Find out how to remove negative reviews on the web (Booking, Tripadvisor, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Amazon, Trustpilot) to defend yourself against defamation.
What are the negative reviews?
To understand what negative reviews are, let’s start with the word’s etymology: it derives from the Latin recension and consists of the critical examination, in written form, of an article, a work, a movie, a product, or a service. Criticism, inherent in the very origin of the word, can often turn negative.
Thus, a negative review is a critical form of disapproval that has dramatically expanded the consumer’s power to delegitimize the online reputation of a disappointing brand (personal or business) with the growth of the web.
It is the sublimation of the direct virtual relationship between company and customer. However, like any direct relationship, some positives and negatives reviews can sometimes lead to online defamation. In this article, we will focus on negatives reviews.
How to respond to a bad review?
A bad review, false or negative, can be an opportunity to increase your brand awareness. So, before removing negative reviews, it is good to activate a communication channel with the customer. Here are the steps to follow to respond to a bad review:
- Stay calm and be positive: Receiving a negative comment can provoke reactions of anger and nervousness, but warming up will not help you maintain the necessary strategic clarity;
- Analyze the review: The customer’s message may be misinterpreted, so read the review two or three times. This will help you distinguish between “helpful” negative comments and blatantly false reviews;
- Respond as soon as possible: Answering in the shortest possible time is an excellent signal to convey to the customer, who will perceive your opinion as important;
- Apologize and Thank You: If the review is not fake, please apologize for any mistakes. For the client and other users who read your reviews, an interlocutor who admits his mistakes transmits confidence. Finally, thank them for the comment;
- Make the customer understand your discomfort: Send a message that clarifies how you perceived their disappointment and that you will take their criticism as an encouragement to improve your products or services;
- Give a concrete solution: After the apology, you should also give a concrete solution, trying to retain the customer. Not only can this move generate a seemingly lost customer, but it also offers a positive image of your brand to those who read the conversation;
- To close on a positive note: Consider whether to give a gift or a discount when disappointed customers return to you.
How to remove negative reviews online?
Before understanding how to remove negative reviews online, keep in mind that the lawyer you will trust may have as a counterpart not necessarily the person who slanders but also the legal person, that is, the site where the crime was committed.
Using this legislative principle, you can request the removal of any defamatory negative comments.
Today, even for restaurants and hotels, it is possible to obtain compensation for damage to the image: for this procedure, a civil mediation is required, regulated by Law 5/2012.
But, since each review portal or social network follows specific removal procedures, it is advisable to know them in detail.
How to remove negative comments from Booking
Booking removes negative comments from its portal under certain conditions, that is, when:
- There is a suspicion that the customer has posted an inauthentic review;
- No-show guests, cancellations or oversold, if the guest in question is relocated to another facility;
- The portal realizes that the negative review refers to another structure;
- A comment is identified as evidence of blackmail by the guest (only in the presence of written evidence)
- Inappropriate language offends or harms the owner or a staff member through discriminatory comments or negative references;
- Invitations are made to participate in illegal activities;
- It refers to the data protected by privacy, such as home or email addresses, telephone numbers, etc.
In these cases, as indicated by the Booking regulations, you must access your extranet – through the Messages box – and send the request to Booking, selecting “Guest Comments” as the purpose.
How to remove Tripadvisor reviews
There are three ways to remove a negative Tripadvisor review :
- Contact the legal department: You start a procedure to report and eliminate the opinion through the legal channels by sending a specific form directly to the site’s legal department. It is the most extreme of the three;
- Ask whoever wrote the opinion to delete it: Through respectful dialogue, it is possible to request an interlocution with the interested party. I this way, you can ask for the reasons of the comment and, if you created a climate of collaboration, you could also ask for deleting the comment;
- Change company management: Delete all company history and create a new one. This is the most drastic way and it is not feasible for anyone with a significant track record.
How to remove negative Google reviews
Deleting a negative Google review is not simple, but it is not impossible either.
You have to follow these steps:
- Login to your Google My Business account ;
- Access “Manage Reviews”;
- Click on the three dots and then “report as inappropriate”;
- Specify what is wrong with the review and follow Google Assistant.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the Mountain View giant, deleting information from Google is time-consuming. And the speed of digital business collides with Google’s bureaucratic slowness, as in the Right to Be Forgotten case.
Therefore, if you want to clean your reputation of harmful content, it is always better to turn to companies like ReputationUP, which are specialized in reputation management.
How to remove negative Facebook reviews
When it comes to removing negative reviews from Facebook, the Palo Alto company differentiates between two specific cases:
- Reviews made up of only scores: it cannot be deleted unless it is a massive SPAM action;
- Reviews accompanied by a comment: You can report and request a review, but removal is not guaranteed. If it is SPAM or fake profiles, the cancellation possibilities increase considerably.
Alternatively, you can flag a fake account or block the profile, charged on your page.
How to remove negative Airbnb reviews
Evaluations Airbnb removed violated only if agreed terms, such as:
- They must not violate the content guidelines;
- They must be fair;
- They must be relevant and avoid comments on social, political or religious opinions, vulgarities, unrelated services, etc.
How to remove negative Amazon reviews
You can remove a negative Amazon review as long as it contains:
- Promotional references;
- Offensive language;
- Personal data, which violates privacy.
Unfortunately, however, these rules are easily circumvented by trolls and the seller runs the risk of encountering false and defamatory customer reviews without receiving help from the Amazon service center.
Again, the best solution is to trust professionals who can clean up your online reputation.
Conclusions
The function and role of reviews is an excellent communication tool between the customer and the operator, but, as we have seen, it can be a clever way to manipulate the market.
In this guide, I have shown you how governments, especially the British, are taking steps to combat the plague of false comments.
