While on vacation at the beach, my husband and I met up with some friends for dinner. We went to a small restaurant with a great reputation for its menu.
Called Off the Hook (http://www.offthehookrestaurant.webs.com/), the first five minutes of our dining experience was not exactly exemplary of its title when the bus boy accidentally spilled 3 glasses of water on my husband’s lap. Now if you’re going to drench anyone’s pants with an unexpected triple serving of ice, cold liquid, it might as well be my husband for he is the calmest man in the world.
Still, the wait staff worked hard and fast to make up for their mistake as though the success of their business relied on how they handled this one incident. Clean-up was quick. Apologies were profuse. The waitress even kept my husband’s beer in the back refridgerator while he drove a mile back home to change clothes – a minor gesture but it really mattered in that moment. By the time he returned and the appetizers arrived, we were as happy as the clams listed on the menu!
Then halfway through my sensational main course of scallops, the waitress came out to apologize again. Evidently I was eating a different dish than I had ordered. I honestly had no idea and the plate in front of me was so delicious that I was indifferent towards, if not grateful for, the seafood slip-up.
What really impressed me most here though was that the restaurant’s people were the type to own up to their mistakes and amend them so thoroughly. The waitress not only replaced my meal with the right dish but she boxed up the remainder of the original for me to take home. Even more, both the chef and the restaurant’s owner came out to apologize and serve us dessert on the house - and it was off the hook!
I couldn’t help but be reminded of an incident that occurred to one of my friends about two months ago. She was emailing very confidential information to the executive team of a large company. After she had sent this sensitive email, she noticed that one of her contacts who was not a part of the company had been copied on it! Outlook had automatically inserted a man with the same first name as one of the executives but a different last name!
As you can imagine, she was a nervous wreck when she discovered that blunder but luckily she caught it early and even luckier, she acted immediately. First, she told her superior – in this case the president of the company that employs her. Second, she emailed the man she had accidentally copied, apologized for her mistake, and asked him if he could ignore it and delete it, all of which he kindly did right away. Then, she called the CEO of the company whose insider information she felt she had threatened. She apologized by taking full blame and not making up excuses (i.e., blaming Outlook for its automation and going off on a tangent about how she's going to complain to Microsoft about the incident). She reported to him exactly what she had done to remedy the situation and asked him if there was anything else he would like her to do to ensure the safekeeping of his company and restore his faith in her capabilities. In the end, the CEO understood that mistakes happen, appreciated her honesty, immediacy, and willingness to solve any problems before they arose. Business returned to usual and if anything, trust was not only restored but reinforced.
From Off the Hook to Outlook, restaurant venues to B-2-B engagements, mistakes are inevitably going to happen. We must do our best to avoid them but when they occur, don’t wait in the hope that no one will notice. Take responsibility, take blame, and most importantly take action. Your clients will take note and you just might take all.
Carrie Root is a project manager at entreQuest who works closely with companies to coordinate their course of achievement towards corporate growth and implement strategic training programs throughout the ranks of their organization.
