Bad Service, Again

Just the other day I had lunch at a major brand name restaurant chain. Every city I have been to has had one of these restaurants. They are everywhere.

This particular one had some major problems with the service staff, and especially my server. She did fine with the welcome, she took the drink orders, and she took the meal orders just fine and go the orders right. The problem came when the meal was delivered. We sat there for a few minutes without and cutlery or napkins. My friend had a burger and started eating right away. I had a salad as my side dish and didn’t feel like eating it with my fingers. I probably would have if I had a napkin to clean the salad dressing off my fingers.

I finally flagged down another server, not the one assigned to our station; she was very energetic and promised to get us the cutlery. A moment later a third server appeared in the area sort of looking around in a daze like she was searching for something. Just as she reached our table she turned toward the front and literally hollered to ask “where?” After she got the reply she looked at us and said “Oh.” Then she set don one set of cutlery. My friend was more than half way through his meal so I went ahead and used the cutlery and ate my meal. When we finished we had to share the one napkin. I used one end and he used the other end.

The problems were: (1) our server did not come back to the table and check on us after the meal was served, (2) there was a lack of effective communication among the staff, and (3) there was no pride in doing a good job (this was apparent when the empty able next to us was never cleaned the entire time we were there).

This is one of the very few times I have left a tip under 10%. So many things were so bad I just couldn’t justify my normal 18-20%.

It is so easy for servers to increase their tips by implementing some basic, common sense to there routine. One of the best ways is to imagine yourself as the customer. Think of what you would like and do that for your customers.

There is an eBook that I would recommend to restaurant servers. It is one of the best resources I have ever read for tips on increasing tips.

http://www.gratuity-ingenuity.com/