A bad experience made me a big fan of a restaurant last week.

Chicago is a restaurant city, so word of mouth is essential to navigating all the options.  In fact, studies show that 83% of consumers look for a recommendation from a friend, family member or expert in deciding on restaurants.  In contrast, just 1 in 3 people look to ads.

The restaurant I tried last week was the second one with the same name in Chicago owned by a highly-visible restaurateur.  I like and often recommend the original, so quickly decided to try the second location.  Unfortunately, our experience was not a good one.  The food met our expectations, but we felt invisible.  The service was non-existent.

Having often recommended the restaurant, we felt a sense of personal responsibility to at least note the problem.  As we returned home late that evening, we emailed the owner (his email was readily available on the restaurant web site) to vent a bit and explain our disappointment.

We got an immediate and genuine response from the owner apologizing, vowing to address the problem and then asking if we'd be willing to visit again and contact him directly with our thoughts.  He has since asked us to follow him on Twitter (and is following us), had a manager contact us and immediately sent gift certificates for us to use with friends on our next visit. 

All this demonstrates that he's committed enough to fixing the problem that he's given us great incentive to come back to see the improvement for ourselves - - and to tell others of our experience.

The restaurant has gotten good reviews through public relations and has built a strong brand through its marketing, but both are, frankly, just price of entry. The real breakthrough in building a relationship with me and getting me to continue to recommend - - in this example and in these times - - is the direct customer relationship now available through social media.

Truth is, we wouldn't have contacted the owner if we haven't lent our credibility to the brand by recommending it.  With recommendation comes increased responsibility.  Our industry's challenge is to find ways to encourage that responsibility and to channel it productively to build our brands and continuously deliver on consumer expectations.

My experience with this local restaurant helped to highlight some key aspects around building brand recommendation:

• Brands must give their customers true, easy access - - for good and bad.  And, they respond promptly and with sincerity

• Good brands make it right for you when things go wrong and enlist you to help them make it right for others

• The ultimate measure of consumer engagement with a brand is when the consumer feels a sense of responsibility to protect and help it in order to continue recommending it

And finally, recommendation comes from what you do right as well as how you correct what goes wrong.