How to Remove Negative Facebook Reviews
Ouch.
Sometimes, bad online reviews happen. Maybe you were having a bad day. Maybe the customer was being unreasonable. Even companies that consistently take home top awards for customer service get bad reviews from time to time.
As much as good online reviews can positively impact your performance in the marketplace, a poor review can impact your bottom line suddenly and dramatically. In fact, 42% of customers simply will not do business with any company with less than three stars. But this doesn’t mean your business is doomed when you get a few less than five-star ratings. Your customers are human and realize that no business is perfect.
The question is what to do with a bad review when it happens. There are three basic strategies to neutralizing bad reviews.
- Delete them
- Respond to them
- Bury them
1.Delete the Review
Disclaimer: Although many articles claim otherwise, Facebook, like many review sites, won’t delete a negative review simply because you ask. But fake online reviews or other violations of their Community Standards can be removed through a process. Often, troll reviews can be removed in this fashion. Sorry.
2.Respond to the Review
The fact is that most businesses don’t respond to any of the reviews left on their online profiles. This is a mistake. Businesses that reach out to customers that have left negative reviews with real solutions can reap substantial rewards. According to a study published on Entrepreneur, responding to customers online means that 65% of customers are more brand loyal than they would otherwise be, 25% are less likely to go somewhere else or post negative things, and 75% report that they would be willing to share their experience.
Responding to negative online reviews is simple and typically conflict-free, as long as you subscribe to a few, basic rules. Write a short, understanding reply that acknowledges their experience, even if you suspect it may not be true or may be overstated.
- Thank the customer for taking the time to write a review.
- Apologize.
- Reassure them that their experience isn’t typical and (if possible) whatever caused the problem has been/is being corrected.
- Offer to correct the problem.
- Avoid using specifics in your response. This helps keep it off of search engines.
For example:
Dear <Reviewer>,
Thank you for your review. I’m very sorry to hear about your recent experience with us. We strive to provide our customers with excellent service (etc.) Please contact me so that I may make up for what happened.
3.Bury the Review
If you are running your business the right way and you’re not actively soliciting online reviews, two things will be true. You won’t have that many negative reviews. But you also won’t have that many reviews, period. The good news is that actively gathering Facebook reviews is the most effective way of dealing with the inevitable and occasional negative review.
Although you can do this manually, reputation management systems automate and simplify the process of soliciting online reviews to such a degree that the total number of reviews you receive could easily be magnified five or ten-fold. This is possible through reputation management tools tapping into the 50% of customers who say they’ll leave a review for a business if asked. If you don’t have a system or strategy for soliciting reviews, get one! As long as you’re taking care of most of your customers–prioritizing this will “bury” the occasional bad review in a sea of positive reviews. Problem solved.
In truth, a combination of all of these will be the key to maximizing the potential upside of positive reviews and minimizing the negative impact of less-than-stellar reviews. If you can stay on top of your reviews, eliminate the trolls, respond to reviews where appropriate and solicit new reviews from your customer base, you will be way ahead of most of your competition.
