My wife and I went out to dinner Thursday night to one of our favorite places up the street. It's one of our favorite places because, for once, a waiter has actually been in one location for a couple of years, and we've gotten to know him fairly well. He always greets us as if we were long lost family, and even if we're unlucky and don't get seated in his area, he always comes over and talks to us.

On this particular visit, we decided to try a brand new appetizer they were trying out. However, fifteen minutes later, our meals came out, but we never got the appetizer. When he came by to ask how we were doing, I mentioned that we didn't get the appetizer, but that it was okay since we already had our food. He apologized profusely and left.

The manager came out in another minute and said that he was going to take the appetizer off the bill, but that he'd love it if we took the appetizer home with us on them, to apologize for our not getting it earlier. Well, who are we to turn down free food, right? We even ended up getting our drinks for free.

In spite of this, when we got our bill I still tipped our waiter what would have been 25% of the original total. He's superb, the kind of person you hope to meet on every encounter at a restaurant, and I wasn't about to penalize him for one mistake.

This is what good customer service is all about. If you treat your customers well all the time, often going beyond what's expected, they will forgive and forget a mistake here and there. That's because we all make mistakes; it's how we deal with them that counts. And we'll be going back whenever we can.