Three days ago, we talked about what you must do in order to successfully handle – and hopefully prevent – bad reviews from popping up all over the internet. While bad reviews can certainly poison the well in terms of turning off potential customers and visitors, other types of feedback can also do damage. Many dissatisfied customers will find their way to your social media pages and voice their criticism for everybody to see. With Facebook being the most commonly-used social media platform for businesses, it only makes sense that you be ready to handle these criticisms as they come. We’ll review some simple tips today on how to handle these critiques and come out on the winning end.

Always Provide a Comment

The worst thing you can do when somebody posts a critique about your business on Facebook is to leave it hanging. Not only will it look bad to others who may read it later, but it will also further irritate the person who left it. Word of mouth – even in the age of the internet – is a big deal. Since social media networks like Facebook tend to create connections based on interests, it is very possible that many other potential customers are friends with the irate customer. Even if it feels futile, it is always a good idea to try to engage respectfully with somebody who has left a bad comment. This can sometimes defuse the situation and prevent additional negative perceptions.

Use It As a Learning Experience

Every complaint left on Facebook doesn’t always produce a teachable moment, but people who are pinging servers with bad commentary are doing so to send a message to somebody. Whether that be you, other potential customers or somebody else may vary, but there are many times where you can learn from this. By reading and taking to hear the complaints of each customer, you may begin to see a pattern that can be corrected in the future. For instance, slow shipping times may be a common form of complaint that is leaving your customers perturbed. By carefully absorbing what it is they have to say, you may be able to implement changes to your business practices that prevent these negative situations from occurring.

Consider a Private Resolution

In some cases, engaging with the critique in public may not be the best route to pursue. You always want to publicly acknowledge that their concerns have been seen – both because it reassures potential customers that you’re paying attention and because it may prevent angry customers from ranting elsewhere – but that doesn’t mean following up privately isn’t necessary. It is always possible to engineer a compromise of sorts. Perhaps you provide an exception to your return or refund policy in exchange for them removing the bad feedback; you certainly don’t want to advertise to customers publicly  that you’re willing to make exceptions to the rule. Each situation is different, so feel your way through it and determine whether a private chat might yield better results for your business.

Negative comments left about your brand can cause potential damage among your target audiences when they’re pinging servers on Facebook. You don’t want to leave them unaddressed – both from a PR standpoint and from a standpoint of good business practices. If you use each opportunity as a learning experience, comment publicly and follow up privately when necessary, you may wind up with more satisfied customers than you thought was possible.