According to Rachel Metz of the Associated Press, the website Yelp! is planning to roll out a new feature that will allow business owners to respond to reviews posted by the websites users.

This new feature will address one of the concerns about Yelp! which I mentioned in my previous entry, “Yelp! Not Just Another Exclamation.”  While business owners will still be unable to take down reviews that they dislike, the new feature will at least allow them to contest or address negative reviews.

This feature will be especially important to companies that are new to Yelp!  Where every review will have a significant impact on how the business is viewed by Yelp!’s users.

Once your business has built up a reasonable volume of reviews, it will be important to pick your fights.  Replying to every single review of your business may not be the best investment of your time, but if you are only ever seen to disagree with your customer’s reviews, that is not good for your image either.

Depending on how this new feature is implemented, Yelp! may also be able to mitigate the concerns about how the company decides which reviews to keep and which to remove.

Whether it is with Yelp! or some other directory that allows user feedback and reviews, here are some guidelines to keep in mind when you reply.

• Be civil.  By using these sites you are choosing to respond to your clients in a very public venue.
• Make it a point to occasionally thank people for positive reviews.
• When disagreeing a reviewer, address the facts not the individual.
• Regardless of the reason why your are commenting, one post should be sufficient. Do not engage in long, public conversations, even if the format allows it.
• Make sure there is some way to engage in a private exchange if the client is not satisfied with your reply (Yelp! provides this service, but you may need to provide a phone number or e-mail address on some other sites).
• If you decide that it is appropriate to offer someone restitution, be sure to use a private exchange.  You do not want clients to think that they can get something extra from your company in exchange for writing a bad review.
• Be willing to acknowledge when you have made a mistake.

And remember, you should never insult or badmouth a reviewer on one of these sites.  Anyone reading your replies will assume that your comments reflect how you deal with all your customers.