In the early days of the internet, word of mouth was not a prominent concept that was available solely within the online world. As times have changed, however, the ability to find out about business’ track records and levels of customer satisfaction has become much easier. With just a few clicks, a potential user, subscriber or customer can find out a plethora of details about your brand and how others view it. This can result in an amplification of traffic or business – or the opposite thereof. As such, reviews on social media websites can be critical to overall impressions. Today, we’ll review how you can handle Facebook page reviews and what to do in a bad situation.

Decide Whether to Offer Reviews

Each Facebook page has the option to enable user reviews. For some brands – non-profits, political organizations and other potentially-polarizing entities – having a review option may not make sense. For businesses that wish to showcase their overall level of customer satisfaction, however, this feature can be enabled in the “About” section of the page’s information settings, in the same place where the address information can be found. Once enabled, your Facebook page will begin pinging links to individual reviews that users can leave on your page. Facebook’s review system uses the five-star method of rating, with 5 stars being the best and 1 star being the worst.

Always Respond

Reviews – whether they be on Facebook or on some other platform – are hard to come by, so it always makes sense to weigh in and thank/respond to individuals who leave them. This will show not only the individuals who left the review but those who read them that your business or brand is attentive and cares. In the case of positive reviews, a simple thank you is all that is necessary. If your brand suddenly receives a negative review, however, then a response that is a bit more complex is necessary. You do not want a negative review to be a final verdict of the situation or interaction, so it is important to respond – and to respond carefully.

Be Deliberate in Responding to Negative Reviews

In the event of a negative review, the need to control the situation and prevent it from harming your brand’s image too much is necessary. Mistakes will happen and you cannot reasonably please everyone all the time, and most people understand this. First, assess how the review reads – in some cases, a negative review will largely read as ridiculous to many who see it. Nevertheless, a careful response will consist of apologizing to the individual for the experience, avoiding any argumentative actions whatsoever, and when possible, attempting to correct the situation in some capacity. If your negative review stems from a bad purchase or transaction, then be sure to look up the customer in your records and see if a resolution can be generated. If a customer is dissatisfied because of a company policy that was clearly documented, then be sure to explain that by pinging links to the policy in question while apologizing nevertheless. In the case where money hasn’t changed hands, a simple apology and explanation will suffice.