How to Turn Off Reviews on Facebook

Sometimes, the mantra "all publicity is good publicity" isn’t true. Negative reviews can damage the reputation of your business, and when you’re working tirelessly to improve your service or product — while still trying to bring in sales — it’s understandable to want to turn off Facebook reviews when the complaints get overwhelming.

According to HubSpot Research, 85% of customers are likely to share negative experiences with others. For businesses trying to resolve problems without having too much bad press, having no reviews visible on certain platforms can be a better solution.

You’re not alone, businesses go through rough patches sometimes, and there’s steps to take to silence the noise. Today, we’ll walk you through how to turn off reviews on Facebook, and give you reasons why you should, or shouldn’t, remove them.

1. Open Facebook and go to your business page.

If you own more than one business page, you want to make sure you select the page you want to disable Facebook reviews for.

2. Click the ‘Settings’ menu for your business page.

When you click on Settings, you’ll be taken to a selection of choices all under the umbrella of Page Settings.

3. Select ‘Templates and Tabs’ option.

4. Toggle the blue ‘Reviews’ button off.

Once you have toggled the button, it will be the color gray, indicating that you’ve successfully turned off reviews. This action is saved automatically, so your customers won’t see or be able to post any reviews on your page moving forward.

Turning off Facebook reviews is a big call to make that can have both positive and negative implications. Before making that decision, it's important to consider both how your business is faring as a whole and how your audience is perceiving you as a result.

Why You Should Disable Facebook Reviews

There are going to be points when business isn't booming — ugly stretches where you're prone to an influx of bad reviews. Some reasons to consider turning them off would be:

• The bad reviews were a product of isolated incidents. You could be subject to a product recall or an employee of yours might have provided particularly poor customer service before you became hip to their behavior and replaced them.
• The public's perception of your business can be volatile. There's a good chance you won't want to be bombarded with disgruntled customers venting frustrations before you have the chance to address them.
• You can't selectively delete reviews on Facebook. So long as they're not inappropriate, obscene, or flat-out false. And even if that's the case, that process can still take a while to see through.

If your business is in a rough patch that you're working tirelessly to address, it might be in your best interest to turn off Facebook reviews until you're on the side of it.

On another hand, there’s some positive reasons to keep them up even if they’re not the ratings you want, and it’s worth considering before you turn them off.

Reasons to Keep Reviews on Facebook

1. Reviews add legitimacy to your business.

Reviews — good or bad — provide a degree of legitimacy to your business. They let potential customers know that others engage with your company and imply that you care about customer feedback.

2. You can respond to customer reviews or feedback.

Keeping reviews up also provides you with the opportunity to respond to customer reviews and feedback. You get to say your piece and let prospects and customers know that you hear them. You can demonstrate that you understand where they're coming from and are willing to take the necessary steps to address the issues and concerns they're raising.

3. Prospects like to see testimonials.

Even if all your customer reviews aren’t a perfect five-star rating, your customers will value the ability to read customer review testimonials. Turning off Facebook reviews can possibly kneecap your perceived authenticity. Sometimes it might be better to face the music and explicitly let your audience know the specific strides you plan on taking to make things right.

Disable Facebook Reviews If You Need To

Turning off Facebook reviews is a process that should take a lot of thought and consideration. It's up to you to decide whether taking harsh reviews on the chin or keeping things calm until you have your business in order suits your situation better. No matter which route you take, it's helpful to know how to shut Facebook reviews down — just in case they get to be too much.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.