Episode 43: Strategic Serving - Making More Money as a Waiter

In this episode of the Ranch and Table Podcast, host Lee Wells discusses strategies for improving service in the restaurant industry, specifically aimed at waitstaff. Wells shares a viral story about a 'do better' note left on a dining receipt and how the waiter embraced it as a challenge to improve performance, which led to increased tips and job satisfaction. The episode covers five key points: seeing customers as human beings, maintaining a positive attitude, fostering a team environment, paying attention to professional behavior, and treating others as one would like to be treated. Throughout the episode, Wells emphasizes that better service will result in better tips and overall job success. The podcast also highlights tips on how to deal with difficult situations and ways to enhance customer relationships.

Transcript

 Welcome to the Ranch and Table Podcast, where we discuss all things related to our Texas Ranch and our ranch to table restaurant located in downtown Rockwall. I'm your host, Lee Wells. Welcome back to another episode of the Ranch and Table Podcast. I'm Lee Wells, so good to be here. Thank you for taking the time to be with me today.

I really appreciate you and look forward to getting into. Another business topic today. This one's a little different. I'm gonna approach this podcast just a little different than normal, and I'll tell you all about that. Just a minute. Today's episodes brought to you by Wells Cattle Company. We have two locations, one in downtown Rockwall, one in downtown cattle mills.

And we'd love for you to come by. In Rockwall, it's a sit down restaurant in cattle mills. Currently it's a truck and so come by and grab some of that Wells Ranch Beef Burger. And better Beef makes better burgers. So you'll see come see us. Today I want to talk to you about a subject, oh, I'll just jump into it.

I'm gonna call it strategic servers. And this week a post has been virally circulated on social media, and I posted it on my Facebook. You can go look at it if you'd like. And you may have seen this post, but it was a dining receipt that on the tip line said, do better. And. That's a startling, rude thing to do.

I'm not condoning that. Please understand where I'm coming from. I wouldn't want anyone to treat my folks at my place that way. I would never treat someone that way who had waited on me, but the story turned out really well. And the story goes that. After this person got upset, they started thinking about it and they didn't know if it was a push to do better or a dig against what they had done, but either way, they took it as a challenge.

And the challenge was I'm gonna do better and see what happens. They said in the story that they were an adequate waiter. They greeted 'em, they took their order, they made sure the food was right. They came back and checked on 'em twice. They did the textbook things, but they just barely met criteria.

And this person was pushing them to, the way they took it, pushing them to, to do a better job and see more reward. They took 'em up on it and the writer of this post who got that receipt said they started really doing. A lot better. They paid attention to some various things they started doing better at, at some, basic kinds of things.

But really they said they saw their tips go up when they tried a little harder. They ended up trying to remember names and preferences and getting their customers requesting their. Their area and then the boss paid attention to this, gave 'em better ships, and ends up they made more money when they did better.

I know we live in a world right now where nobody wants to be told what to do especially young people, but nobody wants to be told what to do. No one wants to be corrected. No one, even for their own good. It seems like there's a big percentage of people who are just not interested in hearing it.

And this person, it really resonated with me because they took it the very best way possible. And they saw the payoff, they saw the reason that they were pushed to do better and they did. And I think that we all, whether. The mechanism is hopefully not rude, but some mechanism causes us to do better in what we do.

And so today I'm gonna talk to servers. Now this is applicable in every walk of life and everything we do, but I'm gonna talk specifically to servers wait staff. And I want to talk to you from my heart and from my perspective as a person who has eaten out. Way more than most people.

I we still eat out more than we eat at home on any given week, and I know it's not good. Whatever. It's a life that I live and it's been that way for a lot of years. So I have eaten out a lot. I've sat and been served by thousands of people. I. I had been in the nicest restaurants in the country.

I used to travel full time for seven years. I traveled across the country and back and forth, and I've been taken to the nicest places in the biggest cities. I've been to the best hole in the wall, mom and pop places. And I've been to all the average places more times than I can count. And the one thing they all have in common is they all have someone serving the table.

They have someone waiting. On you bringing drinks, bringing food, taking orders, all of that. I'm gonna sit as the customer on this, not the business owner for a minute, and I'm just gonna talk to you about what would potentially increase your value and increase your take home pay. And I'm gonna say this again in the end, but if you know someone that's a server, if you have a son or a daughter that's going to college and serving, or someone that you know, that's a server, a nice restaurant, not so nice restaurant, whatever send this to 'em.

See what they think about it and see if they do these things. If it doesn't put more money in their pocket every day. As I traveled, I have paid attention to this. I have studied this. I. Pretty much my whole adult life and I've been waited on by the best of the best people that I didn't feel like I had enough money to tip 'em.

They just were worth more than a percentage. They were just, it was mind blowing how great they were. And then I've been waited on some folks that shouldn't be in the serving business. They should not be a server at all. So both extremes and then of course, a lot in the middle. And so I've been thinking about this week and I thought.

If I could give some experience words of experience to people who are in the trenches and doing this, what would I tell 'em? How would I go about this? And first and foremost, I want these folks and people listening who are not wait. Staff. I want you to understand first and foremost that servers really work for themselves.

I know they work, they're employed by a restaurant, but. They really work for themselves. Their tips are equal to the bulk of their take home pay, and they are largely, almost a hundred percent exclusively responsible for their own success. I know you've got larger tips on at stake houses, or nicer, finer restaurants, seafood house, or, I understand that diners might be a smaller check.

But this fact still remains that person is more responsible for their outcome and their take home than anybody else in the equation. The restaurant's gonna pay 'em $2 and some cents or whatever it is, they're gonna, have to share with the bar. And it is the equations are there, but the real difference maker is the person.

Who is doing the work in this case. And I believe that waitstaff, regardless of what size tips or I'm sorry, what size checks they're serving, they're responsible for how much money they bring home. And so there are contributing factors larger. Factors are what I mentioned a while ago. A nice steakhouse.

Well, a nice steakhouse is usually only open for the evening. So if you were working at a diner, you are working more hours somewhere else. You would have equal opportunity to do just as well over the more hours that you work. If you're really doing a great job and you're an exceptional person of your craft, you're going to bring home more money than if you.

Perhaps don't do these things. And so I think it's worth talking about it. And here we go. Here's some thoughts on ways servers can maximize their value and therefore maximize their take home pay. Number one, I think this is number one on purpose number one, and if you've listened to my podcast before, you'll know where I'm going with this.

But number one, you have to see the customer over the mechanics. When you wait a table, when you walk up and you are gonna do business with that person for the next 30 minutes or an hour, you are going to make sure and meet their needs to the point where they're going to choose how much money they're going to give you for the services that you rendered.

It's very subjective but if you could see them as a customer first, see them as a person. Of course you have to know the mechanics, you have to know the menu, you have to know the drink options, you have to know the specials. But those aren't something, just for the fact of knowing them and saying, I checked off the boxes and I know my job.

Those, that information to be able to help that customer the best, the fastest, the most efficiently. And so when a customer is asking, ah, I had something here before and it had bacon and green chilies on it, and you can say it's this. You know the menu, not just so you can say, the menu, you know the menu so well, to be able to help that customer get to the answer that they're looking for and give them exactly what they're hungry for.

And so right off the bat, yeah, you know your mechanics, but you know 'em for the right reasons. And that is, that as a human being, a customer or someone that you want to serve and make happy. Number second part of this is when you look at your guest as guest and not just a means to an end, which would be money here, we know that end is there.

Everyone is aware that there's a tip expected at the end of the service. But when you look at them as a person, you get to know their name, you get to know the kids. Even if you don't, you can at least interact with their kids. You can be friendly to their kids. You can compliment the wife. You could do some things that are personable and real, and it's not just about them being your tip or your car payment or your internet bill or your phone bill, but they are the people.

That they are. And when you acknowledge that they are people, when you acknowledge that they are human beings that have feelings that are there to have a good time, it just changes the whole dynamic in a way that you're going to be setting the right precedent and on the right foot from the very beginning.

When you look at guests as people and I would say look 'em in the eye. Have a real conversation. Try to make a real connection with people, even if it's a brief connection. Even you don't have time for a five minute conversation. You can do if you're, if you can work on this skill, you can do some.

Amazing, magical things in just a few seconds. When you walk up, if you're genuine, your smile is real. You're truly appreciative and grateful that they're there. All of those things will be felt. All of those things will be realized in an instant, and when you're good at that, it helps bring about a larger percentage tip at the end of the day, at the end of the service, when you look 'em in the eye and you care when an order.

It's taken longer than usual. Be courteous and thoughtful, mindful enough to go by that table and tell 'em, Hey, I know it's taken a little longer. I. The kitchen's backed up. We've got a lot going on. They dropped a plate of food while ago, whatever it is. When you care enough to relieve that pressure in that customer's mind, because obviously the pressure's building in them, they're hungry, they're waiting a long time, rather than just staying in the back and ignoring it, man up as we would say, or woman up and go deal with it and make it.

A lighthearted moment. Try to make it into a I care moment rather than I'm gonna hide from this moment and those things will help you. Those kinds of things make you a professional. I. And not an amateur when it comes to doing the job that you're supposed to be being paid to do. And then another thing to think about is try to get to know their names, try to get to know their preferences.

Try to remember who they are. I'm horrible at names. I'm honest about that with everybody. I'm like, man, I've seen you for four years or six years, or I know you've been coming in here. I am horrible at names. I have tried to remember names. My brain doesn't like, I don't know the tricks or something. I don't know the filing systems or something of remembering all the names of people that I know and I'm sorry, but I know you, I appreciate you.

It's good to see you. You can do a lot of faking. And it is not faking necessarily. You can do a lot of maneuvering around not knowing someone's name and still knowing them and knowing that you know them and they know who you are. And recognizing people is very powerful on getting down the road ways on this service thing.

Try to know their preferences, if they're a sweet tea drinker, if they're a, if they're a diet Coke person or a Coke Zero person, if you can remember those kinds of things. I went to breakfast this morning and the lady that was doing my order said, oh, and you like your chorizo on the side?

And I'm like, yes, I do that. That was. I wasn't even tipping her, but it was amazing that the girl behind the counter remembered that's how I liked my chorizo in the morning at this restaurant. It was very cool just to be recognized like that. It builds that connection of value whenever you do those kinds of things.

And here's the most important thing I'll say about this first bullet point. Get comfortable making conversation. I don't care how you do it, I don't care. I. What method you use. I don't care where you go learn it. A lot of times, practice is the only way to do it. Get comfortable making conversation with strangers.

Just figure out how it works for you and don't make it awkward. Try to make comfortable conversation with people. It will get you farther down the road. If you'll do those things. Secondly, and this is a huge, this is a huge thing. Point number two, huge. Be happy to be there, even if it's the fakest smile you can make.

Don't be sour, don't be negative. Don't be a downer. Look, someone's chose to come to your restaurant. They've come sat at your seat, whether they meant to or not. They're there. They're gonna spend money. They're hungry, they're looking for a good experience, they're looking for a good time, and nothing kills a dining experience like when the wait staff is in a sour mood.

I don't care if you're faking it, fake it better, and don't bring your mood if it's a downer into the conversation and into that table. Mood is contagious. It's just like a yawn. It's contagious. You see someone else frowning and running down some, all of a sudden now you're not having a great time either.

You're so busy and so stressed, and you're looking around. Your eyes are darting around because you got 70 things to do. You're not getting anywhere with that customer. You're not they know you're frazzled. They know you're barely hanging on. If you can train yourself to calm down. Pay attention. Be happy to be in that moment with them.

Your tips will go up, your value will go up. You will become requested by this person and these tables as they get to know you. Nobody cares, and I know this is gonna sound really harsh, but nobody cares if you stayed out too late last night and you're tired. Nobody cares. They didn't, they don't care what you did in your spare time.

Don't bring that into the conversation, into the equation unless they bring it up. What'd you do last night? Oh, I stayed out too late. You got a smile on your face. I'm bring the orange juice or whatever. If we can get to the place where our mood doesn't affect. The person that we're serving, it's going to re result in more money in your pocket.

You'll become more highly compensated for your job if you can keep your personal mood. If it's a negative out of it, nobody really cares. I'm just telling you, nobody cares. Be a professional when you're working and you'll ex be expected to be compensated as a professional. As you continue working. Number three.

Now this is one that has to do with culture and you may not be able to fix this by yourself or fix it overnight, but this is one of the most important things. When I go out to eat, I love to see this. I loathe seeing it not happen, and that is number three is be a team. This is something I see less and less of.

We really should see more and more of it, but I see less and less of restaurants operating with a team concept. What I mean by a team concept is you're not just focused on your section. I. Then you put on blinders when you walk by everybody else's table as if they're not sitting there shaking an empty glass of tea at you while you have a tea picture in your hand and you just scurry by them because they're not your section.

Who cares if your section or not? You got tea in your hand? Give it some. Give them some tea. This is the restaurant owned by one guy or one group. There to serve everyone. You should be serving everyone. You should be doing what you can do for everyone. If you see someone looking around and they're missing stuff or they're, their t glasses are empty or whatever, and you walk by them a couple times and you notice they've been looking around, stop and ask them, what can I do to help you?

What could, what do you need? What can I do? How can I help you? I noticed that you're, are you missing anything? Can I get your waiter for you? Can I, what can I do for you? Caring about people that are outside of your section when they're in need. It's one of the most powerful things you can do for the establishment, for the people you're working with.

And if that person that you're helping at that table can realize that you're helping 'em out, they're gonna help you out. If you're at all good people working together, you're going to have a better atmosphere if you'll help each other. If it doesn't take that much extra time to stop by and fill up another tea on the way by.

I know you got stuff to do. But there's a reason why that other person hasn't been by with the t Help 'em out and the whole team will do better together, and the whole team will make more money if you'll find a way to work together like that. We need more of it. We need more team efforts when it comes to working together in the restaurant.

I hate that tunnel vision that people put on and they won't look up and they won't. They know you need something, but they won't look at you when they walk by because you're not their table. That's stupid. I'm sorry that, that's just completely silly to think like that. Everyone sitting in that restaurant deserves the best service from everybody working there, regardless of who section someone's in.

I'm an owner and if I see someone needing something, I don't have to wait for a server or one of my other guys to come by. I'm gonna jump right in there and grab 'em a napkin. I'm gonna grab 'em a fork. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring them their dessert. I'm gonna do whatever I can do. And so should everyone else working in an establishment, you should be working as a team.

And if you're not, you need to go to your management and you need to say, we need to work as a team. And here's how I, here's how I wanna step up and here's how I think everyone should work together. And for your environment, you should put together a team. Everyone wins when everyone plays as a team.

You'll all do better. I promise you. I promise you, you'll all do better. You'll get bigger tips if people see you working together than if you're not doing that. Number four. Number four, I only have five. So number four, be careful with how you do your job.

Lemme give you a couple examples. Don't touch the top of the glass that someone's about to drink out of with your fingers. Don't set a glass down like this where you touch, where everyone's gonna be putting their mouth. Don't set water down and glasses down by the top like that. Do a, be a professional.

Be careful how you do your job. Do your job well. Don't ask people to hand stuff down for you. Hey, can you hand this water down to them? Can you hand this walk around behind the person and hand it down there to 'em yourself? I know that sounds nitpicky, but I promise you, if you'll come off and be a professional in how you do things, if you will do things very well, your pay will come up to the standard that you're working at.

I'm telling you the truth. Now, here's another thing that I don't like. I want people to do better at this. When I get a, I drink Coke, zero Diet, Dr. Pepper and those carbonated drinks like that, when I drink those don't bring a glass. Of Dr. Pepper from the fountain and top off the glass with a glass.

Don't do that. Lemme tell you why, because that's a carbonated drink. You I don't drink beer. But you wouldn't do that with a beer because the carbonation is so critical when you put that glass against the machine and you fill that glass up. With Dr. Pepper, whatever, Coke, whatever it is, it has a certain amount of fizz, certain amount of CO2 that creates the blend of the flavor of what that customer's wanting.

When you take that, then walk across the restaurant and pour it over the ice and the, and into the glass of existing Coke or whatever, or the empty glass, what you're doing is you're opening up that carbonation again, and you're flattening that drink. So whenever, when it's completely different.

You're moving it twice, you're moving it outta machine, into the cup, carrying it across, the bubbles settle, and then you're reactivating it again and you're pouring it over the ice, and that drink is half as flat as what it would've been had it been taken straight out of the machine and served to you.

It's lazy as well. You don't wanna make a trip down and back. You just wanna make a trip one di one time. It really doesn't matter. You're gonna go down and back anyway. It's just backwards. It's in reverse. I could show you on a piece of paper you're taking the same number of steps, but here's the point that I'm trying to make.

When you do it that way, you are diminishing the value of that drink. It sounds picky. I promise you people notice those things, and I promise you those things will hold you back from doing better and reaching higher. Whenever I see people throw things, wait, staff throw things or just, release it to the table it doesn't feel right to me.

I was, we were, my wife and I were at dinner the other night, pretty nice place. And we both had unsweet tea and we drink our unsweet tea with Splenda sweetener. The little container that they had on the table had, I don't know, four, five packets in it when we started. And it wasn't full of just Splenda.

It had other stuff, sugar and sweet and low and stuff that we don't drink. And we both had gotten a refill and we were out of Splenda on the little serving box that was on the table, and so my wife said, could we get a or I did. I don't remember. She brought us a refill of tea and I said, could we get some more Splenda?

We've run out. I. The, what I would prefer someone do is maybe reach behind on the table behind and swap that out, or take it away and bring it back. But you know what, I'm not too picky. You can just bring me some Splenda and, set it down if you want to. What she did though is she got a handful of Splenda packets and she released them onto the table between us and they spread out across the table.

And we didn't, I didn't say anything to her. She went on, she was busy, I don't know. And I told my wife, I said that was, that's a little strange. And she's that was rude. Is what my wife said. I said, just grab the one off the other table and set it over here or go to the back and fill it, refill it, or just set a few down on the edge of the table.

But the way she released, like she threw those. It was it conveyed to us that we had become a bother to her or we were asking for something that, and maybe it wasn't. That wasn't her intent at all. That's the way it came across. And so you have to be careful when here's my point. This is what I want you to understand.

When someone's sitting there relaxing, enjoying their dinner, they're in a different place. They're in a relaxed, calm place. And you're running like, as a wait staff you're hyped up, you're revved up, you're stretched thin. It's dinner time. You've got multiple tables, you got things in your head, and if you're not careful, you will let that energy out in ways that are sporadic and rough on the table.

And what I try to teach my guys is, Hey, take a step back. Breathe a little bit. When you approach that table, calm down. Don't come in there at a dead run, sweating and realize that the people that are sitting there are relaxed, having a great time. They're talking, they're in conversation. They are not working.

You're working. They're not working. Don't bring that work. Hustle as in throwing and. Slamming stuff at the table where they're calm, eating a nice dinner. And so we have to be careful to, to how we handle the customer because we're in two different places at the same time. We're in two different mindsets at the same time.

A, a server is hustling, they're pushing, they're working. They got a lot on their mind. The person eating dinner is relaxed and enjoying themselves. And so make that transition before you approach that table and calm, calm your brain, calm yourself, calm your conversation, quiet your voice, whatever it takes and try to transition into.

A, a place that is compatible with where that person eating dinner is at. And that's going to create a better relationship, a better tip. It's gonna be better overall when you become better at your craft. And finally, number five. This is a very easy one. This is the most important one, and that is the golden rule.

And that's the simple fact that you just need to treat people the way you would like to be treated. If you were sitting down having dinner and you know what how would you like to be treated? Do that however you would like to be treated. Sitting there with your date, with your spouse, enjoying dinner.

Do that. Do those things show that compassion, that care, that gratitude that level of work ethic, just as you would receive that and want to tip well for someone in taking care of your table, take care of their table in that same way. And when I first opened our first restaurant I was new to, it was my first restaurant to ever own.

I was green. I didn't know what I was doing and I told everybody that, but I had one goal, and my goal was if I could treat people and give the people the service that I expected when I sat down to eat somewhere, if I could do that for people who sat down in my restaurant, we could make it. We would be successful.

And that has been my guiding light since day one for my restaurant, is I want people to be treated as I wanna be treated. I want the golden rule in our service, and we now have been. For years known as one of the most hospitable, service oriented kind, nice places to eat where people really care.

Over the last several years, we've become known for that kind of service. And it came from that golden rule idea, which is to treat people the way you want to be treated. That's what you do. That's how you do it. And if we stop and think on the way to the table. How you would want that interaction to go do it that way and appreciate them and they will appreciate you.

Again, I'd love for you to send this to a friend that's in the serving service business because I would love for them to see maybe some of these things make sense in a way that maybe they hadn't thought about and really transform how. Their response how they're responded to, and the response that they're given to the customer and how that interaction works.

And I really do believe that if we do these things I. With this kind of an attitude, we can really see the benefits of that. And the benefits are that people are going to pay more. They're gonna tip more. They're going to appreciate you more. They're going to ask for you more. They're going to enjoy their dinner there more, which means they're gonna come back more often.

There's just gonna, it's just gonna be a. A wave over wave of good that comes from when people start doing these kinds of things on a regular basis. And of course you'll make more money when all that happens. Most people want to tip big. That's why they go out to a nice restaurant, they go out to eat.

They want to tip, I, I want to tip big. Everywhere I go, I want to at least give a 20% tip. That's my goal. I want to at least give a 20% tip. If somebody comes and they blow us away and they're just amazing I'm gonna give them more than 20%. But the same is true. That fluctuation to the positive.

It can also go the other way. And that 20% can become 15% if they're not doing a good job. And then there's even times where, and you can cry and whine and moan all you want about this, but there are some times where people are so bad, they are so bad that they get a 10% tip from me. If anybody ever receives a 10% tip.

From me, they probably need to reconsider their career choice because they have done such a poor job at I've had to get up and get my own refills, or I've had to go ask for. Where's somebody at? Or, and this happens and I promise you, I'm not gonna reward bad behavior. I think that's bad stewardship.

I'll give them something. I know that they're working and I know they have bills to pay. I don't want to, I'm not gonna write something smart Eck on a check. I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna give them something. But I, if you ever are waiting on me. And you can judge that service based on that tip. And that's exactly the way tip structure is built and intended to work.

It is supposed to be subjective. Good. I. To the positive and even to the bad, to the negative. And when we do it right, people learn or they should. I even made the statement on social media this week, if you're consistently getting baseline tips, you really need to improve your work. You need to look at ways to improve how you're doing your craft.

Because if you're not consistently getting 20% plus tips, you're not, you're probably not doing a, a. Just a bang up job. You're probably just checking the boxes and you're probably just taking the order, bringing the food, bringing refills, and bringing a check and it's so much more than that. The experience has to be so much better than that.

And if you'll put the little bit of effort in, you'll see that what I'm telling you is true and we will reward you for. The better service with more money. That's just the, that's the only variable we have to reward or not with, is the money that we give. And you know what if I miss some thoughts on this, let me know.

Email me shoot me a note, make a comment on the YouTube video, however you want to do it. I'm open to discussion. I certainly don't have all the answers. I just sat down and started thinking about this week, how can I help? People who are frustrated in the service business. 'cause I see it all the time.

My daughter's a server and there's very often they don't get a tip at all. Or my son waits tables and he, surprised at the number of times, he just barely gets anything. I'm not saying that people aren't jerks and people aren't cheap. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying if that's your consistent level, then you need to probably be.

Self-reflective for a little while and really start pushing your craft and start pushing people to the place where they can't do that to you. They have to give you a big tip. And and I think it will work just like that. They'll always have jerks in the world. They'll always be somebody that's cheap.

I could get into that. That'll, that's a whole nother, that's a whole nother podcast. I won't do it today. But but I believe people want to reward the bulk and the great majority of people want to reward people who are working hard. And America knows that tips are the wages of servers. 90, probably 90% of people know that.

There are some guys out there, I'm not sure what they know, but most people realize, especially if you go to a nicer restaurant. That's how they make their living. And that's on me to help make that happen. So it's a responsibility the diner has the person dining has as well. Anyway, that's all I wanna say about that.

I hope it helps somebody. This episode of the Ranch and Table's been brought to you by Wells Cattle Company, burgers and pies, and Wells Burgers, expressing cattle mills. Come on by, come see us. We'll make you the best burger we can. And if we don't, if it's not, you come back and tell me. If it's not right, if the fries aren't right, if something's not right, you come back and let me know.

I'll make you another one. And and any of my staff will. So don't jump out there and bad review us just off the bat. Let us make it right. If there's a mistake that's made, we're happy to fix it. Keep coming to seeing us. We appreciate you. I'm Lee Wells on the Ranch and Table podcast.

Until next time. We say adios. Farewell. Goodbye. Good luck so long.