🍸 TRL Weekly: Don't Make This Big Mistake

Your weekly lesson and tactical reminders inside.

October 20, 2024

Happy Sunday, future server/bartender millionaire.

In today’s lesson Brandon is teaching us how to avoid making this big mistake that some servers find themselves doing…

Our Last Three Lessons:

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

Today at a Glance:

  • Weekly Lesson: Don’t Make This Big Serving Mistake

  • Tactical Reminders: Your Video Lessons

🍸 Weekly Lesson:
Don’t Make This Big Serving Mistake

There are 2 times in the dining experience where you can completely ruin EVERYTHING. 

The first time is right when a table first sits down.

Greeting the table should be IMMEDIATE!

Worst case scenario you get there within 60-90 seconds.

Ultimately, the sooner, the better.

There are 2 reasons for this:

  1. Every guest has a clock that starts ticking in their head counting how long it takes you to come greet them. And to them, waiting 2 minutes is like waiting 5… AND if a table waits 5 minutes … they feel like they waited 15.

  2. When a guest first gets there, they are not only HANGRY, but also angry/thirsty (idk if there is a word for that). I always think of it like those Snickers commercials, but in this case, the guests settle down ONCE THEY ORDER A DRINK.

This is why you should try to greet them immediately.

Worst case scenario they just ask you for a few minutes, but usually if people aren’t ready I would just help them.

So anytime there is that awkward dead air, ask the guest a question like:

“What do you usually go with?”  instead of just saying “Do you need a minute?”. 

Absolute worst case scenario, let's say you have NO TIME to do this because you are weeded…

Here are 2 things you can do:

  1. Tell the guests: “I will be right over!”

  2. Ask a teammate to greet the table for you. Odds are, not everyone is weeded at once. There is always one or two servers standing against a wall on their phone somewhere.

The second time you have to be careful is at the very end.

A guest waiting to get the check OR to for you to collect the check, are 2 of the worst things that can happen RIGHT BEFORE THEY TIP YOU!

Instead, just be AWARE and drop check sooner rather than later.

People like to be in control.

When they have the check on the table, they control when they pay.

When you haven’t even printed the check yet because you “Look like the type of people that would sit”, they are actually stuck at the restaurant and have no control of when they can leave.

You simply never know, but if you do drop check early, just say “Just for your convenience, no rush! Let me know if you want anything else!”

Also, put the check down in a specific spot or facing a specific way every time so you know if it's not in that same spot, that means they put their card in.

🚀 Tactical Reminders:

  1. Brandon - Make This Switch -

    Video Lesson: Click here.

  2. Jess - Verbiage Changes -

    Video Lesson: Click here.

  3. Derek - Sell More Desserts  -

    Video Lesson: Click here.

That’s all for week thirty.

See you next week,

The Restaurant Launch Team