If you’ve ever wanted to find just about any Jewish business, the new “My Jewish Listings” website will be your dream come true. Designed to serve an all-inclusive range of interests and age, MJL will make your search life so much easier that it will be hard to imagine it could have been any other way!
And if you are a Jewish business, MJL could very well be your new conduit to a substantial influx of customers all over the country, with plans of expanding to a global customer platform. Sound too good to be true? You will be able to see for yourself, when MyJewishListings.com rolls out online this coming Monday, February 1!
The tools on this website are clear and intuitive, providing a user-friendly experience. My Jewish Listings provides transparency in pricing and amenities across all Jewish business categories, including travel and kosher restaurants, very similar to a Jewish version of “Yelp” or “Trip Advisor.”
Business categories help connect customers directly with a business page displaying comprehensive information about a company’s products, services and purchase options. Co-founder Doni Schwartz explained to The Jewish Link that customers can now check if business owners are offering a discount, whether a travel program has mixed swimming etc., and even the specific kosher certification a restaurant has.
Valuable to potential customers is their ability to access reliable customer reviews about a business from experienced users. However, the online deployment of product or service reviews can be a “shady” process. Endemic to the internet province is the practice of posting fake, paid and misleading reviews. Sometimes reviews with the worst grammar and most misspelled or missing words prove to be the most valid!
Schwartz was about how the reviews are verified and what makes them reliable and not subject to the deception so common to online reviews. “Every review that appears on the website is verified through an internal triple-verification process and proprietary technology that we have implemented,” Schwartz said, adding, “Reviews come from people who have used the business’s service, eaten at a kosher restaurant or [gone] on a travel program.”
Regarding privacy and security measures, an increasing concern in the current internet environment, Schwartz responded, “Everything we do is opt-in, compliant with the CCPA [California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 giving consumers more control over personal information that businesses collect about them] and GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation of 2016]. We have solid privacy policy and terms of use in place, and every time a user submits a review or inquiry, they’re required to check the ‘opt-in’ box, which allows consent to sharing their information with the business.”
Asked about the mission and vision of MJL, Schwartz had this to say about the service: “Our mission is to foster the growth of Jewish businesses during these unfortunate times of COVID-19,” by making it easy for people and Jewish businesses to connect with each other. He added that he and co-founder Daniel Kramer built a similar company called passoverlistings.com a few years ago, designed to facilitate travelers in identifying potential Pesach destinations. The Jewish Link also asked Schwartz whether the website options are limited to the “kosher” or observant audience. On the contrary, “MJL endeavors to reach and relate to all Jews and any type of Jewish business, whether…a handyman, accountant, travel program, kosher restaurant or chiropractor.”
Regarding cost, Schwartz stated, “There is absolutely no cost to the consumer to view any Jewish business, and it’s free to submit an inquiry as well.” There is also a free enrollment plan for businesses, along with premium plan options designed to drive a higher volume of other businesses and consumers to their page. An essential feature for businesses was described by Ari Goldberg: “I can just log into my private dashboard and see all the people that came to my page over the last week. I love the fact that I can reach people via Facebook and via the website. I’ve definitely seen an uptick in my sales since I created my page on their website.”
On the consumer side, one happy customer related: “My Jewish Listings made it so simple to plan our vacation. We found a hotel that was fun for the kids, all-inclusive for us and we didn’t waste hours searching. We had a blast!”
Going forward, MJL plans to make the leap, expanding to a global service within a few years. Already in an exclusive partnership with Kosher GPS, the largest global mobile app for Kosher restaurants, MJL is poised and excited to introduce an upgrade, generating the first ever “Kosher Grubhub,” to the Jewish community.
Look for the roll-out, scheduled for February 1, when you will be able to access the website at www.myjewishlistings.com.
By Ellie Wolf
