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[Music]
Hi. I'm Paula, co-owner of Hoxton Salon in London.
Hi. I'm Steve Bedwell.
I'm co-owner of Hoxton Salon, and we use Yelp.
I think obviously, you know, everybody's online these days,
and we all have such busy lives that it's more convenient
and easier to go online to search for things.
Personally, if we're looking for a restaurant or a bar or
somewhere to take the children, we'll use Yelp to look at the
reviews and what other people are saying about them.
And I think that's the one thing Yelp really has.
It has a real reputation for trust.
It has an algorithm that goes through the reviews and makes
sure the spam and the fake reviews are filtered out.
And to be honest, I use it myself when I'm visiting
other businesses.
I think it just makes your whole business trustworthy.
Everybody knows whatever business you run,
not everybody's going to have a hundred percent perfect
experience every time.
It's how you deal when things go wrong and how you respond
to people when they bring that to your attention.
As of yet, we've not had any negative reviews;
however, if we did have a negative review,
I would always answer it.
I would deal with the problem or the negativity in the review
and ask the client to come back into the salon or to speak to
me so that we could actually do something about it.
And especially if you're a new business just starting out,
you know, how can you afford, you know, online marketing?
Yelp is affordable and it allows you to get out to the masses
but also it does have a real community feel.
People all talk to each other.
People seem to know each other and then they tell each other,
and I think that's a really lovely thing because we're a
real community-style salon and Yelp is like
an extension of who we are.
So Hoxton Salon, Yelp's really helped to open up our business
to a wider community, not just in the local area.
You know, initially, a lot of Americans visited the salon,
wrote some reviews about us, and that helped open us up
to a whole new market.
We can put a whole series of photos up,
put some bits and pieces and about the owners.
There's a map there so people can find exactly where they are,
and especially if they're using a mobile app.
It just means they don't lose you, and they can see
what other people think of it before they even
step through the door.
Oh, I think every business should make sure they
claim their listing on Yelp.
It's a real opportunity for you to take your reviews and to
share what people think about you with others.
[Music]