Whether it’s a large restaurant chain, a local diner, or a mom and pop “hole-in-the-wall,” hundreds of thousands of people can relate to the every-day struggles of being a restaurant server. There are countless passive-aggressive articles floating around the Internet, with the sole purpose of bashing horrible customers. This article is different. My goal is to paint customers a picture of some the everyday struggles that take place in the serving world, so they can make life a little easier on the employees of their favorite restaurants.
First off, there are many wonderful people out there who make up the group of “regulars” that walk into our restaurants weekly, if not daily. If you are a regular, I want to take a moment to simply thank you. You never get upset if it takes a little longer to be sat due to a long wait in the dining room. You always tip above and beyond the expected percentage for the service or bill total. But most importantly, you’re the strand of hope that keeps us employed in the middle of dinner rush when we’re contemplating putting in our two weeks. Thank you for always being so wonderful!
That being said, we live in a consumer world where “the customer is always right.” Anyone in any type of customer service occupation will tell you that there are several instances where this concept isn’t always true. However, regardless of the situation, we have to treat the customer as if their issue or concern is our number one priority at that moment. Most servers would be fired if they voiced their frustrations to a customer, and rightly so. I believe that if a customer was aware of some common issues for servers, they would avoid that situation altogether. Therefore, I’ve created a list of non-monetary tips on how customers can make some of the most common issues for servers seem like a piece of cake.
1. When you walk into a restaurant and tell the host how many people are in your party, they choose to seat you in either a booth or a table, according to your preference. Your table was not randomly selected for you; hosts also have an important and organized list of sections and servers that they use to help seat customers. It’s essential that the hosts follow the order of this “algorithm” so that they don’t frustrate the servers by either skipping them or double seating them. When customers are unhappy with their location and ask for a different table, it throws the entire system off and causes one server to be skipped, and another to be sat before he or she is ready.
Unless the location is extremely inconvenient to your needs, please sit where the host seats you. I didn’t know that people actually asked for different locations until I started serving. My family just always sat where they were seated and understood that there was a method to the madness.
2. When going to a sit-down restaurant, always remember that good quality food cannot be made in the time that it takes you to drive up to a window. If you expect your food to arrive within five minutes, a drive-thru might be better suited for you. Granted, there are some situations in which there is absolutely no excuse for slow or lazy service. However, nine times out of ten, your server is doing the best they can to deliver your food to you as soon as possible. Weekend nights can be extremely busy and stressful for your server, please be patient and understanding.
3. If you have young children, please do not let them paint the table with condiments. We understand that kids will be kids, but if they decide to make a masterpiece of ketchup on the table, please at least attempt to clean it off. Also, thank you to the parents who do not let their children run rampant around the restaurant. That behavior is expected at Chuck-E-Cheese, but not a nice sit-down restaurant where servers carry large trays of food and could easily trip over kids, injuring them and spilling another table’s food everywhere.
4. Restaurants rely on several positions to ensure everything runs smoothly. Despite how hard-working your server is, they do not make your food. However, we would be more than willing to relay any messages that you may have to our wonderful kitchen employees. If for whatever reason, something is wrong with your food, please don’t shoot the messenger. The kitchen staff is human, so occasionally they’ll make mistakes and unfortunately servers take the heat for those mistakes. If a mistake is made, we’d be more than happy to do what it takes to correct it! Just please politely notify us.
5. At most restaurants, each server is responsible for about four to six tables. Sometimes even more, if it’s a busy night or if the restaurant is short a server. Think about how much time your server spends on making sure that the people at your table have a positive experience and multiply that time by four or six. We try and treat each table as if they’re our only table, so please don’t take advantage of that. Utilize our time wisely.
For instance, if your table needs ketchup, extra napkins and another side of ranch, please try and tell us that you need all of those items at the same time so that we’re not bringing extra napkins to your table then turning right back around to retrieve ketchup or ranch. It’s extremely hard to take care of our entire section when one table is constantly sending us back to get more items for them.
6. On that note, please never flag your server down while they’re taking care of another table. That’s not only rude to your server, it’s also rude to the people at the table they’re helping. I see that your coke is almost empty, but please let me deliver the two trays full of food to my table of eight before you rudely shake your half-empty glass in my face. Timing is everything for servers and it’s often not on our side. If you absolutely need assistance while your server is taking care of another table, a manager or nearby server would be more than happy to help!
7. When you are nearing the end of your meal and contemplating taking your leftovers home, the server will typically ask if there are any dishes they can get out of your way. This is server code for “pre-bussing” You might think that you’re making it easier on us to decline our offer, but it’s only causing us to have to spend more time cleaning off your table after you leave. So please, for the sake of your table space and our inability to carry all of your dishes at once, let us pre-bus for you!
8. When we drop off the check, please take a moment to read over your receipt and give us a chance to come collect it in a few minutes. As a server, it’s so awkward to walk away from a table after dropping off the check and have the customer stop us because they want to pay right at that moment. It’s even more frustrating when we have another table that needs refills and a customer makes us wait while they fumble through their wallet looking for their credit card or exact change. When we say “there’s no rush on the check.” We really do mean that there’s no rush.
9. Being a nice and understanding customer is not a sufficient enough “tip.” We appreciate your kindness and cooperation, however most servers do not get more than $20 on their actual paychecks and rely on their tips to pay bills and put food on their own tables. I would much rather have a customer be a jerk to me and still tip the 18-plus percent than for a nice customer to not tip at all.
10. Building off of that, please don’t be a 10 percent (or less) tipper. There are tons of articles about this concept, so I’ll make this brief. Servers only make a few dollars an hour and rely on their tips as their main source of income. If our total sales for a five-hour shift are $300 and each of our tables only tipped 10 percent then we’d leave work with $30 in our pocket. That means we’d be making $6 an hour. Would you be able to pay your bills on $6 an hour? Just something to think about.
As I stated earlier, this article was not written to harp on all of the awful customers of this world. I am a person who tries to see the good in every one. Therefore, I firmly believe that because you are now fully aware of these common frustrations for servers, you will avoid these situations so that you can make your server’s job significantly more enjoyable!
