Policies

Yelp’s Respond-to-Review (R2R) API allows for enterprise businesses that are Yelp customers to respond to reviews from approved Yelp Partner Dashboards.

Yelp Policy for Respond to Review API Partners

  1. Be who you say you are: Only clients should respond to Yelp reviews. Agents, resellers, or software providers are not permitted to respond to reviews on the client’s behalf.

  2. Be direct: Responses should directly address the issue. If customer service and wait time are mentioned as a complaint, the response should address customer service and wait time, and not ignore the customer’s primary feedback.

  3. Provide authentic responses: Avoid using templates or inauthentic language when responding. Some templatization is okay to maintain your brand’s voice, but please avoid mindless copy-pasting. Word choice should vary between responses. Be a person, not a robot.

  4. Avoid spam: use review response to thank a customer or address their concern, not broadcast a commercial about your mailing list or special offer.
    Comply with applicable regulations: Responses must comply with all applicable laws and regulations (e.g. HIPAA, CAN-SPAM, etc.).

Reference: Creating a Yelp Biz Owner Admin Flow

Does your client already have a Yelp BOA set-up, or perhaps they can’t recall if they did?

  • Existing BOA users that need further assistance on claiming can find out how to reset passwords, verify account and more here.

  • New users that wish to claim their Business Owner profiles, will start here.

  • Clients will receive an email from Yelp to create a Yelp Business Owner profile.
    They will input their email (which is their username) and password.
    Once logged in, click on “Account Settings”, then “Add Photo” this will prompt users to add a photo or logo in order to respond to reviews.

User Requirements

  • First and Last Name
  • Role (Owner, Manager, Employee, or Customer Service)
  • Valid corporate email, i.e. [email protected]
  • Single representation available for enterprise businesses only, i.e. MGM Guest Relations, FedEx Customer Service. Maximum character length is 32 with no special characters.

Photo Specifications

  • JPG preferred
  • Square aspect ratio recommended (i.e 100x100)
  • Logos are not ideal as sizing will be auto-adjusted accordingly, but may be used for Enterprise businesses (10+ locations), subject to approval.
  • Photos may be subject to approval based on Yelp Content Guidelines.

Helpful Resources