Yelp + NextPhone: Track & Respond to Review-Driven Calls

The Yelp Call Attribution Problem: Tracking What You Can't Capture

Your Yelp listing shows 4.8 stars. Customers read glowing reviews about your emergency plumbing service. Someone's pipe bursts at 8 PM. They call your number from Yelp. It goes to voicemail. They call the next contractor. You just lost a $4,200 job.

This happens more than you think. In our analysis of 13,175 customer service calls from 45 home services contractors over 7 months, we found that 74.1% of calls went completely unanswered. That's three out of every four potential customers calling someone else.

Why Yelp Calls Are Hard to Track

The attribution problem is real. A customer calls your business. Did they find you on Yelp? Google? A referral? Without proper tracking, you're flying blind on which marketing channels actually drive calls.

Yelp is a major lead source for local businesses. Customers research you, read reviews, check your star rating, then call. But you don't know any of that context when you answer (if you answer). You have no idea if they saw your 5-star reviews or called to complain about your 1-star.

The Cost of Missing Review-Driven Calls

Let's do the math. Typical contractor receives 42 calls per month. About 30% come from Yelp—that's 13 calls. At a 74.1% miss rate, 10 of those Yelp calls go straight to voicemail.

If just 20% of those calls would convert at an average $3,500 project value, you're losing $7,000 per month from Yelp alone. That's $84,000 per year in missed revenue from one marketing channel.

One plumber told us: "I didn't even know I was missing that many calls until I saw the data. I just thought business was slow."

How Yelp Call Tracking Works (And Why It's Not Enough)

Yelp knows this is a problem. They've built tracking tools. But tracking who called isn't the same as actually answering the call.

Yelp's Free Call Reporting

If you're a Yelp advertiser, you get free call reporting. Yelp's call tracking replaces your phone number with a forwarding number (or multiple numbers) to track which calls came from your Yelp listing.

For each call, you can see the date, time, duration, and a partial phone number. The data lives in your Yelp for Business dashboard. You can track average call duration, time of day, and total calls received versus answered.

This is helpful for attribution. You can finally prove Yelp is generating calls. But it doesn't solve the core problem: you're still missing most of those calls.

Third-Party Call Tracking (CallRail)

Some businesses use third-party call tracking services like CallRail to get more detailed data. You place a unique tracking number on your Yelp listing, and CallRail logs every call—full caller ID, recording, transcription.

This gives you better data than Yelp's native tracking. You can see the full phone number (not masked), listen to recordings, and integrate basic data with your CRM.

But again: tracking ` answering. CallRail tells you who called. It doesn't pick up the phone at 8 PM when you're at dinner.

What Tracking Doesn't Solve

Here's what basic call tracking misses:

• Availability: You still can't answer when you're on a job site, on a ladder, or after hours
• Context: You don't know the caller's sentiment (excited vs angry), urgency level, or which review triggered the call
• Integration: Data lives in Yelp's dashboard or CallRail's system, not automatically synced to your CRM where you manage leads

One Reddit user put it perfectly: "I get tons of calls from my Yelp listing but have no idea which ones actually came from there vs Google." Another said: "Yelp's call tracking is garbage. They mask the number so I can't even call customers back."

The Gaps: After-Hours Calls, Spam Filtering, and Integration

Beyond basic tracking, there are three big problems nobody talks about.

When Yelp Calls Actually Happen (After Hours)

Customers don't just search Yelp during business hours. They browse reviews at night. They research contractors while watching TV. Emergency searches happen at 2 AM when a pipe bursts.

According to our call data, 73% of calls to home services businesses happen outside standard 9-5 hours. That means three out of four potential customers are calling when you're closed, at dinner, or asleep.

Yelp searchers expect instant answers. They're comparing multiple contractors. If you don't answer, they move to the next listing. Response speed matters more than your star rating.

The Spam Problem Nobody Talks About

Not all Yelp calls are legitimate customers. In our analysis of 13,175 calls, 7.0% were spam or robocalls—competitors calling to gather pricing, sales reps pitching services, automated calls.

Without intelligent filtering, you're wasting time on junk calls or paying an answering service to screen spam. Every spam call answered is time away from real customer conversations.

Yelp's AI Answering Services (Host & Receptionist)

Yelp launched two AI-powered solutions in October 2025 to address the answering problem. Yelp Receptionist ($99/month) handles calls for local businesses, and Yelp Host ($149/month) manages restaurant reservations.

Both services answer 24/7, ask qualifying questions, and capture lead information. They're pre-trained on your Yelp business data and fully customizable.

The limitation? They're locked into Yelp's ecosystem. Yelp Receptionist doesn't integrate with your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive). It doesn't send follow-up SMS. It doesn't filter spam using your existing criteria. And it costs $99-149/month for basic answering—no sentiment routing, no advanced integration.

Review Sentiment + Call Routing: Understanding Context Before You Answer

Here's what nobody else is doing: connecting review sentiment to call handling.

Why Caller Sentiment Matters

Think about the customer journey. Someone searches "emergency plumber near me" on Yelp. They see your listing. They read reviews. Their emotional state is shaped by what they just read.

Excited caller (saw 5-star review): "I saw you have amazing reviews for emergency service. Can you help me today?"

Angry caller (saw 1-star review or left one themselves): "I saw you charged someone $800 for a simple repair. Is that true?"

Same business, same phone number, but completely different calls. One needs friendly booking assistance. The other needs careful conflict resolution.

One business owner on a forum said: "Customer left a 1-star review, then called. I answered not knowing they were angry. Would've prepared differently if I knew."

How AI Detects Review Context

Modern voice sentiment analysis uses AI and natural language processing to detect positive, negative, or neutral emotion in real-time. It transcribes the call and analyzes tone, keywords, and speech patterns.

In our analysis, 15.9% of calls contained urgency language like "emergency," "urgent," or "ASAP." Another 6.2% were true emergencies—pipe burst, no power, AC out in 95-degree heat.

An AI receptionist can detect:

• Urgency keywords: "emergency," "broken," "flooded," "burst pipe"
• Sentiment indicators: Frustrated tone, angry language, or enthusiastic praise
• Review references: "I saw your reviews," "someone complained about," "loved your 5-star rating"

Smart Routing Based on Sentiment

Once the AI understands context, it can route intelligently:

• Positive + routine: AI handles the entire call, books appointment, collects info, sends confirmation
• Negative + complaint: Route immediately to owner for personal attention and conflict resolution
• Urgent + emergency: Transfer to your phone while AI gathers details (location, nature of emergency, contact info)
• After-hours + non-urgent: AI collects information, schedules callback for next business day, sends confirmation SMS

This is the missing link. Tracking tells you they called from Yelp. AI answering picks up the phone. But sentiment-based routing ensures the right person handles the right call at the right urgency level.

The Full Integration: Track, Answer, and Sync Everything

Here's where NextPhone becomes the intelligent layer between Yelp and your business.

How NextPhone Tracks Yelp as Source

Use your dedicated NextPhone number on your Yelp listing. Every call is automatically attributed to Yelp. No phone masking. No partial caller IDs. No separate dashboard to check.

You get complete caller information—full phone number, name (if they provide it), location, and call recording with transcript.

CRM Integration with Webhooks

During the call, the AI collects:

• Name and phone number
• Email address
• Service needed
• Urgency level (routine, urgent, emergency)
• Review context ("caller mentioned 5-star rating")
• Preferred callback time if not available

After the call ends, all of this data pushes automatically to your CRM via webhooks. Works with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho, or any system that accepts API calls. You can also use Yelp's Zapier integration (launched November 2025) for even more automation options.

No manual data entry. No copy-pasting from Yelp dashboard to CRM. No forgetting to log calls.

Complete Lead Lifecycle

Here's the full workflow:

1. Customer searches Yelp at 9 PM for emergency plumber
2. Sees your 4.8-star rating and reviews praising fast emergency response
3. Calls your NextPhone number from Yelp listing
4. AI answers in under 5 seconds, introduces itself as your AI assistant
5. Detects urgency from keywords ("pipe burst," "flooding")
6. Collects key details while staying calm and helpful
7. Routes to your phone for immediate handling or books next-day appointment
8. Syncs to CRM with complete call notes, sentiment analysis, and Yelp attribution
9. Sends confirmation SMS to customer with your callback number and appointment details
10. Emails you summary with call recording, transcript, and next steps

You wake up the next morning to a complete lead record. Or your phone rings immediately for true emergencies. Either way, you didn't lose the call, the customer got help, and your CRM is up to date.

In our data, 25.4% of calls included explicit callback requests. Without a systematic tracking and follow-up system, most of those requests fall through the cracks. NextPhone ensures every callback happens.

Pricing: Yelp Receptionist vs NextPhone vs Third-Party Tracking

Let's compare actual costs:

• Yelp's Free Call Tracking:

• Price: Free for advertisers

• Tracks calls: Yes (date, time, partial number)

• Answers 24/7: No

• CRM integration: No

• Sentiment routing: No

• Spam filter: No

• Yelp Receptionist:

• Price: $99/month

• Tracks calls: Yes

• Answers 24/7: Yes

• CRM integration: No (stays in Yelp ecosystem)

• Sentiment routing: No

• Spam filter: Basic

• CallRail:

• Price: $45-95/month

• Tracks calls: Yes (full caller ID)

• Answers 24/7: No

• CRM integration: Basic (limited)

• Sentiment routing: No

• Spam filter: No

• NextPhone:

• Price: $199/month

• Tracks calls: Yes (full attribution, source tracking)

• Answers 24/7: Yes (AI receptionist)

• CRM integration: Yes (webhooks for any CRM)

• Sentiment routing: Yes (urgency + sentiment detection)

• Spam filter: Yes (7% of calls are spam—AI screens automatically)

The ROI

Remember that $7,000/month in lost Yelp calls? For a $199/month investment, you recover those leads. That's a 3,400% return on investment.

If you're currently paying Yelp $300/month for ads but can't prove ROI because you're missing the calls—NextPhone solves that attribution problem while also capturing the revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use NextPhone with my existing Yelp listing?

Yes. Replace your phone number on Yelp with your NextPhone number. All calls will be tracked as Yelp-sourced automatically. Your Yelp reviews, ratings, and listing stay exactly the same—you're just changing the phone number to one that actually answers.

Do I need Yelp Ads to track calls from Yelp?

No. Yelp's free call tracking requires a Yelp Ads subscription, but NextPhone works with or without Yelp Ads. You control attribution by using your dedicated NextPhone number on your Yelp listing. Anyone who calls that number came from Yelp.

How does NextPhone know if a caller is angry or urgent?

The AI analyzes tone, keywords, and speech patterns in real-time. It detects urgency words like "emergency," "ASAP," or "burst pipe." It can also pick up if the caller mentions reviews ("I saw your 1-star review about pricing"). Based on sentiment and urgency level, it routes the call appropriately—friendly booking for routine calls, immediate escalation for angry or urgent callers.

Can NextPhone integrate with my CRM if I'm not using HubSpot or Salesforce?

Yes. NextPhone uses custom HTTP webhooks that work with any CRM accepting API calls—Pipedrive, Zoho, custom systems, or anything else. You can also use Zapier for 5,000+ app integrations if you need pre-built connectors.

What if I want some calls routed to me and others handled by AI?

Fully customizable. You define the rules. Examples: emergencies get transferred to you immediately, quote requests go to AI to collect info and book appointments, angry callers get escalated to you for personal attention. You set criteria based on keywords, time of day, or sentiment.

Does NextPhone work with Google Business Profile too, or just Yelp?

NextPhone works with any marketing channel—Yelp, Google, Facebook, print ads, yard signs, vehicle wraps. You can use different tracking numbers for each channel to track attribution separately, or use one number and have the AI ask "How did you hear about us?" during the call.

How much does it cost compared to hiring a receptionist?

A full-time receptionist costs about $35,000 per year ($2,900/month) plus benefits, vacation, sick days, and training. NextPhone costs $199/month—that's 93% cost savings. Plus, a receptionist works 9-5. NextPhone works 24/7, never calls in sick, and handles every call with the same quality and consistency.

Never Miss Another Review-Driven Call

Yelp is a major lead source for local businesses, but tracking who called isn't enough. You need to answer 24/7, understand caller sentiment, and integrate everything with your CRM so no lead falls through the cracks.

Yelp's own solutions (call tracking, Receptionist) solve parts of the problem. Third-party trackers like CallRail solve other parts. But nobody connects all three pieces—track, answer, and integrate—with intelligent sentiment-based routing.

NextPhone bridges that gap. You get full attribution (know it came from Yelp), 24/7 AI answering (never miss a call), sentiment detection (route angry vs excited callers differently), spam filtering (7% of calls are junk), and complete CRM integration (automatic sync to HubSpot, Salesforce, or any system).

The math is clear. Typical contractor loses $7,000/month from missed Yelp calls. NextPhone costs $199/month and recovers that revenue.