Last night, Alyssa and I went out to dinner with a new friend, Kiesha. We had a great meal at Sonoma Grille in downtown Pittsburgh. Our experience of the restaurant began with the parking attendent next door ... the most polite parking attendant I have ever experienced! Then we had the pleasure of meeting our bartner/waiter (we'll call him "D") who took great care of us ... could have been that there were 3 women at the table, but I had the feeling he was genuinely a really nice guy. The food was great and I had an exceptional glass of wine ... Echelon Cabernet 2003.Then came a slight screw up with the food ... one plate was delayed in the kitchen. "D" very apologetically took responsibility for the delay. It was something technical that truly was his fault ... and he made no excuses. The interesting thing was ... he had developed such great rapport with us that it didn't even matter. And ... we appreciated his honesty, sincerity, and integrity for admitting his mistake.
I took away a referral marketing lesson from Sonoma ... when you develop rapport with people, they are forgiving. There may come a time when you make a mistake with a referral partner ... if you've developed a solid relationship built on trust and credibility, it will withstand minor bumps along the way.
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