I do not hide it; my favorite sweet is ice cream. I believe that under special conditions that I had to choose, I could just live off souvlaki and ice cream. What a balanced diet, don’t you think? Anyway, this has led me to know almost every joint that sells handmade ice cream, at least in my city and I will always try the new shops and the new tastes that come to market.

A couple of days ago, my wife and our nanny were having a conversation about prices and its impact on quantity and quality. As an example, our nanny mentioned her recent experience at a patisserie near her place, which is not far away from ours. She mentioned not only the recently elevated price, but also the reduced amount per scoop. In fact, what drew my attention was not the price-quantity relationship but the fact that see slightly complained to the employee for the quantity and the employee mocked her for wanting more. I know our nanny very well; she is not the person pushing or misbehaving. I understand that we should not be rude towards service employees but what infuriating me is getting treated badly by them.

Thinking that I knew better, and without knowing the exact patisserie, I told her to try another place to her way home. Interesting tastes, good price, good quantity and kind service. Without knowing the exact name, what I have done is that I proposed her to go to the same exact place! The reason for that is that I had a completely different experience in the recent past, as I was visiting that place after evening that the owner was handling all the service herself. Apart from the price change, it seems that the new employee was not trained to follow the standards of the owner.

Having clarified that, our nanny told me that once the employee made her unpleasant comment (“What, do you want more? Not Satisfied?”), her employer heard about the whole thing and took her to the side to behave her. However, the nanny was left with a bad experience and a half empty cap of ice cream.

Conclusion:

The client in this case (the nanny) would not even bother commenting on social media or even call the manager to complain. She does not have the time or the knowledge to search the appropriate way or platform to complain and actually give feedback. This is a case for many small places that either do not have an online presence, or their main clientele is of a certain age group that does not have the knowledge to give publicly visible feedback. So what remains is some complaints on the spot, which in the end might not even reach the ears of those interested (like the owner or other future clients). I believe in word of mouth, and in cases like that it is difficult to control backlash. Therefore, owners and managers have to find a way to control and collect feedback at the source.

PS. The owner at this case could have controlled the damage, by offering more ice cream, but didn’t. Good ice cream but with a bitter aftertaste…