Can you remove or turn off reviews on your Facebook business page?
Yes, a Facebook Page can switch them off as a whole. Meta's help page says turning Recommendations off "will disable Recommendations and remove the rating and reviews from your Page". The setting sits in the Page's Settings, under Page and tagging. To get a single recommendation taken down, Meta's route is to report it for breaking its Community Standards. On Facebook, a review is a recommendation: the customer picks Yes or No and writes a recommendation.
How Facebook recommendations work
Meta's help page on recommending a business says a customer opens the Page's Reviews, clicks Yes to recommend it or No not to, chooses an audience and writes a recommendation. Meta says a Page's rating is based on the reviews and recommendations people share, that only those shared publicly count toward it, and that a Page may not have a rating if it has not received at least 5 reviews.
Meta also says it does not verify that people bought the product or used the service they recommend, and that a review shared publicly, with the person's name and profile photo, may appear alongside ads for that business.
Turning recommendations off
Meta's steps: log into Facebook, click your profile photo, choose See all profiles and switch into the Page; click the Page's profile photo, then Settings & privacy, then Settings; click Page and tagging; then switch off the setting "Allow others to view and leave reviews on your Page?".
Meta says Recommendations help customers learn more about a business and may make a Page easier to find in Facebook search, and that a Page which previously had reviews had Recommendations turned on automatically. As general advice, switching off is a trade: the praise goes along with the criticism.
Reporting a single recommendation
Meta says you can report a recommendation that does not follow its Community Standards, and that it reviews the report and may remove it. Its steps: click Reviews under Details below the cover photo, click See all next to Recent reviews, then click Options on the post and select Report post. It also says "Recommendations that only include a star rating can't be reported".
If a recommendation you saw has gone, Meta says it may have been removed, or the person who posted it may have changed its audience. As general advice, report only what breaks the standards; for an honest complaint, a calm response and a fix usually do more.
Asking customers for a recommendation
Meta says a recommendation should focus on the product or service and be based on personal experience, and that someone who helps manage a Page should not leave a recommendation for that business. As general advice, ask every customer the same way when the job is done, with a link to the Page's Reviews, by text only with the person's consent, and never offer anything in return.
The related answer on getting more reviews the right way covers how to ask, and the related answer on putting customer reviews on your website covers using their words there. Google reviews work differently, as the related answer on turning off Google reviews explains.
Sources
- Facebook Help Center, "Turn Recommendations on or off for your business Page"
- Facebook Help Center, "Recommend a business on Facebook"
- Facebook Help Center, "How Page review count and recommendation score are determined"
- Facebook Help Center, "Report a Recommendation or review about a business Page on Facebook"
Related answers
- How do you get more reviews the right way?
- Can you put customer reviews and testimonials on your website?
- Can you turn off Google reviews for your business?
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