You Got Served! 4

Welcome back to another addition of You Got Served! You can check out installments one, two and three by clicking the links. Read each server’s answers and tell us whose answers you liked best in the comments. Lets get right into it!

In This Corner: AZ Waitress live4vibrance.blogspot.com/

A brief, one paragraph bio:

25 year old waitress at a popular steakhouse in Arizona. Going to school for nursing, and enjoying the fun and flexibility of a waitressing job while  working on pre-requisites for nursing school. Loves animals, cars, and music.

1) How/why did you become a server, and how long have you been in the biz?

became a server a few years ago back in 2004. I was looking for a job to pay the few bills I had while living at home and going to college. It was at a senior living community…it was not your average server job. We made regular minimum wage instead of tipped employee minimum wage, and made no tips! We weren’t allowed to accept them at all!  But it was my first foray into serving, and I learned the bare basics I needed to carry me on to perhaps another future serving job. I made a lot of regulars, and the seniors loved me. I got in a car accident and had to quit the job, so for years after I worked various other jobs.

After working as a waitress in a pizza place for another year in 2008, I figured I’d try my luck at a place that actually pulled in decent business- I was hardly making anything! I decided to apply at my current employer and it was the most work I ever had to put in to get a job….initially when I applied I was told to come check back in 3 weeks, then I had 4 interviews, one week apart each, then a menu test, then a week of training. It was a LONG time before I was finally in the job for good and making tips. But it was so worth it!

So all in all, between the 3 server jobs I’ve had, I’ve been in the biz as a server 3 years going into my 4th year, and have been in the food service industry since I could work in my teens.

2) What is the average tip percentage that you receive? What is your best advice for servers who would like to average your tip percentage?

Oh wow, that varies so wildly. Y’all know how it is- some people will tip you poorly no matter what you do! But I’d have to say I average anywhere from 12-20%. Of course I get plenty of bad tippers, and I have off times like any server, but I do pretty well most of the time for the amount of sales I do.

My best advice to servers who want to average my tip percentage? Smile! Laugh! Have a good time! I think I’m one of the few who likes my job at work, and I think it shows. My restaurant is big on personal interaction with customers, so I try to make each experience a unique one (unless of course the customer would rather not have that). When you’re having fun, chances are the customers are too.

3) What are the best and worst things about serving and why?

You are not just a server. If you really take a look at your customers, every single one wants something out of there server…more than just food. A friend. An aid to get their food quick and off to that next big thing. A listener/advice giver. A clown .  You just never know what a big difference you can make in a customer’s life. If you can figure out what they’re looking for, you’re golden. I’ve learned that people can be relatively easy to read if you pay attention.

You can call me Servernotslave, or SNS for short. I’m a college graduate from a well-established 4 year university with a degree in education and I’m a waiter. I’ve been in the service industry for 8 years now. I’ve been a busser, a dishwasher, a server assistant, a waiter, a bartender, an expediter and a manager-in-training. I’ve worked in both corporate restaurants and family-owned restaurants. I’ve seen the disaster stories and the fortunate stories. This business has turned me into a cynic and taught me to keep expectations low, so I’m rarely disappointed. I try to find the humor in every situation and it’s always my job (whether I’m at work or not) to make people feel comfortable.

1) I became a server because it started out as a high school job bussing tables and I eventually moved up to waiting when I hit college. The flexible hours and the ability to work at night was a real bonus, which is probably why most waiters are college students. Eventually, I stuck with it because it was something I knew well and could pay my bills. It sure beats making $9 an hour in retail.

2) I average about 17-18% in tips each shift. There are a lot of little tips and tricks to increasing your tip percentage and none of them include upselling. Actually, upselling might actually lower your tip percentage, but the amount of tips you receive will most likely be higher. My best advice is to not screw up, learn how to manage your time efficiently, keep your customers informed should there be a delay and make them believe you truly care about their experience, even if you don’t.

3) The best things about serving are pretty common responses: flexible hours, cash in your pocket (usually), doesn’t take a college degree to do (although many of us have them), instant friends with the people you work with. The worst, I would say would be dealing with ignorant customers and managers who have lost touch with their waiting roots. Because the customer does have some semblance of power over the waiter, many times they use that to their advantage to get things for free or just to unleash their own issues on someone who’s just trying to work for a living.

4) People act the same way regardless of their geographical location. Sterotypes are – more often than not – true when it comes to eating in a restaurant and I’ve learned this after 8 years of experience. In my blog, I talk about stories that I personally have experienced and it’s amazing to see people’s responses that they’ve had customers do the same to them when they live in Minnesota, Los Angeles, even London. You may call a waiter racist, age-ist, sexist, or whatever -ist you want, but we just say these things because the customers continue to perpetrate the stereotypes.

5) Read my blog. Ha! No, really. Read the entire menu, trust your waiter and remember that your waiter is just trying to work for a living. Think about how you’d want to be treated by a customer of your company. Noone wants to be yelled at, belittled, or complained about. Didn’t your mother teach you the “Golden Rule”?