Yelp Needs a Point of Sale
Yelp’s market isn’t recommendations—It’s the entire customer experience at the counter. A POS could help make Yelp thefundamental piece.
Yelp could convert more users with a Point of Sale (POS) integrated with their recommendation platform. Imagine this:
Julie has given five reviews to her favorite baker, The Sugary. Today—The Sugary is giving a special on donuts (maybe baker’s dozen for 10% off). She swipes her card, and which brings up her Yelp profile. The cashier says “Hi Julie, how have you been? Would you like to know about today’s deal?” or “Hi Julie, I see you liked our maple bacon bars in your last review. Here’s another one on the house.”
Here’s the three things a business could do with Yelp data upfront:
1: Acknowledge the customer is a Yelper;
2: Offer the customer a deal or freebie up front;
3: Provide a more intimate experience based on a repeat customer’s data.
Yelp has the recommendation side down. Granted, there are some concerns from reviewers about the value of their reviews—but Yelp will work through those issues and reinforce the trust of their recommenders. Yelp has started growing its B2B relationship with OpenTable, as well as buyout of rival reservation startup SeatMe. Getting deeper into the reservation experience benefits customers.
Here’s Yelp’s winning formula: Recommendation + Reservation + Referral/Repeat =Invincible.
Repeat Customers are like Julie above—they come in, they comment a lot. Businesses may not know who they are right when they walk in the door—but they should. They have to—that owner should be able to identify their #1 Reviewer or an Elite member as soon as they walk in. They can’t do that right now—which hearkens back to when we cared about food reviewers in newspapers who didn’t reveal themselves. Those days are over.
At least with a POS—the owner will know at checkout when someone’s walked in—and the cashier can provide the personal touch. Which gets the owner more involved.
Referrals are another area where the POS could take off. We all have friends who get us primo reservations in a place—“Go tell the Floor Manager Travis sent ya’.” I did that with OpenTable for my friend to visit a Brazilian Steakhouse. What if I could make the proxy reservation—then the Yelp POS takes over? Knowing both me and the proxy I reserved for—now the business could say “Travis always gets the Risotto and the Barolo—would you like to try it?” I can transfer my special experience to my friends—not only do they get the reservation, but they get treated like me as well.
Now you’ve won a referral customer for free!
Even better—ok, a little scarier—Yelp’s POS could save our credit card data. Yes, Target’s example illustrates the monumental trust violation that’s possible if that data gets out—but I’m more hopeful for the Cheer’s Experience: Where Everyone Knows Your Name. Imagine using Yelp to reserve and pay for your meal or product before you leave the house. You’d never even need to bring your wallet out with you! Your whole night, date, luncheon, Christmas shopping—all covered by Yelp.
Yelp could own the small business customer experience. But it needs to own all three parts (Reservation, Recommendation, Referral/Repeat) to make that possible. A POS is a reach in that direction.
