Waiter Guru. for starters and professionals

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1 Waiter Guru for starters and professionals Powered by POS Sector

2 Is Waiter Guru Right For You? Ok, they say that you never get a second chance to make a first impression of your writing. So, should you read this book? I m not sure, but the fact is that I created this guide for all those who work as bartenders, waiters or waitresses, but also for everyone who s thinking of starting to work in this line of work. The idea is to share with you the practical tips and advice that make my daily work and life easier. And yes, to gain enough cash, so I m no longer looking for another job. This guide will help you to transform your workplace into a place you love to be. Of course, it is possible.

3 Introduction I love the waiting profession even now after I ve become a restaurant manager and have a different obligation. But hey, I ve been in this business for about 15 years, and I needed at least 5 to get me in the right frame of body and mind where I am right now. I m happy and in good shape too! In Waiter Guru, I ll provide something different to the others. I ll not write how to work to be happy, but rather I ll write how to be happy, get your work done well and earn money. Let me give you a quick roadmap of the guide. I ll start with the different type of people, your body condition, and what you need to do to stay mentally and physically in shape. This is something that I ve not read in any other guide for waiters and I think it s very important. Then I d like to talk a little about the disadvantages, advantages and challenges of this profession. This is ideal for those who are wondering if this job is right for them or someone who s currently working as a bartender or waiter but still doesn t see the challenges of this profession. For those who ve been in this business for a while, the most interesting part of this guide is a section with practical tips about how to deal with different customers, co-workers, thieves, your boss, the lack of money and bad tip days. For total beginners who aren t crazy about reading, I ve written the extra short guide: The Most Valuable Information for Beginners. To finish off, I ll share my story with you, just in case you re interested. Enjoy travelling to a better life with me.

4 Contents Is Waiter Guru Right For You? 2 Introduction 3 About the Author 4 What Do You Need to Know About Waiter s Job? 6 How to Stay Physically & Mentally Healthy while Doing Waiter s Job 7 Advantages & Disadvantages of Waitressing 8 Dealing with Bad Co-Workers 10 How Your Co-workers Steal in Restaurants & Bars 11 How to Handle with Customer Complaints? 14 Handling customer complaints in 8 steps 15 Guide to Great Tips 16 What affects the better tipping? 17 Few Tricks to Get Better Tips 18 Basic tips to make your customers happy 19 Get a Sense What your Customers Like or, even more important What They Don t Like 21 Improve your skills by listening to your customers 22 How To Figure Out Customer s Needs And Wishes? 25 Quick Training for Suggestive Selling in Restaurants 26 Quality Waiter The Art of Good Service 31 Tips to have a nice relationship with your co-workers in same shift 35 You Want to Be Hired as a Bartender? 38 How to Run a Bar - Tips For Success 43 Few Creative Ideas for Bar Managers 51 Extra short Guide: The Most Valuable Information for Beginners 52 Conclusion 56

5 Dealing with Bad Co-Workers It can be very stressful and frustrating to work with bad co-workers. I put them into two main groups: dysfunctional and toxic co-workers. If you cannot deal with them after you implement my tips, my suggestion would be to eventually quit your job. Remember, that s not the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing to happen is that you become one of them. As I said before, they re toxic and contagious. Dysfunctional co-workers often run around looking like they re busy but actually sneak out a million times for a toilet or cigarette break, constantly checking their phone and even ignoring their customers. You ll recognize them easily as they often seek an audience. Your dysfunctional buddies need to know that you have no interest in being their audience. Get out from this kind of conversation by saying I need to get back to work or I m quite busy and can t talk right now. If they start to bother you after this you should say, Sorry, this conversation is holding back my productivity, I need to earn some money. This should stop them. Dealing with toxic co-workers is even harder than dealing with dysfunctional ones. All of us have a bad day sometimes, and it s easy to forgive co-workers who occasionally exhibit moodiness. But, dealing with a coworker who s persistently in a bad mood can affect your productivity and lower your morale. They are always in bad mood. They spread their poison everywhere. They may appear to be really good and diligent workers, yet they re constantly frustrated and angry all the time. Even regular customers would stop coming to your restaurant because of toxic workers. You should really have a strong character to deal with them. How exactly do you do that? Limit interaction with them and if it s possible, avoid working in the same shift with people who are negative or seem to attract conflict. If you need to work with them, stay calm. Don t take your co-worker s

6 behaviour personally. Although it may be difficult to keep a cool head your co-worker s moodiness may come from health or financial problems, problems at home or dissatisfaction with a job. None of these has anything to do with you personally. Make open conversation with your co-worker. It s difficult for someone to modify their behaviour if they re not aware how these actions affect you. Don t ignore this bad behaviour but also don t be harsh or critical. Ask if there s something you do that causes or contributes to his/her frustration. If there s something wrong in his/her personal life, show compassion and understanding, but also, explain how he negatively affects your productivity and morale and respectfully request to modify his/her behaviour. Talk to yourrestaurant or bar manager if dysfunctional or toxic coworkers are hampering your ability to complete your job duties. Describe the negative behaviour with specific examples. The restaurant manager needs to know when workplace conflicts impede productivity. How Your Co-workers Steal in Restaurants & Bars Theft among restaurant employees is a reality. It s a part of a restaurant s daily routine, but we rarely talk or read about it in the media. So there s a big chance your new friend from work who s just been hired was dismissed from his previous restaurant because of stealing. The sensitivity of this information and bad publicity are reasons for keeping this information a secret. There are many other ways how waiters steal money in restaurants and bars. Most employees are honest and won t steal, but one naughty waiter is enough, who can influence the entire team into stealing. If you become familiar with the common methods of stealing in a bar you can prevent damages to your earnings, the restaurant s reputation and your

7 team. So get familiar with the five most important ways waiters steal. If you re new in the business you won t believe it, but they really do some of these things or a combination of them: They bring their own drinks to the bar They pour water into drinks They make drinks shorter They use the same check multiple times And yes, they take coffee directly out of the grinder! Bringing drinks into the bar How they do that? They bring in a bottle of drink bought from a nearby store. They take the money and don t provide receipts for the customer. In that way, the inventory isn t disturbed, yet money has still been stolen. This kind of stealing is done when the rest of the team hasn t yet arrived, or several hours before inventory control, if the previous evening inventory hasn t been done. In this case, security guards need to be closely watched, as they re often involved. A team in this scheme can consist of the bartender, waiter and the night guard. Pouring water into drinks This is one of the most frequent methods of theft in restaurants and bars. The main player is the bartender who can t bring drinks in, but he s able to do the following: simply pour water into bottles that he/she has previously served drinks from. The drinks are charged for but aren t entered into the system, thus making up for the amount served and pocketing the cash. Some servers, as well as some owners, add sparkling water directly into the beverage dispenser at the bar and in that way keep a significant amount

8 of money for themselves. This directly affects restaurant s or bar s reputation since the customer who gets a watered down drink will not create a good opinion of the place. The customer will blame the owner for not being dishonest and for showing disrespect. In the end, the customer isn t obligated to pay for a watered down drink. This kind of stealing is very damaging for everyone and shouldn t be tolerated. Making drinks shorter This method is related to the previous two methods since the main players are again bartenders and servers. The method is simple: less drink is poured into the glass when served. Usually, an additional cube of ice is added to increase the volume. In some cases, thieves call this technical surplus but this is actually theft and the customer is directly affected. I ve witnessed cases when an already watered down drink is shortened and filled with ice so the customer can barely taste the drink they ordered. Using the same bill more than once This method involves a bartender-server team and when the kitchen is involved as well it means that your restaurant manager has entirely lost control over their employees. Waiters separately or together bring up food and drinks and keep the bills. They patiently wait for the same order and use the same bill twice. The customer is served; the order is paid but hasn t gone through the system. Money has been stolen. Thieves usually make up for spent ingredients by buying them. However in restaurants where the inventory isn t conducted on a regular basis and operations are based on trust, they don t replace the goods at all. Taking coffee directly out of the grinder The coffee grinder usually has a dial that counts the number of shots

9 used. Each time the handle is pulled, this counts as one coffee. The theft method is simple: bartenders opens the grinder and take the coffee directly out of it, without pulling the handle. They serve the coffee usually without issuing a bill or use the same bill several times. Stolen money can be significant over the course of a year. This theft is difficult to prevent other than taping the lid of the grinder or putting a lock on it. You can see now that there are a lot of ways your co-workers can steal and harm the business. Be prepared for it. If someone steals from your boss pocket, he s actually stealing from your pocket too. Literally, the entire team has lost. So once you re sure someone s stealing, openly sit down and talk to them. He or she should stop this kind of behaviour, but also compensate stolen money. If not, you should talk with your restaurant or bar manager and let him solve the problem. I ll continue with specific problems and how to solve them - that s why you ve read this guide, right?

10 About the Author My name is Aida Behmen-Milicevic. I m a demanding customer, mother, and wife. I m a passionate writer and the third eye of our restaurant. I used to be a waitress, bartender, and staff manager. I enjoy a good discussion and I m the one who counts the money. Over the last few years, I ve been working as a writer for POS Sector s blog which has become very popular. But as the nature of blogging means that we can t always get into depth about our favourite topics and thoughts, we decided to create an ebook to give our bloggers a chance to completely express themselves.