How to Remove Bad Reviews from Online Platforms
April 28, 2019
Rajat Tyagi
When your online business relies heavily on customer reviews, receiving negative feedback can be devastating. Unfortunately, these reviews are often left flippantly, sometimes even by people who had no actual experience with your company. What these people see as a harmless prank can have a serious negative impact on your online business.
How can you minimize the impact of these bad reviews? Can they be removed? Here is your guide to keeping your reviews positive – and weeding out those that might cause trouble.
How to Remove Bad Reviews from a Facebook Page
Removing such negative reviews from a Facebook page actually isn’t difficult. Currently, there are two options. The first is to directly remove inflammatory comments from your business’s page. This can be done by clicking the “x” in each comment box. This method takes a while if you have multiple reviews to remove, but can clean up your page considerably. If you’re looking to remove negative star ratings from your Facebook page, you can follow the below steps.
Steps to removing negative reviews and ratings
Step 1. Log in as an admin of your page.
Step 2. Edit your company’s address information with the page editing tool.
Step 3. Uncheck the box allowing your business’s map to be shown on your page.
Step 4. Save this option, and voila! No more star reviews will be publicly visible on your Facebook page! But, keep in mind, even the good reviews will no longer be visible.
How to Delete, Hide, or Remove a Bad Review on Etsy?
Etsy is one of the most difficult platforms to deal with when it comes to negative or bad reviews. This is because negative Etsy feedback cannot be removed or deleted by the shop or business owner who has received it, unless a bad review violates Etsy’s policies in that case you can report it. However, like many other platforms, it allows communication between the reviewer and the shop owner, which can significantly boost the public perception of your company should you respond correctly and promptly.
Steps to managing negative Etsy feedback
Step 1. Etsy offers the opportunity for the site administrators to remove feedback left unfairly or in error. Should you feel this applies to your review, contact admins right away with your concerns.
Step 2. For regular Etsy business owners, if the feedback is genuine, the best policy is to reply as quickly as possible.
Step 3. Offer to amend in any way possible and courteously ask that feedback be amended to reflect this.
Step 4. Should you not receive amended feedback, encourage new customers to leave positive feedback after their transactions, to help offset the negative review.
How to Remove Bad Reviews from Google Local Business?
Google is one of your most important sources for consumer interaction, given its widespread use. In this section, we’ll also discuss how to remove reviews from Google Business.
But first, understand that removing a bad review from Google My Business is not a straightforward process. When you log on to Google Business Profile Manager, you will not find a simple ‘delete’ button under every review for you to remove as per your wishes. While some do succeed in getting negative reviews deleted, it doesn’t come easy.
Step 1. Ensure a Google review is genuine. Should your review be false, offensive or otherwise inappropriate, you can easily flag it for abuse and removal by the Google administrative team.
Step 2. Contact your local reviewer directly.
Step 3. Make sure your engagement with negative reviews is public. While it may seem strange to draw attention to a review that focuses on the negatives, showing current and prospective consumers that you respond to these comments will discourage them from leaving without thinking carefully first. It will also show that you take customer satisfaction seriously! That way, whether the reviewer changes their feedback or not, you’ve addressed it in a positive way for your future reviewers to see.
How to Remove Bad Reviews from Yelp
To change reviews left on Yelp, it is important to show your consumer that you have addressed the issue.
Steps to managing Yelp reviews
Step 1. Check reviews regularly, Give users the impression that you regularly check the feedback.
Step 2. Engage diplomatically with those reviews. It will lessen the chances of receiving a scathing comment, as well as give you the opportunity to make amends right away.
How to Remove Bad Reviews from Amazon
If you are a third-party Amazon seller, you may not have had control over the contents or condition of the item being sold. This means your customer’s feedback may be better addressed by reviewing the product than by reviewing your sale. However, with the world shopping online, you need to address the negative feedback.
Steps to addressing negative feedback on Amazon
The best approach is two fold.
Step 1. Identify, if the negative review left, was accurate. If this is the case, contact your consumer directly and explain the situation; they will have sixty days to remove the feedback at their discretion.
Step 2. If you find that the feedback left was erroneous or cannot be resolved with the customer by contacting them directly, you may also contact Amazon. The administrators will determine if your complaint is valid and will remove any incorrect feedback within ninety days.
How to Remove or Cancel Negative Feedback on Ebay
eBay requires open and consistent communication. This includes the process of amending feedback.
Steps to amending negative feedback on eBay
Step 1. Should you receive a negative review, contact your buyer or seller directly.
Step 2. Ask about what can be done to make the situation right for them. Feedback is easier to change on eBay, in that neutral and negative feedback can be addressed and amended rather quickly. Positive feedback cannot be changed, making it important to strive for positive reviews upfront every time.
In Conclusion
Knowing how to eliminate erroneous negative feedback and respond appropriately to negative reviews which can give you actual insight into your business’s customer satisfaction is essential. For more information on keeping your feedback as positive as possible, contact us to know more about our Online Reputation Management services. We’ll help you get your company’s consumer relations on the right track!
Additional Read: Manage Your Business’s Online Reputation Effectively
FAQs
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Can Google reviews be removed?
Yes, if Google reviews are false, offensive or inappropriate they can be flagged for abuse and removal to the Google administrative team.
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Can I remove a bad review on Facebook?
Yes, Facebook reviews can easily be deleted from your business page – just log in as admin and click delete on the comments and reviews you want to be removed. You can also choose the option of disallowing the box with your business map on your page or makings posts by public invisible.
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Can you remove a yelp review?
No, you cannot remove a yelp review, only the author or Yelp itself can. We recommend engaging with all reviews, positive and negative, to give a good impression of your customer service and promptness.
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How do I get rid of fake Google reviews?
If a review is fake, you can flag it or report it citing the reason for the same. The Google administrative team will take action accordingly.
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Are Google reviews better than yelp?
Both serve their own purpose and have their own loyalists. Studies show that Google reviews tend to be easier to do, so they are growing much faster and tend to be slightly more positive.
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How many Google reviews do I need?
On average, local businesses have 39 reviews, while businesses appearing in the top 3 local positions have at least 47. Depending on your industry, this may vary – but we strongly recommend that you should have a strategy in place to encourage as many reviews as possible!