This past weekend I had two interesting experiences in restaurants. The first one was a restaurant that I only been to once before shortly after it opened. The service at that time was not great and neither was the food. I had not been back until this past Friday when I decided to give it another chance. It had now been opened for a couple of years, and I thought it had probably improved. I was wrong.
Although the restaurant was not very busy for lunch, the food took much longer to come out than necessary. I had ordered a cajun chicken sandwich. The food was bland tasting and tasted nothing like I would expect something advertised as cajun style should taste. The server never came back until I was almost finished to ask if I would like more ice tea. At that point I did not since I was nearly done eating and asked for my check. Five minutes later she returned with the check. I had watched her spend that time talking with someone who came in to pick up a carry-out order. When the check arrived I finished my last drink of tea, pulled cash out of my billfold to cover the bill, and laid the check and money on the table. She was there in a flash. I hadn't seen her move that quickly the entire time I had been in the restaurant. She had the money in her hand before I could move away from the table. She got an 80 cent tip, and that was only because I didn't have the exact change for the bill. She didn't even bother to ask why.
After church on Sunday my wife and I stopped at a restaurant. As might be expected, right after church, the place was crowded. Our server was at our table immediately to take our drink order. She soon returned with our drinks and took our order. She brought our salads and bread to the table. In a few minutes she returned to refill our drinks and ask if we wanted more salad. We asked for more bread which she said she would bring and said she would bring me some extra ice for my tea. The manager came by to ask if our service was satisfactory, and I assured him it was. Our food was hot and tasty, and she made sure our glasses were full. About half-way through our meal she brought us the check and said there was no rush, but she didn't want us to have to wait on the check if we were in any hurry. Great service, great food, and she got a 25 percent tip for her efforts.
We all know that servers are paid very low hourly wages and must depend on tips for their primary source of income. So the question I have is why doesn't every server offer the kind of service that would generate great tips? I'm sure the server in the first restaurant returned to the kitchen complaining about the jerk who gave her an 80 cent tip and never once asked herself why. I also bet the server in the second restaurant could have explained it to her: when you provide great service you receive great rewards.
Small businesses can learn a lot from servers because in many ways a server in a restaurant is a small business owner. He or she is selling their services for a fee. Poor servers had better learn to live on very little because that will be all they'll get for their lack of service. Good servers will earn a good rate of return for their efforts, and great servers will do very well for themselves. This is true for any business.
You can learn more about the importance of good customer service in my e-book Mistakes: Avoiding the Wrong Decisions that will Close Your Small Business. For only $4.99 it might be the best investment you will make in your business this year.
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