We recently had a client call with an urgent question: How can a bad review be removed off a Facebook Page? The ensuing discussion highlighted the importance of monitoring your social sites, ensuring that feedback is positive, and an opportunity for a little Review Clean-Up 101.
Monitor Your Social Sites!
For the clients of Black Tie, we provide a baseline of content. We come up with juicy tidbits, industry insights, and clickable blog links. But keeping track of page engagement is up to you. This means that if someone is giving you praise or punishment, it’s your responsibility to take notice. Of course we’ll give you a heads up if we see something that you need to know about ASAP, but you are the best keeper of your business’ presence on social media sites.
So take stock of what your followers have been posting, tweeting, or yelping about you. If something less than stellar has showed up, be proactive. If the circumstances allow for it, respond to the negative review with the intent to open communication up – privately. Invite the reviewer to contact you by phone, email, or private message to discuss their individual concerns.
Why Positive Feedback is So Important
No doubt you want to put your best foot forward when it comes to brand and social media management. A bad review can be like a sticky piece of gum stuck to your shoe and tracked all over the Internet – hard to remove, and difficult to clean up. One negative review can plant seeds of doubt in the mind of prospective clients and tarnish your social media presence.
So what’s a business to do? Well, obviously make it your aim to deliver positive customer experiences each and every day – and work hard to smooth over the ones that don’t go as well. People have bad days and over-inflated expectations, and sometimes these things make it difficult to please someone. But an earnest effort to hear someone’s concerns and find an equitable solution will be a testament to your business’ commitment to customer satisfaction.
What to Do About Negative Reviews
Sometimes your best efforts to graciously handle a situation may not be enough to offset the impact of a maligning review. In such situations, you may decide to delete the review.
The process varies depending on the social network – and some sites won’t let you remove the review at all (such as Yelp). But for Facebook Pages, the process is relatively simple – and comes at a price. If you want to remove a negative Facebook review, you’ll need to be prepared to lose all of your reviews. If you have a plethora of glowing recommendations, then you probably don’t want to elect this option. Plus, your otherwise stellar record combined with a tactful response to the negative review should be enough to convince potential clients that you’re still a reputable company. But if you’re set on removing the review at all costs, this is what you’ll need to do after logging into your Facebook Page:
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Click the ‘About’ tab.
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Click ‘Page Info’ from the menu on the left side of the page.
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Under the map that appears on the right, uncheck the box that says “Show map, check-ins and star ratings on the Page.”
As mentioned, this will remove ALL reviews, as well as the map that appears on your Facebook Page. So proceed with caution!
A lively, relevant social media presence can be a powerful tool for client engagement and business growth – regardless of your business size or industry. So make social media management a top priority in your company. Monitor it well and it will pay rich dividends in brand growth and audience awareness!