Marketing has an all new meaning for business owners and local search apps.

Customers can now message the business directly from “Message the business owner” option in the local business’ listing.  The option gives customers an additional means to gain information over and above the reviews.

There are over 57 million reviews from 27 countries.Yelp is rolling out the option for all businesses who have claimed their free business owner’s account and is a great way to get new customer leads from Yelp. As Wade Lombard, founder of Square Cow Movers in Austin, TX puts it, “This feature is a conversation starter. Responding takes just a few minutes and it almost always leads to further correspondence or a phone conversation. We believe that responding quickly helps to show the client we deeply care about winning their business.“ Alternatively, if a business would prefer not to receive written inquiries from potential customers, they can simply disable the feature.

 

 

Source: Yelp oficial blog