A couple of weekends ago, Doug and I ended up going to Vegas to see the Britney Spears concert (more about Britney in a later post). As always, we had a great time!!
If you’ve been to Vegas (who hasn’t?!), then you know the flash, the brightness, the enormity of pretty much everything around you. This goes for the food, too – in fact, some of the best dining Doug and I have experienced has been in Vegas.
Well, that weekend we found ourselves at Aquaknox Restaurant – basically exquisite (and, lord, expensive!) seafood. As we settled down for some drinks, Doug spotted my favorite chardonnay, Kistler, and we ordered some …
As the waiter came around, he set down two glasses in front of us for the purpose of sampling. He uncorked the wine and poured … (I promise I have a point here) … Anyway, as I brought the newly poured glass of wine up to my lips for a taste, I realized that the glass was already marked with lipstick stains … NOT my own!
Gross, right? Definitely. I kindly told the waiter that the glass he gave me was, in fact, dirty. Of course, he apologized and brought me back a clean glass. However, this time, the manager came back with the glass and again sincerely apologized for the dirty glass …
Then the manager offered the bottle of wine at a discount for us, which we gladly accepted …
Okay, let me stop here for a second – has this happened to you before? How did you react?
BUT …
More importantly, how did the waiter and management staff react?
My last question is vital to this post because what happened next at this restaurant truly made me a loyal customer to Aquaknox for many years to come …
So, as I said, we received the bottle at a discount and continued our dining experience. We ordered food, chatted, people watched … about 10 minutes later, our waiter comes up to us with a plate of AMAZING oysters … a few minutes later, he checks on us and asks how we liked the oysters (to which we replied with gushing approval!).
The waiter leaves us and comes back almost immediately with two glasses filled with oyster shooters (never had these before … delicious, if you were wondering) …
An appetizer on the house … Now we are getting comfortable and we order another bottle of wine to which the waiter states is ALSO DISCOUNTED!
Wait, there’s more …
Another 10 to 15 minutes goes by and our waiter comes back with another question –
“Do you both like tartar?”
To which Doug responds: “She doesn’t like steak tartar but we love tartar in general.”
The waiter thanks us for our answer and disappears … He then reappears with a beautifully presented plate of tuna tartar!
Another appetizer on the house! Folks, this goes on all night until Doug and I are officially stuffed!
Okay, okay, this isn’t for the purpose of making your taste buds water … Maybe a little 🙂 … but really, this experience got me thinking about the concept of EXTRA, a two-for-one surprise …WHAT IF companies handled mistakes as a great opportunity? … What are companies, restaurants and other services doing to DELIGHT their customers and clients …
Better yet, what are they doing to rectify a mistake, to make it up to their people when they messed up … Is it a simple apology and that’s it?
OR
Is it going a mile farther to say “I’m sorry” and “Please let us show you that we will not only make it up to you, we will eliminate any bad feelings you may have had.”
In fact, “We will have you leaving our doors feeling more happy, more excited and content with our business then when you walked in.”
Now THAT is what will keep me coming back.
