Deleting reviews is a difficult and nuanced topic which we would like to address in this article. We understand and sympathize with the challenges your company may face as a consequence of negative reviews, but as a rule, Lipscore does not allow deleting reviews, with a few exceptions where specific circumstances justify the deletion. These exceptions are presented below.

Please note: Contacting the shopper with a request for review moderation is always the best first step – clicking the Unpublish/moderate button next to the review will move your review to the Need attention section from where you can write a Private message to author, explaining what needs to change in their review so that it is republished to the website. This way, the inappropriate review will be unpublished but since your shopper was informed about the reasons, you will not be accused of deleting customers’ feedback.

When is it NOT OK to delete a review

Deleting negative reviews only because they are negative is not allowed by Lipscore – and it is actually illegal, not to mention unethical. We understand they cause concerns and for good reasons, but this is why we offer a range of tools which help with immediate spotting of negative reviews (Support trigger), follow up options (Support trigger, Support case, Public response, Private message to author) and Moderation options (manual and AI-based). You can find out more about our tools for reviews management in the Reviews and Q&A management section of our Knowledge Base. It may sound counterintuitive, but negative reviews are gold for:

• credibility of your positive reviews – in the era of conscious consumers, 5-star rated products evoke suspicion. It is practically impossible to make all users have equally good experiences with your products and the fact that sales peak at 4.0-4.5 average rating* seems to be an interesting proof of customers’ distrust when the product seems too good to be true. 96% of shoppers are actively looking for negative reviews** when considering to make a purchase to know, if the flaws others discovered are also flaws from their perspective. When they see both the negative and positive comments, their trust increases and they can make an informed decision.
• your service or offer improvements and understanding what’s important for your shoppers, where you meet their expectations vs what disappoints them and makes them leave you – and acting accordingly not to let it happen.
• a chance to showcase your customer service excellence and engagement in solving customers’ issues. Addressing concerns and demonstrating your commitment to resolving issues not only showcases a high level of dedication towards all of your shoppers, but it can also foster brand loyalty. Assuring the customer of your engagement and willingness to solve their problem builds trust, but it may also turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal advocate for your brand!

When is it OK to delete a review

Your shopper requested the deletion

A shopper may reach out to you with a request for review deletion for a number of reasons – maybe they do not want the review published after all; maybe they changed their mind about your product or service after a while; maybe they mistook your review invitation for one coming from a different company; maybe they do not want their name published – reasons may differ, but as long as the request comes from your shopper, it’s more than fine to delete the review in question. In some cases, you may also suggest that instead of deleting, the customer updates their review (resend review invitation) or that their name gets anonymized (you can do it in the shopper’s profile in Lipscore), but deletion is also an acceptable solution.

Your shopper approved the deletion

You reached out to the shopper, explained the reasons for why you want to delete their review, and received their approval in writing – as long as your explanation is not “your review impacts our product score and it makes us very sad” 😉 guilting the customer into removal, your shopper’s approval is a good ground for review deletion. Mabe you have resolved the issue the shopper had with your product but they do not feel like updating their review and would rather that it’s removed – this is all right too.

Inappropriate content

If a review contains inappropriate content, and the shopper does not respond to your inquiry for moderation, you may proceed with the deletion. Good examples of inappropriate content may be:

• spam (e.g., “sxfafsgadasdas”)
• non-informative content (e.g., “😾😿😸😺”)
• profanities
• statements offensive towards your staff, company, other users or specific social groups
• inappropriate pictures

Irrelevant, misleading or law-restricted content

By irrelevant content we mean, for instance, that the text of the review does not relate to the product or service it is supposed to address – it’s a question rather than a review or the content is about a different product than it was supposed to comment on.

Misleading content is, for instance, a mention of a product’s feature that is not correct – e.g., saying that it does not contain alergens, when it does, or that it is meant for different purposes than it actually is.

By law-restricted content we mean instances where the content on your website is regulated by law – e.g., if you run an online pharmacy, tobacco store, health-related business or alike, there may be regulations around what content can be published on your website. Again, the first step should be a request for moderation sent to the shopper, but if they are irresponsive, you may proceed with the deletion.

Please note: if AI moderation is activated in your Lipscore account, most spam or inappropriate reviews will automatically be sent to moderation instead of getting published to your website. You may specify additional conditions, like “Health claims” in the AI moderation guidelins if your usecase requires more precision in filtering the reviews.

Thank you for your understanding and commitment to maintaining a transparent and trustworthy review ecosystem.

FAQ

If I received a negative rating without a review and reached out to the shopper to learn what went wrong but they are not responding, can I remove the rating?

Short answer is no, you cannot. First of all, only Lipscore sysadmins can remove standalone ratings. Second of all, the silence on the shopper’s end is, unfortunately, not a good reason for removing their rating – they have the right not to explain the score they left on your product/service. Lipscore Support team will only remove a rating for you if you provide a screenshot or forward a message that proves your shopper gave consent to the removal / edition of their rating score.

Is it possible to remove picture from a review but leave the text and the rating?

The customer review is the whole and full review as the customer left it, with the rating, review text, product/service attributes, and the attached media. Removing one of these things might be considered as manipulation and therefore we do not have a functionality that would allow removal of just one of the elements.

The only way to have the review published without the media is to ask the customer to change the review themselves by leaving a review again without the picture (Private message to author). If the customer does not edit their review, it will stay unpublished in the Author messaged tab of Pending section.

Is it possible to edit the review text if it contains typos or misspelled words?

Lipscore does not allow any kind of editing of the collected reviews. Our reviews are written by authentic shoppers, in their own words – which may sometimes be problematic, but most of the time is actually a benefit from the SEO perspective.

* https://spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu/star-ratings-and-review-content/