Baker Creative has decided to do a blog segment on “Take Her/His Job for a Day”. We will pick different positions to interview and ask questions to identify how an employee feels about their job.
By doing this, Baker Creative is hoping to give an insight to readers and show a different perspective of various jobs. If we all spent five minutes in each other’s shoes maybe the world would be a little softer… a little more empathetic. We want to explore their positions to see how employees really feel about themselves, management and their clients.
This week we will be covering a server in a restaurant. The names of employees and companies will not be released, but we will be giving a little background information.
This server is a woman who is a recent college graduate, has a second job, and has been serving since she was 19.
Baker Creative: “What is your primary job role and a description of that job?”
Server: “My job role is a food server to give guests a great dining experience. I take their orders, receive payment, get them drinks, and make sure they have everything to enjoy their meal.”
BC: What are the top three challenges of your job and how do you deal with them?”
Server: “(laughs) Just three? No, I’m kidding, serving is a hard job and it is not for everyone. I think the biggest challenges are guests not understanding they are not your only table and sharing six computer-ordering systems between around 19 people and two managers. Another would be guests stealing our pens when they have to sign their receipt! (laughing) We only have so many pens for that night and when people take them we end up in a predicament.”
BC: “So how do you deal with all this?”
Server: “Go outside and take a deep breath! No, but it does really make the job difficult and luckily once you do it for so long, you kind of expect these challenges. I mean, it’s sad we have to get used to being frustrated at our job. One night you feel like breaking down and crying and the next you have amazing guests that are wonderful and tip very well. That is when you realize that everyone is different. I had two little girls that were celebrating their birthday and I guess they loved my service so much, they drew me a picture and thanked me. I almost cried when they gave me those notes.”
BC: “So how do you think you help the business grow?”
Server: “Well as a server, we want to give amazing service so that guests will want to come back again. Our job is to create what we call “regulars”, which are the same people that come in every week or so. Then those guests tell their friends and they tell their friends which brings in revenue.”
BC: “What do you think customers take for granted?”
Server: “I think they take servers and what we do for granted. Without us, getting served and having a nice relaxing meal would not exist. I’m not saying every customer is like that, but I can tell who the people are that think we are their servants and it shouldn’t be like that at all.”
BC: “What do you think are the top two things management could do to improve a server’s life?”
Server: “One would defiantly be making sure everyone is doing their job to make things run smoothly because if one person is just hanging out, the whole place goes down in flames. Our managers are pretty great but another thing I could see happening elsewhere is not having supportive managers. We sometimes have the rudest guests that will cuss us out and sometimes make us cry. Our managers will stick up for us and take over that table so we don’t have to.”
BC: “So what if budget were not an issue, what two would you want to perform your job better?”
Server: “iPads to take orders! It is so difficult waiting on a computer because there are only six that 20 people have to share. I guess another thing would be to hire people to do the little things that take up time for us that way we wouldn’t have to rush with our guests.”
BC: “Last question. How does your contribution make a difference in the restaurant?”
Server: “I believe my positive attitude is what stands out and makes a difference. They call me smiles at work cause apparently I am always smiling (laughs) but I like to keep things light and help people out if I have time. Nothing is worse when you are working in a negative environment where you can’t have fun.”
Here are two tips you, as a customer, can follow to ensure great service:
- When servers come up to your table for the first time, do not just tell them your drink order. Listen to what they are about to say.
- When your server is taking your order pay attention to them and do not have a conversation instead. The server feels awkward standing there smiling.
Baker Creative found out some interesting things about being a server and hopefully you did too!
