The customer who gave us one star on Google was right about absolutely everything

The review arrived on a Sunday night. One of those complicated service Sundays, fully booked, one waiter sick, kitchen at full capacity. I read it standing up, still in my apron, still in the restaurant.

It said: "Table reserved for a celebration. We waited 25 minutes before anyone took our order. The food arrived cold. The waiter who served us seemed annoyed at having to be there. We won't be back. 1 star."

My first reaction was anger. I thought: the day we had a waiter sick, with a full house, and this man gives us one star. I wrote a four-paragraph response defending ourselves: that we'd had a staffing incident, that the kitchen was overwhelmed, that we were sorry for his experience but the circumstances had been exceptional.

My husband read it before I published it. He said: "Don't send it. Wait three days."

I thought that was silly. But I didn't send it.

Three days later I read it again. And something strange came over me. The man wasn't being exaggerated. He had waited 25 minutes. The food had arrived cold. The waiter had had a bad attitude. Everything he described was factually correct.

And I had been about to publish a response that basically said "you're right but it's not our fault."

I spoke with the team that week. Not accusatorially, but with the review in hand as a document. I read aloud what the customer had written. Silence. The waiter being referred to didn't deny it. He told me: "That day I was exhausted and it showed, I know."

We changed two things. One: protocol for high-occupancy days with reduced staff: if we can't attend a table within ten minutes, we tell the customer when they sit down and offer them something while they wait. Two: quick five-minute meeting before Friday and Saturday service where we review the team's state and if anyone is particularly stressed we say so.

I responded to the review three weeks later. No defences. I said he was right, that what he described had happened, that we had made specific changes and that if he ever gave us the opportunity again we wanted to show him it was an exception. I signed with my name.

The man updated the review to four stars two months later. He wrote: "I came back. Completely different experience. I particularly note the attentiveness and the honesty of the response."

One-star reviews are the most uncomfortable to read. They're also the most valuable you'll ever receive, if you can set your pride aside.