Siri using Yelp to find a local bicycle store for me.
Over the past week, iPhone and iPad users have been busy upgrading their operating systems to the latest, shiniest version known as iOs6.
Why should this concern you if you don’t have an iPhone and simply run a small bike shop or cafe or training centre?
It should concern you because of two four-letter words: Siri and Yelp.
While there are some concerns over bugs in some of the latest changes to the Apple mobile environment, there is one change that could help or hinder local businesses.
This change is the much promoted option of being able to ‘ask’ your device for the nearest deli or hairdresser or cinema, etc.
If this does not strike you as ground breaking, consider this:
- with any burst of hype and publicity about new features, new habits can be born
- Apple’s spat with Google means it is now sourcing local business listings through Yelp
- once ‘invisible’ businesses become visible
- Yelp is very much a ‘Wild West’ in Australian terms
If any of these terms are confusing you, let me explain them simply and give you a simple task to carry out today to make sure you don’t get left behind.
What do Siri and Yelp mean to you?
If you are staring at this blankly, it either means you do not own an iPhone or iPad or you have ‘heaven forbid’ just been using your smart phone as a phone!
Siri is the spoken word interface in Apple devices that allows you to speak to your device to have actions done for you.
For example, if I wanted to call my office, I simply hold down the Home button for a second to launch Siri and say ‘call Baker Marketing’. Siri then starts a phone call for me.
And when I am composing social media content or messages, I dictate to Siri who does the typing and all I have to do is correct a word here and there.
In the new iOs6 version, Siri can open Apps for me and compose tweets and Facebook updates without me lifting a finger.
But one of the new habits being promoted is the ability to find businesses NEAR you.
I asked Siri to ‘find me a cafe’ and she came back with 15, claiming 11 of them were ‘fairly close’.
Many of these I had NEVER heard of, hence the ‘invisible’ becoming ‘visible’.
I hear you thinking that Google Maps and Search has done a great job of local listings but this ‘lazy’ way of getting a quick list by speaking will surely prove to be attractive to many ‘mobile’ and ‘upwardly mobile’ consumers.
Who’s feeding Siri?
Yelp is the online review service that Apple has decided to use to ‘feed’ Siri her data about local businesses.
Yelp is a dominant force in the USA but still a fledgling player in Australia.
Be that as it may, it is growing and earlier this year recruited staff Down Under to boost its prominence as the ‘go to’ place for all of us to leave reviews about restaurants, dry cleaners, cinemas, watchmakers, hotels, etc.
You can see listings at yelp.com and right now I suggest you check YOURS.
Yes, even if you have not been a user of Yelp, there is every chance your business is listed if it has a bricks and mortar (physical street address) presence.
You can sign up and use the free tools to make sure your listing is accurate.
In fact, if you rely on foot traffic or the service of people who walk through your front door, may I suggest your homework today is to spend five minutes to make sure you are aware of your status on that user-driven site.
Of course, hold back every urge to write a ‘fake’ review of your business – consumers are smart and can be savage if they sense a ‘business-written’ review.
In the meantime, take some comfort in the knowledge that you are most likely investing five minutes into a new frontier ahead of your competitors.
Let them ‘yelp’ in distress when they find you poaching their iphone and iPad customers over the next few months.
