10 Mistakes Your Servers Shouldn’t Make (1 through 5)

Here is a list of the first 5 (out of 10) most annoying server errors as related by diners who have suffered through them. Most of these mistakes are caused by a lack of attention and most have easy fixes, but you be the judge.

1. Servers with boundary issues
These come in many variations, but include:

• Servers interrupting the diners’ conversation, introducing themselves, chatting, constantly asking if the diners are OK
• Servers that touch diners, by for instance, casually putting their hand on a diner’s shoulder 
• Servers putting their hand or finger too close to the plate or food as the server describes the dish.

The Cure: According to Alex Susskind, professor of food and beverage management at Cornell, The server has to figure out what the guest wants [in terms of interaction with the server], and in any case, “Never interrupt a guest. There’s nothing you have to do as a server that’s more important than a guest’s experience.”

2. The missing waiter
The waiter that fails to materialize. The host or hostess shows you to your seat, and then – nothing. If you’re lucky, you already have a menu. But sometimes you’re left stranded for five or 10 minutes before being greeted. Diners search the room futilely for the AWOL waiter when they’re ready to order, when the steak’s overcooked, when wine glasses are empty and the bottle’s been set out of reach, when more bread is required.

The Cure: This is a management issue. The manager needs to make sure the restaurant is properly staffed, that each server isn’t responsible for too many tables, and the manager needs to be on the floor surveying the scene. If a table needs attention, the manager can make sure the server gets to it.

3. The waiter who doesn’t know how to handle mistakes or problems
The clumsy or inadequate handling of mistakes got under the skin of many diners: servers who don’t know when a problem requires the attention of a manager, servers who don’t apologize for mistakes they’ve made or who don’t ask whether there was a problem when you left most of the food on your plate. “Don’t make me ask for the manager after determining that the black speck in my wife’s wine is moving on its own and is a live insect,” commented one diner.

The Cure: It’s the server’s responsibility to make sure diners are enjoying the experience. Are they pushing the food around their plates? Find out what’s wrong, beyond just asking generically, “How is everything tonight?” And then make it right. Not cooked properly? Take it back to the kitchen. Did the guests suffer crazy-long waits for their food? Comp a dessert or two. Not sure how to handle it? Get the manager.

4. The unduly delayed check
Dinner has gone swimmingly, with great food and wonderful service. But now you can’t get your check. You’ve been there, right? More than a few diners have.

The Cure: “There are two things that management and staff have direct control over that will always help the guest’s experience,” says Susskind. “The beginning of the meal and the end of the meal. You can never get a guest seated too quickly, and you can never get a guest the check and get them closed out quick enough.” Just do it.

5. The hard-sell
Whether it’s a server overselling the side dishes to the point that you wind up with a table full of food you can’t eat, or suggesting a wine that’s twice the price of the one the restaurant has run out of, readers resent the hard-sell. “I never return to a restaurant when, after dinner, I feel like I have been victimized by a huckster,” wrote one diner. Still, part of a server’s job is to sell the restaurant’s dishes and wines. How to find a balance?

The Cure: Servers should suggest side dishes or wines they honestly think will enhance the guests’ meal. Don’t push the side order of roast potatoes if French fries come with the main course. If a diner asks about a $50 bottle of wine, and you have an even better one for $40, suggest that; the diner will appreciate it and may well leave a more generous tip. The corollary is knowing the menu and wine list. If you can describe the way something is cooked and make it sound as good as it probably is, or know the relative bargains on the wine list, that’s a much easier sell.

In our next blog post, we’ll detail annoying server mistakes 6 through 10.

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Thanks to Leslie Brenner of the Dallas Morning News for many of these server mistakes.