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Last night, for Valentines Day, my wife and I went out to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse with two other couples. It's always been a favorite restaurant of mine, and my wife grew to like it also because of the vast amount of vegetables they'll give her (and what I'll give her as soon as I can scrape them off my plate). One of the reasons it's a favored restaurant is that, over the course of decades at this point, their customer service has never wavered from being superb.

For instance, last night the lady who took our drink and food orders was very friendly and professional. The person who was at the bar was friendly and professional. The people who checked us in for our reservation, as well as the lady who took our coats were both friendly and professional. The guy who cooked our meal was friendly, professional, and entertaining. We even bantered back and forth a couple of times, which can be a lot of fun when you get the right person cooking your food.

I have never been to a bad Japanese steakhouse. It may be because they understand that all it takes is one person being in a bad mood or not treating a customer correctly that will drive business away fast. After all, there are usually multiple groups of people sitting around a hibachi table, with other tables nearby. There's also always a danger that someone could get hurt from the heat in front of them in some way, especially when the chef's set something on fire.

So, everyone seems to take that extra step of diligence in making sure that your food event goes off without a hitch, and that everyone has a good time. That's why restaurants like this one will weather recession problems and have people coming back for more and more. Good customer service can counter many of the world's ills, if only more companies would put their minds to it.