All businesses have hiccups during the course of their operation.

Some might provide poor customer service because of not having enough inventory of a specific product or not having the right staff on hand to answer complex questions about services. Still others might have an inadequate number of staff available to service clients in a fast enough manner to suit them, while others struggle with having staff with the right kind of customer-pleasing attitudes appropriate to serve the public.

Depending on the type of business, problems are bound to come up from time to time. Such incidents offer a great opportunity to fix mistakes, change procedures and ensure the same problem doesn’t happen again.

Four Ottawa businesses were nicked in a sting operation last week by the Ottawa Police Department and Kansas Alcohol Beverage Control — for not checking for an ID before serving and/or selling liquor to a minor. The sting was prompted by complaints from the public about underage sales occurring in the city. In each case, the businesses were fined and got their hands slapped. While no business wants to get in trouble, such situations also offer an upside. It gives businesses a chance to improve their operations.

If no one points out that you have a problem, it can be difficult to fix. Yes, bad things happen to good people and good businesses. Now is the time to fix the problem and move on to bigger and better challenges. The rest of us can help, too.

When we are waiting in line at a liquor store or restaurant where things are slowed down by a clerk or server asking for identification to verify someone’s age — tell the clerk you are happy to wait because what they are doing is important. Speaking up to tell businesses it is important to you that they check IDs rather than remaining silent, which can be misinterpreted, reinforces to merchants that you support their efforts to only sell alcohol to people who are old enough to purchase it.

 Here is other advice from the website: www.DontServeTeens.gov

Stand up, and spread the word that you don’t want other people serving alcohol to your teen or condoning teen drinking. Let your friends, neighbors and family members know the minimum drinking age is a policy that protects teens, and that you do not want your teen to drink.

Each of these businesses has an opportunity to tighten up its procedures to ensure it is following the letter of the law and doing all it can to avoid serving and selling alcohol to those who are underage. The rest of us can help by supporting those efforts.