Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Say "SORRY" and fix it.

During a stopover at the Frankfurt airport, I seized the opportunity to have one of my favorite European meals: good coffee and a pain au chocolate. So I ordered a fresh chocolate croissant and waited for my espresso macchiato.

Out came the pain au chocolate. Loved it. But the coffee was full of milk. The server had given me a latte rather than what I ordered.

I just couldn't be bothered to say anything. It was a small thing and I had a flight to Calcutta to catch. But as I got up, she wondered why I didn't drink my drink. Where I told her I'd ordered an espresso macchiato and this was a latte, she said "Sorry". That was good. But she didn't fix her mistake. That was not so good.

"Sorry" means zero if the problem that led to it remains unfixed. You know what she should have done - if she was a Leader Without a Title. Say sorry and then replace the coffee she gave me with the coffee I'd ordered (and paid for). And if she really wanted to play at wow, she would have given it to me on the house. Now that would have been a real turnaround. And a Sorry that fixed everything.

Please remember, mistakes are nothing more that gorgeous opportunities to make things even better. And a mistake is really only a mistake if you make it twice.

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