How to Remove a Negative Review on Facebook

By Jane Garfinkel - Review Response Specialist

If you’re a business owner, you may have wondered how to remove a negative review on Facebook.

It’s understandable considering that online reviews are an integral component of running a business.

In fact, consumers read an average of ten reviews before feeling like they can trust a company.

While positive reviews are a joy to read, it’s much more challenging when a customer is unhappy. For the most part, negative online reviews should not be deleted. Even though they are hard to look at, they serve an important purpose.

That being said, there are two situations that necessitate deleting Facebook reviews, now called recommendations, that you should know about.

Recommendations That Contain Hate Speech and Inappropriate Language

Sometimes people use online review sites as a vehicle to share their hateful opinions. If you receive an offensive recommendation, report it immediately.

According to their Community Standards, Facebook does not allow users to post hate speech and will delete it.

Recommendations Irrelevant to Your Business

Occasionally an angry customer coming from a different store will accidentally leave a negative recommendation on your business’s Facebook page.

You should report this as well. If it’s clear that the customer is in the wrong place, Facebook may delete their erroneous recommendation. If it does not get deleted, be sure to write a response that gently, but clearly, points out the error. Hopefully the user will realize their mistake and delete the recommendation.

How to Report a Recommendation

If one of these cases arise, go to the recommendation you want to report and click the “...” symbol in the top right. Select “Give feedback on this Recommendation” and follow the onscreen instructions.  

Slanderous Recommendations

While you can report recommendations you believe are slanderous to your business, it is unlikely that Facebook will delete them.

The best thing you can do in this case is to write a reply explaining your side of the story and offer to continue the conversation with the customer offline. With proper follow-up, the customer might be inspired to edit or delete their recommendation.

Now you know how to remove a negative review on Facebook. When it’s appropriate to delete a Facebook recommendation don’t hesitate to take action.

Of course, the only way to know that one of your recommendations needs deleting is through Facebook monitoring. Widewail’s review management service will help you keep a tab on your online reputation so that no irrelevant or inappropriate messages remain on your Facebook page.