A few weeks ago, my wife and I went with some of her family went to Slappy Cakes in Eastwood because it was close to our house.
After we sat down, we realized we couldn’t stay because of the number of mosquitoes and because Philip was uncomfortable. So we asked the waiter to deliver the food to our unit to which they readily agreed.
When the food eventually arrived, the Bacon Maple Pancake was missing the maple syrup. This increased our frustration because we were all so hungry! When we called, they said they would send the syrup straight away. When that finally arrived, there was a hair in it!
We were all mad and a quite disappointed. I had ordered from them several times before and was quite happy. But after the mosquitoes, incomplete order, and hair in the food I didn’t want to anymore.
I don’t make a scene in restaurants because no one deserves that kind of abuse. But when I am unhappy with an establishment, I stop going there. Plain and simple.
But this one was different. The next day, out of habit, I decided to give Slappy Cakes another try. And the service was so different!
They gave a free salad and, more importantly, included a hand-written card expressing their regret at the previous night’s performance and their gratitude for our renewed trust. The salad was alright. But the apology was excellent. And it restored my trust in the restaurant. (That coupled with the fact that the next order was prompt, excellent, and hair-free!)
In the same way, we all make mistakes and fall short, Your family and friends will fail you and you will fail them. Too often, we focus only on minimizing these occurrences instead of working on our skill in apologizing and forgiving.
Mistakes happen. But a well-crafted apology can trigger a forgiving heart, which will restore any damage to the relationship.
On Friday, I’ll blog about how we can boost our apologizing skills. This is something you’ll use forever.
P.S. And I left a comment on the website of Slappy Cakes appreciating the female manager who wrote the apology.
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