Facebook reviews and recommendations: how they work

Facebook reviews still exist, but since 2018 Facebook calls them recommendations. Instead of picking one to five stars, a customer answers whether they recommend your business, yes or no, and writes why. Your Page shows these on its Reviews tab, and Facebook shows a rating for the Page based on them.

For a customer the change is small: they still read what other people said. For you it changes one thing. A no is not a one-star review with a number attached, it is a written reason, and that reason is what other customers read. The reply you leave under it matters more than the rating.

For many Filipino shops, the Facebook Page is the main website. Customers find the Page, message on Messenger to ask the price or the hours, and order or book there. Before they message, plenty of them scroll the Reviews tab to see what others said. A Page with recent recommendations and replies from the owner answers the question every new customer has: is this place real, and is it good?

Google reviews do the same job for people searching on Google Maps, especially walk-in customers looking for something nearby. Most businesses here need both. The comparison of a Facebook Page and a Google Business Profile explains what each one is for; this article is only about the reviews.

According to Meta's help center, a Page admin turns recommendations on or off like this. If your Page already has reviews, recommendations are on automatically.

Think twice before switching them off. Turning recommendations off removes the Page's rating and all its reviews from view at once, including the good ones. It is not a way to hide one bad review, and switching it off during a rough month throws away years of good recommendations.

• Log in to Facebook and tap your profile photo at the top right.
• Tap See all profiles and choose your Page.
• Tap your Page's profile photo at the top right.
• Go to Settings and privacy, then Settings.
• Open Page and tagging.
• Find "Allow others to view and leave reviews on your Page?" and switch it on or off.

Open the Reviews tab on your Page while you are using Facebook as your Page, and comment on the recommendation. Your reply shows under it for everyone. New recommendations also appear in your notifications, and in Meta Business Suite if you manage the Page there. Menus move around often, so if a step looks different, look for the Reviews tab first.

Reply the same way you would on Google. Thank people for a recommendation by name and mention what they liked. When someone does not recommend you, stay calm, apologise for the experience, offer to fix it in private on Messenger, and keep the public reply short. The same approach works on both platforms, and these replies to negative reviews translate directly to Facebook.

Not one by one. Facebook does not let a Page delete a recommendation it doesn't like. What you can do is report a recommendation that breaks Facebook's Community Standards, for example one that is spam, hate speech, harassment, or clearly about a different business. Facebook decides whether to take it down.

A recommendation that is simply negative but honest stays. The best answer to it is a good reply and a steady flow of new recommendations from happy customers, which pushes it down the list.

Ask where your customers already find you. If most new customers walk in after searching "near me", Google reviews move the needle more, because they show on Google Maps. If most of your orders and bookings come through Messenger, recommendations on Facebook are what the next customer reads.

Pick one per request. Sending a customer two links ("please review us on Google and Facebook") usually gets you neither. Many shops ask for Google reviews at the counter, with a QR or a direct Google review link, and ask for Facebook recommendations at the end of a Messenger conversation. The rules for asking are the same on both: ask everyone, never pay or give a discount for a review, and never ask only the happy ones. How to ask customers for reviews covers the details.

The shops that handle reviews well treat Facebook and Google as one job. Once a day, or at least twice a week, check both and reply to everything new. It takes a few minutes when you do it often, and an afternoon when you leave it for a month.

• Check the Facebook Reviews tab and your Google Business Profile reviews on the same day.
• Reply to every recommendation and review, in the language the customer used.
• Move complaints to Messenger quickly and solve them there.
• Keep asking: a few new recommendations every month look better than many old ones.