This whole video was from your perspective and clearly you haven't worked waiting tables in today's world. Here's one idea, "Just to get you thinking." Take the time to ask for the manager and ask that person why your server didn't seem to have the proper support they needed? Not once did you mention management or leadership accountability...which is all anyone watching this video needs to know. How do you know that this server isn't the best tenured employee in the place and had to endure months or years of terrible supporting teamwork from her co-workers because her leadership hasn't properly addressed the other employees? Did you consider that perhaps she had a number of customers who were less understanding than you that night or that week and she was now primed to play defense? I have meals ruined equally by bad customers as much as bad customer service. Maybe she was simply a complainer but you shot this video 100% from your perspective without referencing a management solution. This leads me to believe you MIGHT either be in a leadership role or, even worse, you are hired to come into companies and give seminars to parrot corporate ideologies with that are one size fits all approach without ever spending a full week or month immersed in the corporate culture. Should she not have complained in front of you? Sure. Is this a symptom of the job environment where 30-40% of the employees do 100% of the effective work that makes a company run because leadership fails them....absolutely. You are addressing the symptom, not the root cause. Personally, I look for excellent customer service all the time and grossly overcompensate for it and I make sure as many of their fellow employees see it. I also never provide feedback (both good and bad) to the server, I ask for the manager and give the feedback. In the scenario you described, I would have took the human approach, probed the server about their day to see if she was a complainer or a critical contributor being pushed to her limit and tipped her accordingly. I believe in actions, not words, lectures, or videos.
"Should she not have complained in front of you? Sure." She shouldn't have complained if she BROUGHT it to the customers. She's NOT BLIND NOR ILLITERATE to not notice side dishes are not correct. This wasn't another server that brought the food out, this was the waitress that took the order. "I would have took the human approach, probed the server about their day to see if she was a complainer or a critical contributor being pushed to her limit and tipped her accordingly." I would not have tipped anything since she LIED about who was at fault. If you bring out of your own kitchen a wrong side dish, you wouldn't blame yourself? I mean you aren't blind, right?? Good servers don't bring out wrong food without at least TRYING to compare their written orders with the plates of food to make sure COMPONENT A, B, C, etc. is correct on each plate ***BEFORE*** leaving the kitchen. If something is wrong, your server should **CARE** to check the food for DUH OBVIOUS to the eyes mistakes. If something is wrong, she should have taken 100% **FULL BLAME** since it was **HER** that DECIDED to not check it since more than one side dish was wrong, there was NO WAY she checked anything. She's not a caring human being. Someone that cares actually takes that extra 10-20 SECONDS to check the plates for OBVIOUS errors. You can notice an error like that in under 10 seconds honestly.
Keep up these really useful videos ✨️
Thank you I will!
This whole video was from your perspective and clearly you haven't worked waiting tables in today's world. Here's one idea, "Just to get you thinking." Take the time to ask for the manager and ask that person why your server didn't seem to have the proper support they needed? Not once did you mention management or leadership accountability...which is all anyone watching this video needs to know. How do you know that this server isn't the best tenured employee in the place and had to endure months or years of terrible supporting teamwork from her co-workers because her leadership hasn't properly addressed the other employees? Did you consider that perhaps she had a number of customers who were less understanding than you that night or that week and she was now primed to play defense? I have meals ruined equally by bad customers as much as bad customer service. Maybe she was simply a complainer but you shot this video 100% from your perspective without referencing a management solution. This leads me to believe you MIGHT either be in a leadership role or, even worse, you are hired to come into companies and give seminars to parrot corporate ideologies with that are one size fits all approach without ever spending a full week or month immersed in the corporate culture. Should she not have complained in front of you? Sure. Is this a symptom of the job environment where 30-40% of the employees do 100% of the effective work that makes a company run because leadership fails them....absolutely. You are addressing the symptom, not the root cause. Personally, I look for excellent customer service all the time and grossly overcompensate for it and I make sure as many of their fellow employees see it. I also never provide feedback (both good and bad) to the server, I ask for the manager and give the feedback. In the scenario you described, I would have took the human approach, probed the server about their day to see if she was a complainer or a critical contributor being pushed to her limit and tipped her accordingly. I believe in actions, not words, lectures, or videos.
"Should she not have complained in front of you? Sure."
She shouldn't have complained if she BROUGHT it to the customers. She's NOT BLIND NOR ILLITERATE to not notice side dishes are not correct. This wasn't another server that brought the food out, this was the waitress that took the order.
"I would have took the human approach, probed the server about their day to see if she was a complainer or a critical contributor being pushed to her limit and tipped her accordingly."
I would not have tipped anything since she LIED about who was at fault. If you bring out of your own kitchen a wrong side dish, you wouldn't blame yourself? I mean you aren't blind, right??
Good servers don't bring out wrong food without at least TRYING to compare their written orders with the plates of food to make sure COMPONENT A, B, C, etc. is correct on each plate ***BEFORE*** leaving the kitchen. If something is wrong, your server should **CARE** to check the food for DUH OBVIOUS to the eyes mistakes. If something is wrong, she should have taken 100% **FULL BLAME** since it was **HER** that DECIDED to not check it since more than one side dish was wrong, there was NO WAY she checked anything. She's not a caring human being. Someone that cares actually takes that extra 10-20 SECONDS to check the plates for OBVIOUS errors. You can notice an error like that in under 10 seconds honestly.