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February 8, 2010

Yext – The Yellow Pages, Reinvented

Whether you’re a consumer or a business owner, Yext is a service that aims to change the way local business advertising is done online. Dubbed the “next Yellow Pages,” Yext gives consumers a way to find contact information for businesses in whatever zip code they choose. More than just a standard online phone directory, though, Yext also works in conjunction with the businesses themselves—offering services it calls Yext Calls and Yext Numbers that help local advertisers bring in more customers and make more money.

For business owners, Yext Calls offers a trackable way to measure the number of meaningful phone calls coming in from Yext’s web-based ads. Businesses who sign up to advertise with Yext are given a “pay-per-action” phone number, which actually tracks when potential customers use “qualifying” keywords that match up with the company’s offerings. So, rather than being billed for each call that comes in from its search engine advertisements—regardless of whether it was a wrong number or a call from a telemarketer—Yext only charges its advertisers for calls that directly relate to the servicers they offer.

Finally, Yext also offers a service it calls Yext Numbers, which gives web publishers and application developers a way to monetize the business listings they have on their sites by downloading and using the Yext’s business listings. Whether you’re a consumer, an advertiser, or just a website publisher looking for a way to bring in a few more bucks, Yext offers a new technology that can help you meet your goals.

Practical Uses:

  • Get actionable phone calls from the ads you place online
  • Place ads for free, and pay only when you get phone calls from customers
  • Find out about businesses in your area
  • Make money by placing Yext business listings on your website

Insider Tips:

  • Use the “call inbox” to view a listing of all phone calls that have come in
  • Determine which phone calls you do and do not consider relevant to your business
  • Search the “call inbox” for keywords or actions that occurred in the call
  • Irrelevant phone calls end up in your junk box

What we liked:

  • Get charged only for phone calls that are relevant to your business
  • System takes only one minute to analyze any phone call and determine whether it was relevant
  • Yext transcribes all phone calls
  • Over a million visitors visit Yext’s online business listings each month

What we didn’t like:

  • Voice recognition software isn’t perfect, and there are times when Yext’s automated transcription misses certain keywords
  • Using a unique Yext phone number could confuse customers if they run across your real number elsewhere

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: October 2009
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: New York, New York
  • Founded by: Brent Metz and Howard Lerman
  • Web site: http://www.yext.com

Costs:

  • Free to consumers

    Comments

    1. Ashley

      Along with the fact that they don’t tell you the only advertising they are doing is putting your information on places like Yellowpages, CitySearch, all places that you can do yourself, FOR FREE. They make it sound so great like “You won’t have to keep up with 15 profiles anymore!” Yeah, you also have EVERY person on the face of the planet only seeing your Yext lead line instead of your actual phone number, and they don’t allow you to change it. They’re not even doing real marketing, they’re only displaying your information on public and free websites and then “filtering” out the junk, which doesn’t even work well! There’s no whisper before the call to inform you that the person is calling from Yext, making it almost impossible to know if they’re actually sending you viable leads. And if you don’t inform them within 24 hours that the lead was not viable, they’ll charge you, no matter what. They don’t offer refunds. Also, it’s very hard to know what kind of special to give to the people calling in because the leads think they found our website on yellowpages or on citysearch, not yext, which confuses our staff because they don’t know if it was someone who should get the special we’re offering with Yext or if it’s someone who just looked us up in the phonebook. We’ve gotten a total of maybe 15 leads, of which I have not seen any commit to care. Very dissatisfied.

    2. John

      Yext.com is a scam. Don’t get involved with these people………. you will absolutely regret it. I lost $1000 before I had to cancel my credit card to stop them.

    3. Yes VERY TRUE. Ashley is 100% Correct!! You know the funny thing is they’re a BBB Acreditted business, which goes to show you kind of “acreditation” can be bought with enough money

    4. Yext sucks! There customer service is horrible! Tried them out for 6 months or so. Some of the calls were ligament. However, most were not. I just receive a call from a client through my Google search. This same client was shopping around and called me back from the Yext number. The recording clearly stated he called me earlier under my direct line. I call Yext customer service to get a credit on this call.

      There response;

      “As mentioned in the email we sent on 8/4, we are no longer crediting for calls.

      We spent several months talking to customers and studying our service to find what our clients liked most, and least, about the service. One overwhelming piece of feedback that we heard was that requesting and handling credits was time-consuming and a hassle. Based on that feedback, we came up with our new Pay-For-Calls model with the goal of giving you your time back and making our service easier to use. We removed the ability to receive credits, and while we can’t promise that we will filter out all calls that aren’t directly relevant to your business (computers aren’t perfect after all), we have lowered the price to offset these changes.”

      I was asked, “well your making money on the other calls, right?’ This is totally BS! They charged me $30 for a call that was from my client, calling there number by mistake. I canceled with Yext immediately!

      To all out there, BEWARE! You would think in today’s economy customer service would be a priority?

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