Manage & Collect
Misinformation is a real problem, especially when it’s your competitor peddling it.
February 4, 2020
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5 min read
Once just used as a platform to connect with friends, Facebook has grown over the years to offer many additional services and benefits to businesses. One of these being, reviews (also known as Facebook Recommendations). Facebook reviews are found on Business Pages and can be collected by everyone from Ford to your little bakery down the road.
Whilst there are many benefits of collecting reviews on Facebook, unlike when using a Licensed Review Partner such as Reviews.io, reviews are not verified and can be left by anyone. This does put companies at some risk of receiving fraudulent feedback. Which begs the question:
Unfortunately, the answer is NO, you can't remove Facebook Reviews.
As with reviews on Google and other platforms, individual, legitimate reviews - however malicious - cannot be removed. This is all part of the online trust Facebook aims to provide with its review system - if businesses could tamper with their reviews, they could no longer be trusted as a reliable source of information.
However, all is not lost - whilst not perfect, there are other solutions. We've got two ways to remove Facebook reviews to help you out when disaster strikes.
If you're happy to wait a while for your issue to be resolved, consider flagging your Facebook review. In order to do this, the review will need to go against Facebook's Community Standards.
Facebook's Community Standards cover things such as:
Although these are broad review guidelines, if someone is overly offensive or seems ingenuine when leaving your business a Facebook Recommendation, it may warrant removal.
Now, let us first show you some red flags of fake and offensive reviews so that you can take advantage of the reporting guidelines to mark them as spam.
Here are several telltale signs that can help you distinguish genuine feedback from fraudulent or offensive reviews.
Reporting a Facebook Recommendation is easy. All you need to do is:
Step 1: Click Reviews below the Page cover photo.
Step 2: Click on the three dots to the top right of the review, then select 'Report post.'
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You will then see a pop-up window. Select the most appropriate description from the list, then press send.
Step 3 (Last step): Wait patiently and cross your fingers.
If Facebook finds the review to go against its Community Standards, it will be removed and there will be no record of it on your page.
In the meantime, we'd encourage you to respond to negative reviews in the most professional way possible to show other customers you're being proactive and help save face.
The second option you have for getting rid of your Facebook reviews is more extreme. Whilst you can't manually delete individual Facebook reviews, you can remove them all from your page.It's important to remember that this won't wipe the slate clean - it simply means reviews will no longer be shown on your business page, and will also inhibit anyone from leaving you feedback in the future, whether good or bad.
Sound a bit extreme, doesn't it? That's why many think of hiding Facebook reviews instead of turning them off completely
Again the answer is NO.
You can hide many other sections, such as Check-ins, Music, Sports, etc., but Reviews, together with About, Photos, and Videos, are fixed in the Navigation bar (unless you turn it off).
When navigating to the More dropdown in the Page menu bar and choosing Manage Section (you need to be a page admin or page collaborator to see this), you'll see that you can't uncheck Reviews in the list.
This time, the process is even simpler and requires no input from Facebook at all. To delete your Facebook reviews in one clean sweep:
Step 1: Navigate to your business page and ensure you're logged in as the page.
Step 2: Click on the three dots at the top-left of the page.
Step 3: Select ‘Page and tagging settings’.
Step 4: You'll land on a new page where you can find an ON/OFF toggle next to Allow others to view and leave reviews on your Page?. Switch it off to remove the Reviews section on your Facebook page.
Our third and final solution for getting rid of Facebook reviews won't necessarily always work, nor is it guaranteed to remove a negative review, however, we think it's worth a punt as it has plenty of other benefits.
The solution is simple: win your disgruntled reviewer over so much, that they want to change their review. This is easier than it sounds - most customers don't want to leave a bad review, they want good products, good service and a good experience. They want to give positive feedback! So when they don't, chances are, you messed up.
To put things right, it's essential to respond to positive and negative reviews professionally and empathetically - even if you don't agree with their comment. Apologise, explain why the problem happened and, if possible, provide a solution. It's the strength of your solution that's likely to win them back around.
Effective online review management helps online businesses not only maintain a strong reputation but also foster online trust. Some practical tips you can apply today to achieve this are:
As with deleting reviews off any platform, the goal should really be prevention not cure. Prevent negative feedback, and you'll never need to know how to remove Facebook Reviews!
If negative reviews do occur, consider your options, consider the resources available to you, breathe, and make an informed and strategic choice that focusses on long-term success, not short-term reputation.
Still unsure about how to remove Facebook reviews? Head over to our website or jump on live chat with one of our advisors. Try our platform for free with out 14-day t
