Restaurant Bible! 5 Best Tips for Customers and Servers!

I have recently ventured into the restaurant industry specifically I jumped right into the job of serving. Waiting table, slinging Folgers, running dishes, refilling drinks, it was interesting to enter that life middle-aged and have had the perspective of the customer for decades. It gave me both a unique and fresh perspective on serving given my sales and customer service background. I am happy to say, now having served for a few years and in enough places, I wasn’t a bad patron. But I wasn’t a great one either not by any means.

Now of course having waited tables I am a great customer a server can always spot a server within minutes of being sat, but I digress. This is the 10 total do’s and don’ts for servers and customers. If the waiter or waitress heads some of this advice and the patrons head the rest I can guarantee the dining experience for both worker and customer will be better.

Rule 1. Customer: first let’s just get the elephant in the room out of the way. If you go to a sit-down restaurant where they walk the food to your seat, refill your drinks, or serve food or drinks to you in any way you will be expected to tip. Now, this is an expectation, and not law so a person can legally do whatever one pleases. But that doesn’t mean if you’re a customer that doesn’t tip it will be consequence-free. I never advocate for lacking service but a server is free to think and discuss a cheap customer who stiffs a server at their will. So rule one expect to tip or expect to have a reputation as being cheap. And servers talk in the same venue but also within the same town. If you are cheap that’s who you are and that’s ok but one can’t hide from the truth.

Rule 2. Server: let’s get the first big one for us out of the way. The tip and percentage will depend on the quality of service and the quality of the product. We play the biggest game in the joint with the lion’s share of our money coming on tips. We can make a tremendous windfall or pay to work it’s a gamble it is the life. Understand that some people will see rule one and blow off the rest of this article because they just don’t tip. We can never let that affect service because the tip comes at the end so one could and would never know how much the tip will be if there is one. Understand that the quality of the service and the…