You’re the nicest store or restaurant in town. You carry the highest quality products. You have the loyalist customers. Then, it happens: the dreaded bad review. You’re understandably upset, but take a deep breath and admit that you can’t possibly please everyone.

It’s next to impossible to maintain a five-star (out of 5) rating on the internet because most sites average the number of stars reviewers give you and anonymity tends to bring out the worst in people. Consider yourself successful in maintaining anything over 4 stars. Few places manage above 4.5 stars. Your customers understand that some people will never be happy and want others to join them in their misery.

Resist the urge to tell the disgruntled customer where to go and that they are terrible. It will only make you look bad and will cause you to lose customers, even if the poster of the bad review was clearly in the wrong. Instead, apologize and explain that the bad service they received or the burnt food they were served does not reflect your typical quality. Invite them to reach out with any concerns and explain that you are working on the problems they brought up.

Of course, this doesn’t always work. Sometimes you run into a customer who is off their rocker. The best thing to do in this situation is to be honest. You can’t ignore it. Nothing ever goes away on the internet.  Politely explain why the customer’s complaints are nonsense. They went into a Chinese restaurant expecting a chicken parmesan sub to be on the menu or they showed up a half hour late to their reservation on a busy Saturday night, so your restaurant had to assume they were a no-show and gave their table to customers who were waiting for an hour.

Regardless of what the customer is saying, respond. Customers appreciate when a business listens to their feedback and makes improvements based on it.