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Server From HELL

- How to avoid giving bad service!

By Mark SPublished 4 years ago 9 min read
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20 Tips and Tricks to improve your TIPS and Service!

EARN 5% or 8% MORE tips from SSQ

1) BE SPECIFIC

Too many customers you serve are unhappy with your service because of simple questions! "How is everything?" or "Can I get you anything else?" Don't forget that you are a customer too! Do you recall hearing the KISS principle? Keep it simple, but specific, when you are Specific it means you're paying attention! Simple Specific Questions (SSQ) will improve your tips upwards of 5 -8% MORE!

How exactly can you get 5 to 8% more of a tip just by using the SSQ Method?

Use questions like; "How is your margarita?" if a customer asks for a cranberry juice and soda water, get the bartender to fill a glass 3/4 full of soda and bring a SIDE of cran! I was in a restaurant with a date one time and I ordered a Cranberry Soda, the waitress brought my drink to me and when I tasted it I said I would like more cranberry added.

Instead of taking the drink, they brought a side of juice and I was able to add it for myself,

no extra charge, but I was able to make it to my personal taste. Another occasion I was out with 2 colleagues and I had the same situation, the waitress grabbed my drink took it back to the bar and returned it dark red, think there was an issue? Grab a pen and write down 3 solutions in the space provided before you continue reading the story, what do you think she could have done to resolve the issue? I took one sip and knew it was horrible, so I pushed the drink away from me waiting for her to come back and ask what SSQ? There are no wrong answers here, as long as you find a solution to please the customer!

SSQ 1, 2, 3 (your answers)

What could she have done to resolve the issue?:

This is where you take notes, grab a notebook and pen and give your own answers.

So a positive SSQ in my opinion would be; "Is the drink to your taste?" The biggest mistake she made was not noticing the drink pushed away from me especially walking past our table 3 times and asking if my drink was to my liking. Pay attention when someone is unhappy with the taste of a drink. Allow them time to taste it again unless they are given juice to mix themselves and then ask again if they are enjoying it!

2) What do you do?

Your bartender makes a table of 2 drinks only to find out one ingredient is missing from one of the drinks; bring one of the drinks to the table and ask if it would be ok to substitute (ingredient) for the correct ingredient.

Correct?

YES, NO, or is this a grey area?

2 people are dining together, or having drinks, I would personally never bring only one drink at one time, but you decide on these variables; Are they celebrating something? Or on a first date? Are they colleagues who are here after work needing to vent about the manager who yelled at them because of his own personal issues? I read somewhere people don't leave a job, they leave the manager.. but that's a completely new topic.. If you are doing a proposal with a colleague after work and you are talking business, would the same preference apply? Maybe not

I went out once on a date, they brought my drink to me first because they ran out of something for her drink, not only did my ice melt, my date and I couldn't toast with one drink.. "Should I taste it or just wait for hers to come..."

Social etiquette is important to many people, especially when he or she is trying to make a good first impression on a date. Does this apply in other settings such as business dinner meetings? Can you think of other situations you have had a table of 2 guests and only one of them was able to taste their drink to start? What would your impression of the service be, if you had a first date, or wanted to take your wife, husband, or significant other to celebrate something of a memorable occasion and you were not able to give a proper toast in the beginning?

What if you ordered drinks, only wanted appetizers, or nothing to eat at all, and the drinks were brought to you in the previous situation?

We did not order anything other than drinks, but our menus were left on the table should we decide to order some appetizers or something to snack on.

What is your viewpoint on the customer service and service industry from the side of a server? Should our customers be giving us a break and understanding that we have another 6 tables in our section this evening?

When I told you about the cranberry soda, would you have taken it off the bill or made your customer pay for it? What if they asked you, or yet, were too shy to ask you to take it off the bill?

Removing an item off the final sale that wasn't preferable for your customer will show you care, and is a great way to improve your customer retention. (Yes, of course there are people who will take advantage, use your judgement here.) Common sense comes into play when we talk about the difference in taste of a drink with lack of cranberry juice, or main entree such as a steak which was half eaten and then they tell you it was under cooked, correct?

If a customer knows you care enough to take it off the bill because they really did not enjoy it, chances improve 40-50% that they will return.

Your tips will increase and you won't have to in most cases pay for the item, your company will take the loss to keep the customer in most cases. Manage your table, don't ask for permission on this if you are fixing a problem on your own that will most likely bring someone back for future dining experiences. What are the chances of you keeping that customer for a future visit ifthey ask you to take it off the bill, yet you refuse? Does your tip reduce?

Does your company lose money today to keep future profits? (how does it affect your tips?)

Giving a 'discount' in the way of removing an item is something referred to as positive shrink, especially if the customer was not happy in the most reasonable of situations. You will make them happy, your tip will be better than if you made them pay when they asked specifically for it to be taken off the bill because it was horrible, and they will come back to tip you again! Your manager or owner in most cases will agree; they need customer retention and, so do you.

In your experience, can you think of a time when you brought 2 drinks to a table of 3, or 1 drink to a table of 2, there will be a rare situation which calls for this, or will there be? You're the manager of this table, what can be done to keep them happy?

3) Coffee Time!

Are you a coffee drinker? In most cases customers who drink coffee use cream, and sugar or sweetener. Do you bring fresh cream in a container, or use pre-packaged creamers? Always bring more cream to the table if you bring some with your first cup, if you don't leave it, put it in your pocket or apron and take it away. Great impression to coffee drinkers when you remember to bring creamer without them having to ask or remind you.

I know when you're trained in most cases; pull the coffee cup from the table and refill away from the table it so it doesn't splash the customer...

1. Instead of grabbing the cup by the handle, grab it by the bottom of the cup. First of all, the cup will not burn your hand by the time it's full and back on the table, and secondly, if you just finished cleaning a table and happened to miss washing your hands (I know, I know, this never happens) those germophobe's out there will be happy they still have a clean cup. Funny how they didn't notice you hand it to them at the beginning when you brought it to the table by the handle the first time haha!

2. Do you ever have a full pot and end up resting the carafe on the lip of the cup when you pour a refill? If you ever see a customer cringe, watch them when you do this. Coffee pots and carafe's must be cleaned by most restaurant cleaning standards, but are they cleaned weekly, monthly or more rare on the outside? Yes washed and disinfected inside, but how often are they actually cleaned in the same place you rest it on a coffee cup? Food for thought here. Do you remember when you took a specimen from a door knob in biology class and grew some spores? Do the same thing with the bottom of a coffee carafe, the same place you rest it on the lip of a coffee cup that you are about to refill for your favorite customer.

Many of us coffee drinkers dislike your hands and coffee pot or carafe touching our cups, especially if we are eating finger foods. These are things that are rare for a server to think about, but

it's a pet peeve of every two out of three people we interviewed

when we asked coffee drinkers specifically "What do you dislike about a server doing when they refill your coffee?" as part of our research for these articles. We may have pointed out the part about resting the pot on the cup, but you get what we're saying, right?

We have MORE tips and tricks coming up in our next episode... SSQ and other ideas you can do to increase your tips, and keep your customers coming back to give you more money!

We hope you are inspired to join us for more in the next Server From Hell story!

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About the Creator

Mark S

How can you train in techniques for the serving industry to give exemplary customer service for the best gratuity possible? Make your financial gains extreme when you give the BEST service possible! Did I help you? You can tip me too :)

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