To Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Karens everywhere
Since March, we’ve been in the trenches with our restaurant and brick and mortar partners doing everything we can to support them.
Throughout these conversations, we’ve seen a concerning recurring pattern.
Here’s what one restaurant owner told us:
“We’re getting f*cking roasted on Yelp because of Doordash and Postmates related delivery issues.”
You see, Karens, behind that restaurant is a small business owner. A business owner who risked everything to open their business and now, they are in a fight for survival due to the pandemic.
They didn’t want to close their doors. They were ordered to.
To survive, they’ve partnered with third party delivery apps like Doordash and Postmates so they can continue to generate a little revenue, pay their staff, and keep their doors open until the world reopens.
So while it’s completely ridiculous and unacceptable that in the midst of a global pandemic unlike anything the world has ever seen, you’ve had to face the incredible hardship of “hour-old cold tacos”, we just want to say: Grow the f*ck up.
The owner, their staff, and their families, all are put at risk due to absurd reviews like this.
The delivery drivers you complain about are third party companies. The restaurant has no control over them. Build their own delivery platform?
Sure, as the restaurant owner fights to stay alive day to day, let’s throw the burden of building a backend delivery system in order to help you get your tacos slightly faster.
These types of reviews that all restaurants face are unfair, unacceptable, and outright wrong.
So today, we’re excited to announce a new awareness campaign called Karens Killer Reviews.
Here’s what that will entail:
First, we’ve launched a nationwide campaign across the US that will aim to raise awareness around how absurd these reviews are.
Second, we’ll be announcing a new contest where we will buy $250 gift cards to 10 restaurants who share a screenshot of the worst third party delivery related reviews they’ve received since the pandemic began. Submissions can be sent for review here or emailed to contest@KarensKillerReviews.com.
Third, we’re launching a petition that demands Yelp immediately develop a solution to this problem. They are well aware it’s an issue. Last month, they sent out an email kindly asking their customers to “be more thoughtful” when leaving reviews in these unprecedented times. Sign the petition
Three blocks from Yelps office in San Francisco, you’ll see billboards like this:
In San Diego, you’ll find pedicabs like this:
And in New York, you’ll see taxi signs like this:
For a company with a market cap of $1.7 billion dollars, we would hope you could find the extra resources to actually build a real solution here.
Restaurants once served guests in their physical locations but they have now been forced to adapt and use third party delivery apps. Your review platform does absolutely nothing to prevent these types of reviews that attack the restaurant for something that’s not their fault or within their control.
How many people google a restaurant, see it has a low rating on Yelp, then never bother to read the specifics of the reviews?
As restaurant owners face the biggest fight of their lives, how is it possible that you allow them to remain vulnerable to these types of ridiculous reviews?
In the time that restaurants need you most, you are making it possible for the Karens of the world to recklessly leave reviews like this that kill them.
The rest of the world has had to adapt and make changes to accommodate this “new reality”. You need to do a hell of a lot more than send out an email blast asking for people to be thoughtful. You need to come up with a solution that gives restaurant owners a way to resolve these situations.
Every dollar counts right now. Every customer they lose because of a bad review brings the restaurant owner closer to closing their doors for good.
You need to do better, Yelp. And so do you, Karens.
Stop killing restaurants. Stop killing businesses.
