Two weeks ago while on holiday in Cyprus I often went to the same taverna for my dinner. I fell in love with this place because the service was just great.
The manager, a lady in her 40’s is a hard worker and she reminds me of many salon owners. She serves the table, coordinates the kitchen and makes sure everything flows.
Over the various times I went there, the food was always impeccable but one night it all went wrong.
That night the manager was off. She probably took a night off confident that the rest of her team could manage one night without her there. Well, that night the service and food were both appalling; My scampi was cold and my side orders went to the wrong table.
This made me think two things:
- If that had happened on my first visit to that taverna I would have never gone back and surely I would never have recommended it to anyone. What’s more I would have likely dissuaded people from going there. But because it was not my first time and I realized the problem, I would have suggested to people to make sure that the manager is there before booking. This made me think how important is to be able to leave a review every time a service is provided.
- The taverna – which is a small business – doesn’t have any review system. I could write a review on tripadvisor but this is not the same. First, by reviewing the taverna on a generic site there is no connection between my meal or service and my review so my review would be quite useless to the owner or manager. Second, what are the chances that the staff working that night will report what happened to the manager? I would say very little, and therefore bad reviews are fundamental for the manager in order to discover the weaknesses in her business.
