Yelp reviews for restaurants and hotels than those for car shipping companies is that Yelp users who have reviewed restaurants and hotels "trusted" Yelp accounts. They do not remove their reviews. These "trusted" accounts have their profiles complete, have been active for many years, and have left numerous reviews.
What a car shipping company can do to improve its Yelp rating
Yelp will not allow companies to remove positive reviews they have already removed. The positive reviews you see for car shipping companies on Yelp are only from trusted Yelp accounts. Negative reviews come from trust accounts, new accounts, incomplete accounts, trusted accounts, and any other account. A negative review will not be filtered unless it is outrageous, such as profanity.
The overall result is that nearly all of the negative reviews about an auto transport company will be removed, while more than half the positive ones are likely. A car shipping company can't take any action that will produce results once this happens.
Alternatives to Yelp
We mentioned that there are many trustworthy websites that can be used to gauge the reliability of auto transport companies. These sites monitor reviews and filter them with an objective lens, rather than assuming that all positive reviews are fake like Yelp.
- Google Google is an objective and impartial review platform. You can also see reviews from more customers who have Google accounts than Yelp accounts. Move Car Auto Transport has a rating of 4 stars on Google.
- Consumer Affairs The trusted platform for consumers to report issues with companies in any industry, including car shipping, is Consumer Affairs.
- Transport Reviews This site is for reviewing car shipping companies only. This is another excellent site for getting relevant feedback on a company you are considering for vehicle transport.
Conclusion
Yelp is an excellent resource for hospitality businesses. It can also be biased and unreliable. This is especially true in the auto shipping industry. It is a good idea to search other review sites like Google when researching auto transport companies. This will help you to determine which company may be the best fit for your shipment.