Mistakes Happen - It’s What You Do Next That Counts

We serve thousands of guests every single week across our businesses. No matter how hard we try, we’re bound to make a few mistakes. Maybe we get an order wrong. Maybe a guest waits longer than they should for their drink. Maybe we put sauce on a burger that was meant to have none. It’s not ideal - but it happens - it’s just the law of averages.

What I’ve learned after years in hospo is that it’s not the mistake itself that defines us - it’s how we handle it.

When we drop the ball, we own it. No excuses, no “buts,” no justifications - because in that moment, none of that matters.

The guest chose to spend their hard earned money with us. They trusted us to deliver. And it doesn’t matter that we got it right 100+ times earlier that day. All they care about is that we didn’t get it right for them.

Mistakes Are Expensive - But How We Handle Them Determines the True Cost

Handling a mistake the wrong way? That’s expensive.

It costs you reputation, trust, and future business. A guest who feels dismissed or unheard won’t just take their money elsewhere - they’ll tell other people about their bad experience too. And that kind of negative word of mouth is so bloody hard to come back from.

But dealing with a mistake properly? That’s an investment.

✅ Swallow your pride and listen - with no excuses.
✅ Apologise and take responsibility - because people just want to feel heard.
✅ Make it right - whether that’s replacing the meal, comping a round of drinks, offering a voucher, or all of the above if needed.

Sometimes, no matter what we do, the guest will still walk away unhappy. But even then, we’ve done everything in our power to show we care - and that still counts. We can only hope that when they share the story with their friends and whānau, they’ll acknowledge the effort we made to fix it.

The Best Guest Experiences Don’t Always Come From Perfection

Here’s something I’ve noticed over the years:

Some of the best guest experiences don’t come from things going perfectly. 99 times out of 100, people are pretty reasonable when we stuff up and they understand that “these things happen”.

Despite this, in those moments when we still go above and beyond to fix it - they really appreciate it.

💡 A guest gets the wrong order, but we fix it fast, throw in a dessert, and check in to make sure they’re happy.
💡 A drink takes too long, so we bring it out with a sincere apology and a little extra gesture of appreciation.
💡 Someone has a bad experience, but we listen, own it, and invite them back with a koha to show them what we’re really about.

When we handle mistakes with zero excuses and genuine care, we turn a negative into an opportunity to prove our values in action. That guest might walk away thinking, "Yeah, they stuffed up - but they really cared about making it right." And that’s often more powerful than if things had just gone smoothly in the first place.

This Applies to Life Too

Mistakes aren’t just part of business. They’re part of life.

Every day, I make decisions - most are unconscious but some are conscious. And honestly, sometimes they’re just a coin toss. I don’t know the right answer, how could I? So I just try something. If that doesn’t work, I try something else.

And inevitably, I’ll get things wrong.

My instinct? Like most people, it’s to defend myself. To explain why I made that decision. To give the full context.

But what I’ve learned is that sometimes, the most powerful thing I can say is, "You're right. I got that wrong, and I’m sorry."

It’s hard to argue with that.

And something incredible happens when you own your mistakes - it shifts the conversation from blame to solutions. Instead of going back and forth over whose fault it is, we start looking at how to fix it.

Mistakes Aren’t the Enemy - Avoiding Accountability Is

I’ve wasted so much energy over the years arguing (in my head or out loud) when I’ve made a mistake because I felt like people needed the full story. But at the end of the day - who actually cares?

We all make mistakes.

The question is - how quickly can we own them, fix them, and move forward?

When we stop seeing mistakes as failures and start seeing them as opportunities - to build trust, to show integrity, and to strengthen relationships - everything changes.

Because at the end of the day, life’s too short to waste time defending what went wrong. It’s better to find a solution and get on with it.

Ngā mihi,
Anton