In this day and age, most people are pretty savvy to do their research before making a reservation at a new restaurant, going to a new salon or trying out a different doctor. It makes us feel better if we have someone else to be our guinea pig and try the place out before we subject ourselves to a potential let down.

Websites, such as Yelp, have been put in place to assist consumers on making smart decisions about where to spend their money. On Yelp, you are able to see any business’s star rating according to the reviews attached to that business. The reviews can range from 1-5 stars depending on the customer’s experience. As consumers, we trust that the reviews and ratings posted are filtered to be an accurate depiction of the business.

A lot of people may wonder why the reviews are “filtered”. Yelp states that they filter each review for “inappropriate content, conflict of interest, promotional content, relevance, intellectual property and privacy.”

We very much appreciate that Yelp filters reviews that are inappropriate and irrelevant, but how do you explain that only 9 of 36 reviews are being shown to potential customers?

SLoop Dental’s Yelp page is extremely frustrating. We have only 9 reviews shown of our 36 total. 22 of the “hidden” reviews are 5 star reviews of our business. These 22 five star reviews do not factor into our business’s overall star rating. How is this fair? So no matter what, our over 22 positive reviews are not allowed to factor into our overall rating because Yelp decided that they are not “relevant”.

We do not wish to fight a loosing battle with a website that is never going to change their flawed policy. All we want to do is educate and inform existing and potential patients to take into consideration ALL of the reviews that have been made about our business (good and bad). We hope that this information goes into consideration when trying out us, or any business, for the first time.