Words matter

Take this scenarios: You’re at a restaurant, the waiter spills your soup, accidentally sloshing a bit of it over the side of the bowl. He asks if you want another one. (I just witnessed this while waiting in the Atlanta airport.)

How inclined are you to say “yes”?

Most of the time, I see people just shrug this off like no big deal ”I mean, c’mon, it’s a bowl of soup, right? But why shouldn’t we say “yes”? We feel guilty we sound like a jerk for making a big deal out of it.

What if, instead, he asked “can I make that up to you by bringing a little more over for you?” In other words, something to suggest “I want to make this right”, rather than “what do you want”.

I imagine this might be — in part — the difference between a good and a great customer experience.

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