Last week I went to Scotland - by mistake. And believe it or not, it turned out to be a pretty shrewd business move.

You see, our company is beginning to reach into international markets, and one of our new customers is in Scotland. A few weeks ago they placed a product order, which, while quite significant, was potentially only about 20 percent of a broader purchase.

Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication regarding the amount of time that would be required to ship the order. Our customer needed - and expected - the product by Monday morning, but we sent it to arrive two days later.

When the customer reviewed our e-mail regarding the timing of her order she realized that there was a serious problem, and she frantically called to see what could be done to rectify the situation. By this time we had fewer than two business days until her Monday deadline. She emphasized the importance of the shipment's prompt arrival and made it clear that the future of our business relationship rested on the success of this initial order.

Enough said. In our company we have a "zero defect" policy, and we focus on providing the utmost in customer service. We went to work to figure out how to get the package to Scotland in time. Our first thought was an express delivery service. But the fastest we could ship the product via any carrier wouldn't get it there until Monday afternoon.

That wasn't good enough. We had fallen short of our client's expectations, and we were going to do everything possible to correct the problem.

So Saturday morning I boarded a plane with the precious cargo. About 30 hours later I arrived in Scotland and delivered to our dumbfounded customer the product she needed. We had a few minutes to chat, learning about each others' businesses and laughing about the mistake. And then, four hours after arriving, I boarded a plane to return to Utah. But before I left she told me something I was hoping I would hear: that we had a customer for life.

Take a moment to think about the significance of that statement. How likely is it that our client will ever forget the service that she received from our company? Competitively, how likely is it that any other company will go to such extremes to make sure she is satisfied with their work? So why would she even consider going to another company when she knows that we are willing to do almost anything to ensure her satisfaction?

Mistakes are nothing more than opportunities to turn regular customers into customers for life. Which is not to say that business owners should orchestrate a strategic mistake from time to time. But we need to keep that perspective in mind while we are doing everything possible to ensure that our clients' expectations are exceeded when faced with a mistake.

After all, mistakes yield only two outcomes: Either your client is frustrated and leaves the experience with a negative memory of your company, or your client is excited about the solution.

Let me suggest that you do everything within reason to ensure the second response. Dissatisfied customers tend to discuss their experiences with others. The opposite is also true. I have no doubt that our client will tell others of our short meeting one Sunday evening in Scotland. While the solution to our error was expensive, I expect that it will ultimately pay dividends.

No mistake about it.