So, J and I are out to eat tonight at a regional restaurant whose name is close to the candy bar of exclamations. They have provided me with amazing steaks both times I have dropped in for a visit. The mojitos aren't too shabby either. Shortest distance to my heart? Provide me with an amazing mojito. J orders her salad with French dressing. When the salad arrives I notice that the dressing looks remarkably like the ranch dressing on my salad. We point this out to the waiter, of course.

His initial reaction is not one of apology and let me get you another salad faster than you can say oops. Instead he pulls out his order pad to see what he had written down. Honestly, I do not remember what he said next. After hemming and hawing for an instant he apologized, offering to get her a new salad. I do have issues with the process he went through there, not my focus at the moment though.

The kicker here is not only did he apologize twice more before departing the table, when he dropped off the check he apologized again! Please, please, please when you mess up apologize immediately and sincerely. Then offer to fix the issue and actually fix it. If compensation of sorts makes sense, do that as well before your guest asks. Do not continue to apologize though. Know what that does? It reminds me of how much you messed up. Seems to me that you want me to be focusing on how you resolved the issue instead. Maybe I am silly, but I would want the person filling my pocket with money focused on positive points, not negative.