Potential Customers on Yelp Can Now Request a Call From Service Businesses

Yelp Tuesday introduced Request a Call, a new feature that enables users of the business directory and crowdsourced review forum to bypass the initial friction that often occurs in the process of hiring service businesses by directly requesting a phone call to discuss potential jobs or obtain quotes. The company explained in a blog post, “Hiring a service professional should be a seamless experience—whether you’re looking for a new house cleaner, a landscaper for your backyard project or an emergency plumber to fix a leaking pipe. However, getting in touch with local services businesses is not always an easy process and often involves time-consuming games of phone tag.” Yelp said the new feature builds on its existing Request a Quote option, which enables users to message service businesses, request quotes and schedule appointments without leaving the Yelp application. Request a Call also gives those businesses new ways to generate leads and connect with more potential customers. The company pointed out that calling service businesses directly is often not the most efficient way to secure appointments, as in many cases, the professionals are out on jobs and unable to answer calls. Yelp said internal research found that 40% of consumer calls to service businesses are under 30 seconds long, indicating that they either weren't picked up or didn't result in meaningful conversations. Request a Call lets people request return calls at specific times, leading to quicker responses and more seamless connections. The new feature is available via any Yelp business page on Yelp.com that opted in to receiving leads via Request a Quote, and support for Android and iOS will follow soon. On the user end, once someone requests a call from a business, they can enter their preferred call time, and the business will receive a message in its Yelp for Business inbox, which they can respond to by selecting “Confirm call time” to schedule the call or replying to try to set up a different call time. Yelp said that as an added layer of privacy, when submitting a Request a Call, Yelp automatically hides the user’s phone number from the business and creates a temporary phone number for the business to use to contact the consumer. The company added that an early pilot program of Request a Call resulted in a 10% increase in total projects started on Yelp’s website. In related news, Yelp is adding more expert advice and insights to its Cost Guides, and its search filters are now available for more than 80 categories, with recent additions including auto repair, junk removal, landscaping, massage, pest control, real estate and salons. Yelp wrote in its blog post, “We’re committed to providing consumers and businesses on Yelp with the tools and resources to connect seamlessly and complete projects—from home renovations to landscaping and more. Whether Yelp is helping consumers find the right business for their next project or enabling businesses to better manage their leads, we continue to look for new ways to connect people with great local businesses easily and efficiently.”