Why we care. As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, SMBs and local businesses want to ensure they’re communicating their safety precautions to customers. The new feature allows you to let Yelp users know what measures you’re taking to keep them and your employees safe.

The health and safety rating feature gives users the ability to inform others of the precautions that they’re seeing businesses actually implement and enforce to keep customers safe.

Community ratings of COVID safety compliance. With the pandemic forcing local and in-person businesses to adjust the ways they serve customers, Yelp developed a COVID-19 section last summer to keep users up to date on new service offerings like delivery, virtual consultations, and outdoor seating.

Today Yelp launched a feature that solicits customer feedback about how well businesses are adhering to pandemic precautions like social distancing and mask-wearing. In a release today, Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, Head of Consumer Product says, “Similar to how users can provide Yelp with feedback on whether a business is “kid-friendly” or “great for groups,” we’re now reflecting our users’ observations about businesses’ safety practices during the pandemic.”

Multiple users must leave feedback. The ratings for COVID safety precautions only show if there is a consensus among users who rate a business. Yelp users have to be logged in to mark whether the business is following safety precautions or not. If your business has multiple locations, the rating will only show for the location where the customer is when leaving the feedback.

Businesses can promote their precautions. Along with user feedback regarding business pandemic health and safety compliance, the launch also features new options for businesses to promote their COVID-safe practices.

New services offerings include the following:

• heated outdoor seating
• 1:1 sessions available
• disposable or contactless menu

Businesses can adopt these on their Yelp listings to show users how they’re continuing to adapt to serve them,

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the new ratings from Yelp: