Linder Psychiatric Group Yelp Defense Website - Blog

Yelp update

12/24/2015

Yelp has ensured that we cannot respond to comments posted on their website. We contacted them to let them know that there are several comments from people who are not patients in our clinic, but they sent an email back saying that the reviews would remain.

Year End Review

12/6/2015

Linder Psychiatric Group wrote off over $ 18,000.00 in legitimate no shows this year. The few negative Yelp reviews we have are a drop in the bucket compared to the 20,800 visits we do a year. Thank you Sacramento, Roseville, and Folsom, California!

Its more than unfair - It's extortion

8/29/2015

Thank you for taking the time to visit our Yelp defense website. LPG has been serving Eldorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, and Yuba Counties since 1997. We have grown from a small family run business to be respected leaders in the psychiatric community, providing jobs to over 30 people, and serving your needs. We would not have been able to do that without our communities thinking that we were doing something very right. We have grown from your word of mouth referrals and not advertising dollars.

Time Business Magazine did a wonderful piece on why you should not trust online reviews: http://business.time.com/2012/08/28/why-you-shouldnt-trust-positive-online-reviews-or-negative-ones-for-that-matter/

Yelp is unfair because it filters your positive reviews out unless you sign up for their "management and advertising" services. This is well documented by many business owners who are suffering and are desperate to get their positive reviews to show up first and pay Yelp off. Some of them have been so desperate they have paid people to write fake reviews. This is an unethical practice and creates even more reasons to not trust online reviews.

Yelp is particularly unfair for our business because leaving a positive review identifies you to the world as being a psychiatric patient. The majority of our patients are very high functioning people with an impressive amount of insight, impulse control, intellect, and education. They have the ability to think ahead about the possible consequences of leaving a positive review in a public place.

A 2010 Nielson Report shows the huge influence reviews have on consumers. They also said that
“People are more likely to leave negative reviews than positive.” In fact specifically 41% were more likely to share a negative review online than a positive one. So if businesses encourage satisfied customers to post positive reviews, the need to market their business via more traditional methods (advertising!) is reduced (Boss Hawaii).

We do serve a psychiatric population and have some patients who have difficulty with emotional regulation, impulse control, and their ability to think about the consequences of putting all of their information out there on social media - especially in a moment of rage about missing their appointment and being asked to pay for it. Some people cant accept responsibility for their behavior and go on to write a nasty, scathing Yelp reviews for everyone in the world to see.

Sometimes competitors create fake email addresses and leave you a nasty fake review. This has happened to us several times and when you try to tell Yelp about it they offer to sign you up for their "managing" services and then block you from being able to respond to those reviews unless you do.

Our company is not perfect and I'm sure that there are times when we have made mistakes, but its also possible that some of these negative reviews are evidence of a person who has impaired decision making abilities, impulse control problems, and emotional dis-regulation. Please do not interpret this to mean that everyone with a mental health issue has these problems because that belief would contribute to the stigma related to mental health.

With a little deductive reasoning the yelp reviews become pretty transparent. There is a theme here after all. The theme is I don't want to be responsible and have to pay for my missed appointment - even when someone else needed it, and I received an appointment card, and a reminder call. LPG does not charge patients when they give us enough time to fill it and/or its a legitimate emergency. The company wrote off over $ 10,000.00 in legitimate "no shows" this year already for people who have had true emergencies. Sadly not one of those people went and wrote a positive review about how fair we are or if they did it was filtered.

Yelp has offered to remove our reviews for a price and they have filtered our positive reviews out. There are many places that you can find further information on their practices. There is a class action law suit currently against them by many reputable business owners for there extortionist behavior.

Thank you for your time and don't hesitate to contact us about a complaint or issue at [email protected]. We are happy to address and fix any legitimate complaint.

Great links that tell the truth about YELP:

http://business.time.com/2012/08/28/why-you-shouldnt-trust-positive-online-reviews-or-negative-ones-for-that-matter/

http://www.bosshi.com/more-on-why-yelp-sucks/

http://outspokenmedia.com/social-media/yelp-goes-google/
http://www.screenwerk.com/2011/03/18/is-yelp-too-rigid-with-reviews/
http://www.raymondfong.net/misc/a-candid-yelp-advertising-review-is-yelp-rip

http://www.raymondfong.net/misc/a-candid-yelp-advertising-review-is-yelp-ripping-people-off