Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

Yelp Rant

A few months back I made an announcement to the people in my bootcamp. “Hey guys, since my business is spread by word-of-mouth, I would really appreciate you going on Yelp and writing up an honest review of your experience here at Fit For Life Solutions and write a bit on what you think about our Fit For Life Bootcamp. Thanks!”

Within 3 days I had over twenty, 5-star reviews posted by my clients on Yelp. Each of the reviews was honest and sincere. They each talked about their own unique experience with the training at our fitness boot camp. They shared their hard-earned results and their new-found passion for fitness due to the motivation and training they received from us.

About a month later, Yelp removed all the reviews.

Ok…I thought, maybe if I call them and explain why these reviews are legitimate and not spam, they would post them back up, right?

Wrong.

Well, what about sending me the reviews so I can post them on my own personal website. After all, the reviews are from my clients about my business…

Sorry, can’t help you.

Really? Can’t help me? C’mon!!

Then I get a phone call from Yelp. Turns out they want to “help me” after all. They want to meet with me so I can pay them between $350 – $1,000+ a month to place an add on Yelp.

Gee, thanks, but no thanks!

I spent some time surfing the net about my little Yelp problem. Turns out Yelp is doing similar shady things to small business owners everywhere. Wow. I think I’ll go and review Yelp and give them 1 star for shady business practices. Well, what do you know? You can’t review Yelp, they won’t let you! (Hmmmm…I wonder why?)

Then another couple months past and I had a great idea! I’ll bet Yelp users who spend a lot of time reviewing small business on Yelp would appreciate being rewarded and at the same time be able to help me build my Yelp reviews back up.

What if I offer a free month of training for exchange of an honest and sincere review of my services? It couldn’t hurt. It didn’t seem like unwanted solicitation, because I’m not selling anything. And I wasn’t asking for illegitimate reviews, only complete honesty about what they thought of my business.
So I contacted a few Yelpers. And I had some excited responses by several people!

A week later, Yelp closed my account with no warning, and no way to get ahold of these people I promised a free month to, who were already making plans and getting excited to get back in shape this coming January.

Message to Yelpers who I contacted: I apologize for any inconvenience. Please reach me at 650-771-5149 and I will still set you up with your free month. Hope to see you soon!

Message to Yelp: I think the idea of Yelp is wonderful, and I use Yelp to learn about things I want to try all the time. I just wish you would consider trusting the good will of the people who use the site, and find a way to let the consumers do the talking and editing of the site. Look at the way Craigslist works, where the user can flag a post. I think your Yelp service can be improved if you utilized a similar approach.

Sincerely,

Forrest Folen, MCT

Owner of Fit For Life Solutions

Gym INTENSITY!!!

Ok so i came across this personal video of one of my favorite WWE wrestlers Mr. Kennedy and thought i should share this video with you all. This will make you thrive to push yourself to the limit every time you step into the gym. He shares the same passion i do for intensity, Its all about what you put into workouts. Taking a average everyday exercise and cranking it up, to make it as beneficial as possible.

Show no mercy. -Roy