By Jennifer Moleski
From Restaurant INFORMER, 2014, Vol. 4, Issue 4
Jennifer MoleskiI don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the way servers have lost their professional identity and purpose. Most have taken to the position that their job is simply being the repository and regurgitaters of chefs, bartenders and sommelier’s passion.
How did this happen? The answer is easy. Those branches of the restaurant industry got serious. They got passionate about what they were doing, and the nation positively responded. The chefs, bartenders and sommeliers demanded that we servers become knowledgeable about their product so we could be informative to our guests, and that’s where we are now.
This isn’t such a bad thing in and of itself. After all, part of a server’s job is to have excellent knowledge of everything available to the guests. But while it is great to learn from and become impassioned about all aspects of service, servers have their own set of achievements to strive for. But what are they?
As strong servers, we are:
- Communicating with our guests and our team. We share with our team what we see, what we are doing and what we need. By doing this, we can use each other’s perceptions. (“Table 12 looks put off, what’s the deal?”) Or an announcement like “I am watering the room” can be processed by the team and taken off everyone’s to-do list, for the time being.
- Intuitive of our guest’s needs, fears, desires and mood. We should be constantly building our knowledge database about the steps of service we perform and the guests we perform them for.
- Scanning. Next time you watch your service team, check their scanning level. Do they rush through the dining room, head down or straight forward with one meager task in mind? Or are they scanning every table as they pass by searching for clues as to what each guest is in need of or where they are in their dining experience?
- Working as a team. Members of a team work together seamlessly for the common goal of serving all guests. Watching a service team that works together is like a dance. So many things get accomplished, and they appear to get accomplished effortlessly.
- Giving above and beyond what may be expected by guests and the team. We are thinking in our heads or in our service group of ways to awe our guests. We look for opportunities to make another person’s day.
- Articulate and fun dining tour guides. We know what we offer and can explain and recommend things fluently and honestly.
- Friendly. Other people – both our guests and our teammates – should want to come back because of our hospitality.
- Scholars on spirit, wine, food and allergies. We study and learn, and our studies never end.
- Part of a team whose micro and macro successes – and failures – are a reflection of everyone’s ability and willingness, to one degree or another.
- All-seeing. Every opportunity to take in information is fully utilized. We seek information by looking at a guest’s demeanor, the silverware on the table, the line at the door, the server that just walked in, the mood of the chef, etc.
- Striving for excellence and sharing our thoughts, ideas and concerns with our team.
To elevate how others perceive what we do, we must begin holding each of our actions up to scrutiny and share our findings with our fellow teammates. We need to consciously begin seeking the best practices and most efficient and balletic ways of doing things.
Until we can stand up for our career or scold any fellow server that degrades or underperforms in our craft, our craft will suffer and stagnate. We should be aggressively progressive about serving and bring our profession into a respectable light.
Jennifer Moleski is the founder of iamWaitress.com, a restaurant service focused website. Her passion is teaching the importance of team service. She has traveled throughout the U.S. observing and interviewing the top-rated restaurant service teams and managers to discover the commonality between them. She consults, writes and also offers an online spirits and wine course for service professionals.
