🍸 TRL Weekly: 30% Tip Average

Your weekly lesson and tactical reminders inside.

August 11, 2024

Happy Sunday, future server/bartender millionaire.

In today’s lesson Brandon teaches us how to have a 30% tip average.

Our Last Three Weekly Lessons:

You can read the rest of the past weekly lessons here.

Today at a Glance:

  • Weekly Lesson: 30% Tip Average

  • Tactical Reminders: Your Video Lessons

🍸 Weekly Lesson:
30% Tip Average

Most servers believe that their personality is what carries them to getting an amazing tip.

I promise you, your tables don’t care about your personality when they are low on water, waiting for their food, and you mess up 3 times.

Averaging a very high tip % comes from a ton of important things, but I will talk about 3 important ones right now:

Number One: Warmth

Warmth is the feeling that guests get when you provide amazing service.

It is called warmth because it is also the feeling that you get when you are in your grandma’s house on a Sunday morning and she is serving you like you are a king.

The easiest way to be good at this is to just NEVER be inconvenienced by the guests' wants.

So when they ask for something, you should say: “OF COURSE, WHAT ELSE MAY I BRING?” instead of “Did you need anything else?”.

You should also have a smile on your face and wait 2-3 seconds before leaving the table.

Do a scan with your eyes, making eye contact with every guest to see what else you can bring while you get what they asked for.

Number Two: Anticipating The Guests’ Needs

If you master number two, you will actually get better at number one as well.

Anticipating needs is exactly how it sounds.

Bring the guests what they will need before they even need it.

Also, anticipate what they might ask for.

So if the guest asks for an unsweetened iced tea, ask if they prefer a sweetener on the side.

You are all smart enough to know the difference between something that you should 100% bring without asking and something that you should just ask.

I’ll end this section on this…

IF A GUEST HAS TO ASK YOU FOR MORE WATER, YOU ARE NOT GIVING GOOD SERVICE.

Number Three: Manicuring Tables

This one actually took me a while to pick because there are so many things.

I have noticed most servers suck at manicuring tables.

Manicuring tables is similar to pre-busing and we have talked about it a million times, but this is an amazing way to impress the guest.

Imagine sitting at a perfectly clean table 100% of the time even though you're not at a fine dining restaurant?

I’ll give you a few small things you can do to impress the guest when it comes to manicuring.

These must all be done silently.

  1. Taking straw wrappers instantly

  2. Pre-busing a plate with a sauce ramekin on the plate, but you take the sauce off and put it back on the table because they might still want the sauce.

  3. Picking up their glass and wiping the water (condensation) below it.

    • For this one you can also be proactive and just serve with beverage napkins.

🚀 Tactical Reminders:

  1. Never Inconvenienced - Brandon Warm Service -

    Video Lesson: Click here.

  2. Don’t Get Stuck At Tables - Jess Escaping Tables -

    Video Lesson: Click here.

  3. Liquor Knowledge!- Derek - Liquor Knowledge. -

    Video Lesson: Click here.

That’s all for week twenty.

See you next week,

The Restaurant Launch Team