Not only can patrons go online to rave or rant about service at a local eatery, but now they can also talk about the lines at the DMV or their latest call to the IRS. Yelp has extended the reach of reviews to include U.S. government services.
Yelp, a web and mobile-based user review platform, allows users to give opinions on services like bars, barbershops, coffeehouse and restaurants. Earlier this month, Yelp announced it would be putting healthcare information on the site. Now Yelp wants to enourage users to review government services.
Reviews of public services are already up on Yelp, but the site has added a “public services and government” as its own category. According to a statement on Yelp’s website, the reviews will help other Americans as well as communicate with government officials. Yelp said:
It’s clear Washington is eager to engage with people directly through social media. Earlier this year a group of 46 lawmakers called for the creation of a “Yelp for Government” in order to boost transparency and accountability…Luckily for them, there’s no need to create a new platform now that government agencies can engage directly on Yelp.
Public services aren’t drawing a large number of reviews even though profiles have been up for years.
The Internal Revenue Service only has 11 reviews, many of which are tongue-in-cheek. Sammy R. from Washington, D.C. wrote, “The IRS is my charity of choice. It gets 5 stars ’cause I don’t wanna get audited.”
Reviews gave 1.5 stars (poor-to-fair rating) to the main TSA checkpoint at Atlanta, Georgia’s airport — the busiest hub in the nation. The 9 or the 11 reviews gave 1-star and had specific complaints ranging from missing a flight to rude behavior from the agents. In contrast, Tre F. from Philadelphia gave the airport agents four stars writing: “Let’s be honest, it’s TSA. We hate them because they suck usually. However, my experience with the group from Atlanta was rather pleasant….Extremely helpful. Even got smiles, whoaaaa.”
Yelp revised its terms of service that would enable federal agencies to maintain Yelp pages and receive ratings and reviews. According to DigitalGov, a federal website, the new government pages will be entirely free of advertisements and third-party apps. The U.S. government does not publish alongside advertising so that it doesn’t look like its sponsoring businesses.
Reviews on Yelp and other rating sites tend to attract very happy or unhappy customers. Whether the new initiative will prod users into making reviews or whether government agencies will respond their complaints is unclear.
