Here is a list of the second 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.

6. Inappropriate pacing of the meal
Diners don’t like to feel rushed, nor do they want to have to wait too long between courses. Even if the server nails the beginning and end of the meal (getting customers seated quickly, making sure they have a drink, getting them the check as soon as the customer’s ready for it), pacing the meal in between those two endpoints is much trickier.

The cure: Servers should watch their tables and try to estimate when diners will be finished with a course to know when to fire the next one. One server at an upscale restaurant says that four or five minutes before diners are finished with their appetizers, she’ll tell the kitchen to fire the main course. How does the server know? The server watches the tables closely. Paying close attention is key to providing good service in general.

7. Sweeping, wiping, clearing dishes
A number of readers objected to bus boys or servers who sweep the floor while guests are dining, who wipe the table with the same cloth used to wipe the chair, who generally disregard hygiene or noisily drop dirty dishes into bins within diners’ earshot.

The cure: Offending bus boys and servers, clean up your act.

8. Tip games
“Do you need change?” This is a question that irked a number ofdiners. The server who rounds up change from a cash tip in his own favor, or who brings the change in big bills in the effort to land a bigger tip also fared poorly.

The cure: Just bring the change, even if you’re not sure it’s necessary. If some smaller bills are needed for the diner to leave a 20 percent tip, then by all means, include some smaller bills.

9. Untimely dish removal
Diners don’t seem to appreciate it when a server begins removing plates before everyone at the table has finished the course. The person still eating feels rushed, and the person whose plate is cleared before everyone else feels like they ate too fast. On the other hand, some diners are bothered when the servers don’t pre-bus or remove some of the dirty, used plates, bowls, etc. from the table because they clutter the table and are unappetizing-looking. So what to do?

As it turns out, it depends on the type of restaurant and on the specific policy of the management. “Some restaurants allow servers to clear plates before everyone’s done,” explains Susskind, and it’s usually the casual spots. In more upscale establishments, he says, “The standard is you don’t clear till everyone’s done.”

The cure: At one fine dining establishment, a server came up with a smart solution. “Normally I don’t clear plates until everyone has finished,” she said, when one of the diners had finished his soup. “But perhaps you’d like me to take this now?” Problem solved, though it was a mouthful for a busy server.

10. The errant wine pour
A server pours the wine all around the table, overfilling the glasses, and comes up empty before getting to the last guest. “Another bottle?” he asks perkily. It may or may not be an honest mistake, but it’s a mistake nonetheless, and in any case it can leave the diner feeling had. Of course, you have to spring for that second bottle.

The cure: This one’s easy. “You’ve got to do the math,” says Michael Flynn, a wine and beverage director at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. A bottle has 25.4 ounces, “so you do some quick division. You have to make sure you’re pouring the same amount in everyone’s glass, no matter how small that portion may be.” And if it’s just three diners, and you’re on the second round of pours? If someone hasn’t been sipping, don’t top off their glass.

Turns out it’s just like most other points of service. “You have to keep an eye on them,” says Flynn. “It’s actually being involved in service, in serving people as they need it.”

If you are a restaurateur thinking about increasing marketing, making capital expenditures, or otherwise investing in your business and looking for a restaurant loan, try Advance Restaurant Finance, LLC (ARF). ARF has been making short term business loans to restaurants for almost a decade. Despite the economy, ARF never stopped making business loans to restaurants, and ARF makes restaurant loans up to $1,000,000 per location. If you are looking for a restaurant loan, ARF is one of the first calls you should make.

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

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.

If you are a restaurateur thinking about increasing marketing, making capital expenditures, or otherwise investing in your business and looking for a restaurant loan, try Advance Restaurant Finance, LLC (ARF). ARF has been making short term business loans to restaurants for almost a decade. Despite the economy, ARF never stopped making business loans to restaurants, and ARF makes restaurant loans up to $1,000,000 per location. If you are looking for a restaurant loan, ARF is one of the first calls you should make.

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

1. Staff Order – When listing staff members on the schedule, list them in the following order:

a) Lead Server
b) Server Trainer
c) Seniority

Why this order? For starters, your key people such as your leads and trainers need to be listed first as a sign of respect and responsibility. Then list your servers by seniority.

2. The Busiest Times Require Your Best People – Schedule your strongest people for the busiest times. It’s imperative that you place the right people in the right situations. For instance, if you schedule all new people for your busiest meal period, you may have mayhem and confusion.

3. Everyone should have Opportunities to Make Money – Make sure your new, less senior, staff get at least one money-making shift. If you just take care of your more senior people with the money-making shifts, you will have high turnover and a majority of poorly performing staff, because there is another job across the street that will give them an opportunity to make money.

4. Everyone should know the Day Shift – Have all staff work at least one day shift. Doing this allows you to make sure less senior staff have an opportunity to work money-making shifts. It also allows for a stronger lunch shift, which in turn increases sales and ensures that lunch will go well so that busy business people will come back.

5. The Backward Scheduling Priority – Number your days by scheduling priority and schedule back to the lowest priority. A common mistake a manager makes when scheduling is to start writing a schedule on Monday and finishing on Sunday. We have already talked about pitfalls in utilizing this strategy. From now on, number your days, 1 being the busiest to 7 being the slowest. Then start scheduling backward, from 1 to 7. This will ensure you have your strongest people in your busiest shifts.

6. Give them Personal Time – Schedule two days off in a row whenever possible and avoid split days off. If you split-schedule people’s days off, they never get the day just to relax; they only get to do their to-do lists. Giving them two consecutive days off improves employee morale.

7. Close/Opens, the Quickest Ways to Mediocrity – Stay away from scheduling close/opens. What is a close/open, and why not schedule them? A close/open is when a staff member closes the night before and is scheduled to open the next morning. Sure, this is one way to fill in the manpower gaps, but it your ticket to mediocrity.

8. What to do When You are Over Staffed – If you have more staff available than shifts to fill, give shifts to your full-timers first. Part-timers and/or your weakest staff lose shifts first. If you find yourself in a situation where the seasonality of your business has you with too many servers for the sales you have coming in, take care of your full-timers first. Make sure they continue to have the opportunity to make money, because they are your backbone. Start to trim shifts from your part-timers.

9. Staff Up, Not Down – Always have two more Full Time Equivalents than you need. A Full Time Equivalent is whatever number of people it takes to equal one full-time person. Hourly workers like the ability to change their schedule from one week to the next to take advantage of vacations, events, friend and family in town, and parties, to name a few. With this in mind, even the most perfect manpower plan can be thrown an unexpected curve.

10. A Request is a Request – Remember, scheduling requests are just that - requests. The needs of the business must come first. When staff put in for a day off, you need to find a way to give it to them, while reserving the right to say no. If you say no, they will most likely take the day off anyway and find a job where they can be more flexible.

11. Management is Required – Any schedule changes must be initialed by a manager. Look at hours worked and stay away from over-time. Start by writing your schedule in pencil. When you have your final version ready to be posted, photocopy it and post the photocopy. This way any changes to the schedule will be apparent. Next, make sure all schedule changes are initialed by a manager. When the request is made, go to the schedule and look to see how many hours or shifts the person taking the shift has or will work that week.

12. Post Quickly and Consistently – Have the schedule written and posted by Thursday at 4pm. Have you ever had manager post the schedule on Sunday at close for the next week that starts on Monday? The staff cannot plan their week and the restaurant often finds itself in trouble because staff is late or a no-show due to the lack of notice. Have respect for your employees’ time. Accept scheduling requests until Tuesday night, write the schedule on Wednesday or Thursday, and post it by Thursday at 4pm.

13. Use a Scheduling Key – When filling out a schedule, x-out the days people cannot work, place an R in the days people have requested off, and place a V in the days people have requested off for vacation. Then start scheduling shifts. If you take the time to prepare for the scheduling process, you will eliminate opportunity for errors and will demonstrate to your staff that you CARE, that you have Concern And Respect for Everyone. Following these steps will keep employee morale high and when morale is high, so is productivity.

If you are a restaurateur thinking about increasing marketing, making capital expenditures, or otherwise investing in your business and looking for a restaurant loan, try Advance Restaurant Finance, LLC (ARF). ARF has been making short term business loans to restaurants for almost a decade. Despite the economy, ARF never stopped making business loans to restaurants, and ARF makes restaurant loans up to $1,000,000 per location. If you are looking for a restaurant loan, ARF is one of the first calls you should make.