Not every brand interaction on social media is the win of another customer. Let’s face it: Often times the role of the customer service agent on social media is damage control.

While it may seem that nothing good can come from a complaint on social media, thankfully this is not true.

One way to turn an angry or disappointed customer into a brand advocate is to notice and address the problem right away. While a brand might suffer when a customer has a bad experience, this can be spun into a positive if it shows that your company is responsive and excellent at the customer experience.

Speed is a big key to transforming a complaint into praise; there’s nothing like being frustrated by a problem and then having the company solve your problem as soon as you voice your issue.

Try to resolve the issue in the same forum that it was brought up in, however. The standard logic is to take customers to private messaging as soon as possible, but moving them off their platform of choice can only make a customer more angry. They’re on their preferred social media platform for a reason. Honor that.

Make sure that you actually resolve the underlying issue, though; if a customer complains, has the issue addressed, but comes back later with the same complaint, that spells trouble both for the brand and for the relationship with that customer. So make sure that the goal is issue resolution, not just pleasing the customer.

Even with a quick and useful response, though, sometimes customers will not be happy. That’s why sometimes it is best to not address a complaint on social media; not all brand mentions demand a reply.

This can be the case when the customer is obviously grumpy and attacking the brand for no good reason; trying to win them over will be an exercise in futility.

Worse, it can draw more attention to the complaint. Sometimes ignoring a social media mention is the best course of action.

Damage control on social media is a part of every contact center these days. With a little attention, however, many of these unhappy customers can be transformed into loyal customers.