Read Your Guests

The other night we got slammed and the kitchen was running behind. I had this couple who had a some appetizers and salad and were waiting for their main course to arrive.

My other table got their food and I was running food all around in that area to different tables. I saw them start to have that look on their face like when is mine arriving? I head back to the kitchen and I see it on the pass waiting for the steak to be put on the plate. Asking how long it will be I went back to the table and said to them it will be a couple of minutes.

Now here is the deal if you say it is going to be arriving in a couple of minutes it better arrive in a couple of minutes. Any longer and the guests really begins to wonder what the heck happened.

I go back to the kitchen and it is still not ready. I give a heads up to the kitchen manager and he checks the time and sees it is running way late. Knowing it may take a couple of minutes more he heads to the table to speak with the guest.

The guest is fine and the meal arrives shortly thereafter. It was a great thing the manager did by going over there to speak with the guest. He said thanks for letting him know and we put out a potential fire by letting the guest know that we were sorry for the delay and it will be out shortly.

Here is the deal and that is when you are waiting a longer than usual time for something and you feel the guest starting to lose it by changes in their facial expression or a total lack of silence at the table let your supervisor know. Chances are they are peeved off.

Don't try to remedy the situation by yourself. If you have done all you could and you see the guests' face going sour tell someone. By someone who is higher up going to the table not only will things get smoothed out but they will know that you the waiter are doing your job by showing you care enough to have someone come over and explain the problem.

A waiter who puts out fires before they go full out is on top of his section and communicating all the time. This is providing excellent service!

Great Verbal Tips This Weekend Grrrrrrr....

I don't know how many times people said great meal and great service and left me just the minimum. I mean how many tables do I have to do to make great money when people are leaving 8 , 9 , and $10? All I can do is hurry through the numbers and hope by the end of the night I get a real good one sometime during service to bump my take home up.

I see very quickly that Spring is almost here and although I am not complaining that warmer weather is coming very quickly it also means the slow season is coming upon us. So the more shifts I work till about Mother's Day the better. Then I can take some time off during the summer.

Hopefully we will be heading to Iceland the beginning of July for two weeks. Hot Springs , Blue Lagoon , camping and lots of daylight hours to enjoy there.

I would estimate in this 6 day stretch I just worked during the past week I probably served about 140 people. Come to think of it I had to make some good money somewhere during that time. How could I not?

How was your last week?

Our Own Gold Medal Game

Great athletes and artists inspire me. Probably because they are in the spotlight and we know them from what they do while performing their area of expertise. The Olympics have always been a source of inspiration to me because of what ordinary people will do when they set their mind to it. Achievements and goals are realized. Even the athletes who do not win are some of the best in the world at what they do.

Which brings me to this thought. Whatever we do in life we have to aspire to do well. We may not be paid millions of dollars a year and win a gold medal but when we head into work are we going to win a gold medal for service or are we just toddling along for the ride?

Just a thought...

Thanks But I Will Just Stick To Buying My Own Beer

Last night was not one of your busy nights. I had 3 tables going and then I was cut and walked out with $46. So I planted myself at the bar and ordered myself a couple of staff beers and watched our Canadian hockey team eke out a shootout win over the mighty Swiss. For those of you who don't know what that is like it would be like watching an English Premier League all star team barely beat out a team of factory workers by day that plays pickup football by night.

Anyhoo my fellow co-worker pulls up a stool beside me and tells me that the supervisor is buying him a beer cause he received compliments from 3 out of 5 tables that he had during the evening.

Now that makes me think. If I was to mention that all my tables were extremely happy with my service would I also be entitled to a free beer and if so would I need all my tables to be happy or just 60% of them? Not saying his other two were not happy and to his credit he is a good waiter but do you have to actually tell people that someone was happy with you.

I like to go by the way of not tooting my horn too much and just doing a bang up job everyday where everyone goes away happy. I like to quietly enter and leave on the same note.

My reasoning is this and that is if I have to mention that a table was extremely happy that means there might have been some tables that were not as happy.

As mentioned in a previous post I am for comment cards because it is a hard copy of what someone thinks. Then it can be passed on to management and kept in your record.

My trade off is they are kind with my schedule so I would rather have that than a free beer.

In the meantime I will trudge along quietly and stick to buying my own beer....