Even the best businesses inevitably end up with a few unsatisfied customers every so often. It’s impossible to make everything run smoothly and everyone happy 100% of the time. Especially in the case of businesses that deal with a high volume of customers, someone at some point is going to slip through the cracks. In the past, an unhappy customer may complain to a manager, demand a refund, or discourage others from patronizing your business. Today, however, many unhappy customers have resorted to posting their grievances on the business’s social media pages for all to see.

Negative comments and complaints about your business posted on your social network can become a huge problem if not managed correctly. Many businesses are reluctant to begin building a social network for this very reason. However, provided you’re doing mostly good business and running an effective social media campaign, the occasional detractor can usually be dealt with before they cause any real damage to your brand.

The first reaction most business owners have to discovering a critical comment on their Facebook page is to delete the comment. After all, it’s your Facebook page; you should be able to control what’s posted, right? Wrong. This is, in fact, the last thing you want to do. The only time you should ever delete a comment is if it contains vulgar or hateful (racist, homophobic, etc… not hateful of your business) language. There are several reasons deleting negative comments is a very bad idea.

Firstly, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be able to delete the comment before anyone reads it. If members of your social network read the critical comment, then notice it’s mysteriously gone an hour or so later, they’re going to know exactly what you did. Deleting negative comments gives off the impression that you don’t care about unsatisfied customers, and you’d rather ignore them than deal with the problem head-on. In short, it makes your business look very irresponsible.

Secondly, deleting someone’s comment is the ultimate social media slap in the face. Your social network, if you’re managing it properly, should be perceived to be an open forum of communication in which people can connect around your brand. Deleting a comment is like giving an unhappy customer the middle finger. All it’s going to do is make them angrier, and if they were angry enough to post on your page before, you likely now have a full-fledged vendetta on your hands. Even if you block the person so they are unable to post again, they still have many more recourses they can take against your business.

So how do you handle an unhappy customer on social media? Not surprisingly, you handle them very similarly to how you would handle them in person. Dissatisfied customers generally want two things: First, for you to set things right in terms of their interaction with your business. This could be a refund, a replacement product, or simply an apology. Second, they simply want to be heard. Having someone listen to your problem and be generally concerned about it goes a long way towards calming people down.

On social media specifically, you want the public to know that you’re dealing with the problem, but you also want to take the specific discussion private as quickly as possible. Generally, when you see a complaint on your Facebook, you want to post a public reply apologizing for their bad experience, and letting them know that you’ll be contacting them privately to discuss the issue further. Most people are reasonable, and when they see this they’ll respect the fact that you’re dealing with the issue.

After posting publicly, send the person an immediate private message, again showing concern for their issues, and offering ways you may be able to make things right. An immediate response shows the customer that you are making their issue a priority. The vast majority of unhappy customers will appreciate this kind of response, and will accept it. They may even repost on your page about how well you handled the situation, which is a phenomenal endorsement of your business.

You may be shocked at how quickly people’s attitudes about your business turn around when they are treated with respect. Many people use the internet as an excuse to rude since they are not face-to-face with the person, however as a businessperson you must remember that every single “fan” on Facebook is a real person, and need to be treated with just as much respect as if they were right there in front of you.