How to fail in social media for business without even trying

Some businesses embrace and understand how to use social media to build relationships and customer loyalty. This is the sad tale of a business that just doesn't get it.

It all started when the management of Gamberetti's Italian Restaurant here in Salem, Ore., deleted a good friend's thoughtful and respectful post on the restaurant's Facebook page about his bad experience with a takeout order. 

I couldn't believe an otherwise smart and successful business would do that. 

So I left a message on the Gamberetti's Italian Restaurant public Facebook page taking them to task--respectfully of course--for deleting a customer complaint. Instead of making amends, the restaurant management replied with a terse, dismissive note and deleted my post, too. 

But wait, there's more. The restaurant managers also permanently blocked both my friend and me from posting further messages on its public Facebook page. 

These actions are a really big no-no for a business using social media. I know, because public relations and social media engagement is how I earn my living. 

My original post on the restaurant's public Facebook page is below, along with their reply. Only a few words in my original post have been changed to make sense here, noted in [brackets]. I hope the restaurant will reply to this, but I'm not holding my breath. Here is what I wrote on Sept. 12, 2012.

Dear Gamberetti's Italian Restaurant:

Because you have a social media business page on Facebook, please be aware that everyone here is watching how you respond to criticism and customer complaints. As a long-time fan of your restaurant--from your humble beginnings to present day--I am deeply disappointed in you today.

Why? Because a good friend wrote to you on your Facebook page yesterday with what he believes is a valid complaint: it took almost an hour for your staff to prepare his order "to go" yesterday, despite his calling it in 20 minutes before he arrived to pick it up. Instead of responding to his polite complaint on your Facebook page, you simply removed his post and the responses by others who joined the conversation here.

What's wrong with that, one might ask; after all, it's the restaurant's Facebook page so they can do what they like. Although Facebook owns the platform and hence the pages (not individuals or companies--we are users but not owners of the platform) Facebook users have created a community here by joining in relationships and conversations with their friends and the business they Like. We build relationships by engaging in conversations. Facebook thrives on maintaining and enhancing those relationships.

Businesses on Facebook like Gamberetti's must be responsive to customers when they post to [their] page about a problem. They need to openly engage in the conversation; after all that's why we are all here on Facebook. Businesses should not just ignore or heaven forbid delete customer complaints and questions just because they don't like what they say or don't want other customers to see them. That's disingenuous and it goes completely against the openness and transparency that people expect from businesses like yours that represent themselves on social media.

So here are my two challenge for you:

1. Please respond to my friend's complaint from yesterday (you know who he is) and make things better. And please do it publicly, so that everyone who cares about Gamberetti's can all see that customer service and satisfaction is your top priority. Your reputation and good name depend on responding to customer complaints promptly [and publicly].

2. Above all, please stop deleting complaints from your loyal customers. Doing that just ticks people off, gets them badmouthing you on their Facebook pages where you have no opportunity to respond in a positive manner, and gives your business nothing but a black eye. And frankly, when customers know you are deleting instead of responding to complaints, that makes us question all the positive reviews and comments we see on your Facebook page [and anywhere else for that matter].

Social media is a powerful business tool. I encourage you to use it wisely and ethically.

Respectfully awaiting your reply,

--Ed Schoaps,

Gamberetti's Italian Restaurant customer

Shortly after I posted my comments, Gamberetti's replied:

Gamberetti's Italian Restaurant: This is not appropriate for our public page. We use this for advertising and promotion only. Our managers on duty are more than happy to handle and repremend [sic] complaints in house, face to face. This will also be removed shortly. We hope that we can handle any future issues with service or food in the restaurant rather than online.

Then Gamberetti's deleted my post and banned me from posting any responses or messages on their public Facebook page.

For the record, my friend did indeed make his complaint well known to the restaurant manager, quietly and respectfully, at the time. After a halfhearted apology, the manager added insult to injury by offering to comp $5 off my friend's $10 takeout meal. The manager did not even have the guts to deliver the very late to-go order to my friend when it was finally completed 50 minutes after my friend phoned in the order.

So here is a question for you, my savvy social media mavens: If you know as I do that a restaurant deletes all customer complaints and negative comments from its public Facebook page, do you trust any of the positive reviews you read anywhere in social media or online about Gamberetti's Italian Restaurant?

Your thoughts? The lines are open.