YaDig is all about people finding what and where, the first time around. Be it the best beach bar in Dubai (Barasti if you ask us), the most mouthwateringly home-cooked Iranian food in Dubai (Special Ostadi of course), or even the tastiest Koshari in Cairo (Koshary Tahrir duh!). What guides our users to your business venue is other people’s rave reviews about it. So basically its people, with their honest reviews for your business, that constitute the true essence of YaDig.com. We facilitate the word of mouth you desire.

It’s not just a business page that you get when you sign up your business with us; instead, what you get is a robust platform linking your brand/product/service to tens of thousands of potential customers in your area(s). Plus, as people also socialize on YaDig.com, they follow your business, talk about it with their friends, and recommend it to thousands of likeminded people with a single positive review. That’s the power of people in 2012!

Having said this, with YaDig being the 100% ‘democratic’ community that it is, you may also find the occaisonal disgruntled customer venting out their issue(s) with your business via a review. Negative reviews may sting you as the business owner at first, but they can turn out to be the most valuable asset you get from us, as you receive amazingly detailed and honest feedback on your business’ performance, for free!

Now lashing out at the negative reviewer may be the easy road to take, but could have irreparable damages. Never respond with anything but kind tones, and apologetic behavior. Here are some more precious tips from our YaDig Experts on how not losing your cool will help your brand glow brighter not only on YaDig, but across the region.

YaDig’s New Response Tool
With YaDig’s newest version enabling people (and you) to comment on reviews, you can get back to your customers to appreciate their rave reviews, as well as to get to the root of their dissatisfaction if needed. Say a customer has written a glaring review about you, why not leave a grateful remark via comment on their review? Likewise, leaving an apologetic comment for an upset client, asking the customer the cause of dissatisfaction and compensating accordingly will most likely win the person back over, not to mention the thousands of people that will read the review.

Use Team Members
Since using YaDig is all about ROTI (Return On Time Investment), the more time you put into communicating with your audience, the better your footfall and brand awareness will be. We suggest you treat your business’ profile page like a full time job in and of itself by making it a team effort. Team Members are the users you authorize to manage your business page. Just make sure everyone has a single solitary voice and objective.

Learn, and Implement Valued Feedback
Look at the big picture. Businesses in the Middle East regularly conduct costly surveys to get customer feedback to better know how they can improve. With YaDig, you get live user reviews and state of the art business tools which enable you keep full track of real time customer feedback. You can also view your custom trends reports, based completely on your most recent business statistics, made available with a click in your YaDig business dashboard.

When combined, live user reviews, user comments on reviews, and YaDig’s bespoke business tools provide you with so thorough and unambiguous a user feedback that no survey can ever achieve. Clever businesses use these live user stats to resolve customer issues as soon as they arise and give people more of what they want.

Nothing Working? Flagging Might!
If you think a review is violating YaDig’s terms of service, you can flag it for evaluation by YaDig user support team. We’ll look into the ways the flagged review may be in violation of our site terms and take it down if so found. Although we encourage businesses to accept negative reviews as a matter-of-fact part of their customers’ experience, we allow you to flag a trashing review and point our attention to it.

Put Your Best Foot Forward
One thing for you to always keep in mind as a business owner is to “treat your customers as if they are business reporters,” as a recent Forbes article says. If you prefer long-term reputation to short-term profit, as do all successful businesses, the best way to achieve it is through great customer service. In today’s internet age where information spreads in a blink, days of tooting your own horn via conventional marketing may be over – Customer Service is the new marketing.

Hello world! A whole new YaDig is here to deliver you the best user experience yet. Now finding the right restaurant, hotel, coffee shop, bar, nightclub or anything else near you is not only easier, but is more fun too. Everything on YaDig.com – from design to features and functionalities – has been touched up, and in some cases overhauled, to deliver you a better user experience. The site now has got more visually appealing, simpler to use, and neater than before.

You valued feedback helped us make all the right changes to the site and equip it with the right tools to make it a great reviewing and networking website for you. The site with the new build lets you explore your city and surroundings better than the locals in an easy and intuitive fashion.

Below is a brief rundown of what major upgrades YaDig.com has gone through in the new build.

Design Revamp – Neater is Better

We have made major changes to YaDig’s design across the board. Whether it’s the homepage, listings page, business page or user/business dashboards, every single part of the site has undergone the design overhaul. The resultant look of the site has emerged neat, clutter-free and easy on the eye. As the redesign goes hand in hand with new feature/functionality upgrades, YaDig has just gotten more user-friendly and utilitarian than before.

Notifications – Stay In The Know

Real time notifications panel at the top right position of the site is a new great addition to the site. The panel is visible after you sign in to your YaDig account (Don’t have an account? Register FREE now!). The notifications panel keeps you up-to-date about the latest activities happening on the site. These updates may include all Dig Buddy activities (new place added, new review posted, new place followed, attending an event, availing a deal etc.), and user activities such as if someone likes your review, comments on it, or gives you a compliment etc.

Richer Dashboard – City News & Friends Updates

Your new User Dashboard on YaDig.com comes loaded with more useful content such as City News and Friends Updates, in addition to Following (for the places you’re following) and My Events (for events you’re attending). City News comprise most activity updates on places in your city, such as latest reviews on hottest places in your city, as well as newest deals and events announced by businesses establishments operating in your city. Friends Updates comprise most of your friends’ activities on YaDig.com such as new review posted, new place added, new advice asked etc.

Get Advice – Let the Locals Come to the Rescue

Get Advice, our brand new feature, allows users to ask the locals for their advice on a new city/area. For instance, if you’re in a new city or area and looking for a particular place to stay, eat out, have fun, study, stay fit, or do anything else, use Get Advice to ask the locals of that city/area to seek their informed advice about it. Your question will appear in the City News section of users of the city you need advice on. Advice from the locals will surely lead you to the right venue at the right time with ease.

Reviews – Say More with a Picture

Now you can couple your review with a photo to make it more powerful. When you’re saying things like the food at the restaurant is delicious, the nightclub is overcrowded, or the hotel’s room service is pathetic, add a photo with your review to give readers a clearer picture so they make wiser choices. Besides, it’s also fun to write a visual review and it’s good to look at as well.

Deals & Events – by Your Favourite Businesses

Finally, Deals & Events from the businesses you’re following are here. You get updates for all new deals & events posted by your favorite businesses on the site which you can browse straight from your YaDig Dashboard. YaDig offers special deals for its users in collaboration with partnered business establishments. These deals may entitle you to special discounts and offers at designated business outlets, or any other benefit/offer that the deal may dictate.

Do More – Comments, Tagging & Compliments

Now users can write comments on reviews, asked advice, as well as on deals & events. You can agree, disagree or endorse the review, or simply correct the reviewer in the comments. You can reply to the asked advice via comments. And you can say what you think about certain deal or event via comments.

You can also tag user reviews as funny, helpful or informative.

What’s more interesting is you can compliment a user profile with a Thank You, Good Writer, You’re Cool etc.

Who Is A Dig Buddy?

A Dig Buddy can be anyone from your YaDig friends list whom you choose to stay updated with your latest YaDig activities and vice versa. You can add any, and as many of your YaDig friends to the Dig Buddies list as you want. With Dig Buddies, create a network of very close YaDig friends who get mutual, real time updates of their YaDig activities.

How Do I Make A Friend My Dig Buddy?

You can easily add a friend from your YaDig friends list to your Dig Buddies list. To do this, simply access your YaDig friends list and click on the ‘Add to Dig Buddy Group’ link given next to the friend’s name. Clicking on that link will send your Dig Buddy invite to your friend. Once your friend accepts your invite, they’ll be added to your Dig Buddy list and both of you will be able to get instant updates for your mutual YaDig activities.

How Do I Remove A Friend From My Dig Buddy List?

Removing a friend from your Dig Buddy list is as easy as adding them. To remove a friend from your Dig Buddy list, simply access your Dig Buddies list and click on the ‘Remove from Dig Buddy Group’ link given next to the friend’s name. The moment you click on that link, the friend will be removed from your Dig Buddies list.

What Types Of Updates/Alerts Do Dig Buddies Get?

As Dig Buddies are closer to each other than their other YaDig friends, they get email alerts in real time about each other’s activity on YaDig.com on two occasions: firstly when a Dig Buddy reviews a place/venue, and secondly when a Dig Buddy adds a new place/venue. For instance, if your Dig Buddy reviews a place on YaDig.com, you’ll get instant updates/email alerts about it. Similarly, if you add a new place to YaDig.com, your Dig Buddies will get real time email alerts about it. These updates/email alerts keep you informed about the latest YaDig activities of your Dig Friends who you may share your interests with.

Stay Updated; Share Mutual Interests & Activities

You may have many friends on YaDig.com, but some of them must be closer to you than the others. These closer friends are the ones with whom you may share your interests and choose to be your Dig Buddies.

Once you are Dig Buddies with someone, both of you get updates/email alerts about each other’s activity on YaDig.com. For instance, you may review a place or two and your Dig Buddy gets instantly updated about this activity of yours. Likewise, your Dig Buddy may add a new place to YaDig.com and you get alerted about their activity in the same manner. This mutual sharing keeps all the Dig Buddies completely in the know about each other’s most current activities on YaDig.com. So you always know what your closest YaDig buddies are doing on the site and realize that you never knew them better.

1. QBA

2. URBAN PIND

3. TUSKERS

4. TAPAS

5. AURA, THE VODKA BAR

6. H2O

7. ISLAND BAR

8. HENRI’S BAR

9. FLAVORS

10. BLUES

1. THUGS

2. DECIBEL

3. CLUB SAFFIRE

4. GIGS IN TOWN

5. F-BAR & LOUNGE

6. URBAN PIND

7. BUZZ

8. BACI BAR

9. AGNI

10. RICKS