For those of you that don’t take the time to read the article, it highlights 3
key points for proper behavior when dining at a restaurant.
1) Don’t talk on a cell phone at the table.
Between hostessing at olive garden and waitressing at Sam’s Boat, I lost track
of the number of customers I sat/greeted and a blue tooth with a glaring blue
light rested just inside their ear, completely ignoring a word I had to say.
This presents more than one problem for the service employee: Do we interrupt
your (un)important phone call to take your drink order, or do we come back when
you’re off? What if it’s a long phone call - how long do we wait before coming
over to talk? What if the customer gets angry because we never came over and
then blames us for ignoring them? It gets really messy after awhile, so please, for the sake of our sanity and yours, hold the phone call until AFTER we have taken your order.
2) Don’t demand a different table on a busy night.
Hostessing at olive garden taught me more than I ever thought possible. I now
treat hostesses with much more respect. If the wait took an extra 10 minutes,
we were blamed like it was nobody’s business. Not sure if you’re familiar with the phrase “It takes 11 good things to undo one bad thing,” but our service managers made us completely aware of that statement because when a customer walks through the door, we are the first people they see. So if something goes wrong with us, 11 other “good things” have to take place before the customer walks out our doors if we want to leave a lasting impression. When we quote a table time, we’re
hoping that another table will be done in that time and if no one feels like
leaving, we can’t physically make them, so please be patient. I consider myself a pretty
patient person, but my demeanor was tempted every night with angry customers and
their in-your-face demands. If we give you a table, take it.
3) Don’t tip less than 15 percent. Don’t.
By far one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. You don’t understand the meaning of a tip until you wait tables. You just don’t. And for that matter, I think everyone should take a part-time job where at least half of your salary is in the form of tips. You’ll learn to appreciate what you do a whole lot more. But back to tipping waiters: granted, there are times when the waiter does a poor job which can warrant a smaller tip, but sometimes you have to give them a break. You don’t know what’s going on in their personal lives that may have affected their mood, or if the kitchen is running behind and the food’s coming out slow makes a big difference, too. A saying we used to have at the OG was – “If you can’t afford to tip, don’t eat out.” Some of these people make their whole earnings off what you leave on the table. You go out to eat to be waited on, and if the waiter is friendly and makes your eating experience enjoyable, reward them.
And when you go in large parties, let’s say a group of 6, and your total comes out to roughly $65, please, do not leave a $6 tip. I have seen this happen so much. That waiter served you and 5 of your friends, brought you drinks and most likely refills, extra plates and napkins, desserts and your bill. Just looking at the minimal list, that’s 5 trips to YOUR table. Working in the bar industry, we have policy among ourselves that for every time a waiter comes to our table its $1 and an extra $1 for every drink. Back to the scenario: if you leave a $6 tip on a meal like that, it’s basically saying that each person gave $1 and I know that waiter did more than a $1 service. So just keep in mind when you have larger parties and trying to decide on a tip. We don’t do this for free.
And, if you don’t do anything else, DO NOT take out a tip card. First off, it shows you are mathematically incapable of taking 15% of something and secondly, it’s unclassy. It’s not hard to take 10% of something and take half of that and add it to your first number.
Bottom line: Don’t be rude.
