In November, Facebook rolled out star reviews for business pages. Here at Launch, we’ve received a lot of questions about this new rating system and what it means for businesses, so below we’re going to attempt to answer some of the more frequently asked questions.
Why does my page have a review section?
Any business page that has an address listed on Facebook automatically has a spot on the page for reviews.
Can I turn them off?
Yes. No. Kind of. Don’t! Facebook does have a setting that allows you to turn them off, but I won’t share how to do this, because it’s a bad idea. When you turn off reviews, you also turn off the capability for people to check-in, and the positives for people being able to check-in far outweigh any negatives that might come from a bad review.
I got a bad review — can I remove it?
You cannot just remove a bad review, but there are some things you can do to reduce its negative impact. The first thing is to respond. Ideally, you will have a customer list and should have the contact information for the person who left the review. If you do, call them. Find out what went wrong, and do your best to make it right.
If you don’t have the person’s contact information, you can try to respond on Facebook — however, this only works if the reviewer’s privacy settings are set to allow others to respond to them. If the post is something you would consider offensive or spam, you can report it to Facebook. It will then go through their review process, and if it is deemed to be spam or contain offensive content, the post will disappear.
Why do I get more negative reviews than positive reviews?
It is nearly impossible for a business to have 100% positive interactions with customers, so you are sure to have an unhappy person leaving a review at some point. The reasons unhappy customers post a review to Facebook can usually be broken down into a few categories:
- The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If they complain publicly, they think they will get what they want.
- They just want to see if others have had similar experiences. Hearing from others will help that person validate his/her opinion. This person doesn’t really want or need you to do anything, they just want others to hear about their experience.
- They think the negative review will prevent others from having the same experience. This person wants to be a crusader for consumer rights, and this is their forum in which to do so.
- They are just a difficult person.
Remember, people frequently post about negative experiences, but rarely share the positive.
So how do I get more good reviews?
It’s not hard to ask customers to leave a review, but it is hard to follow up to make sure they actually do it. This is where Facebook can help do some of the work for you. Your only job will be to get the customer to check in at your location when they are there. Offer a special for checking in, or have a highly visible sign encouraging people to check in. Do whatever it takes.
So what do customers checking in on Facebook have to do with reviews? The answer is that Facebook wants people to leave reviews, and if they know somebody has checked in at your location, they will suggest to that person later to review their experience. This acts as a reminder for people to review your business when it is convenient for them.
You already create great experiences for your customers — now you just need them to post about those experiences.
How powerful are Facebook reviews?
They are no more or less powerful than any other internet review. If there are a lot of reviews for a business, people tend to trust them more. It is much easier for a person to trust a large pool of reviewers as opposed to 3 or 4 reviews.
If you have any more questions about Facebook reviews, leave them in the comments section below and we will do our best to answer them!
