Don't Judge...

Disclaimer: This post is in no way meant to offend the wonderful friends of mine who are servers/bartenders. I know they would never treat people this way. Also, I was a server once too. :-)

As mentioned above, I was a server, in college. I worked at a crazy busy, hot as hell all the time, waitresses did everything (including dropping appetizers, getting drinks and busing tables) pizza place. In the summer it would get so hot I'd spend any free second sitting in the freezer. I usually worked lunches and I made great money. It was a high volume, quick turn over (or at least that's what you hoped for) place with 17 or 18 tables. During the day there was never more than two waitresses on, I would usually have ten tables at a time. I took the tables when the other waitress wanted to smoke in the back, I wanted to make money.

In the beginning of my lustrous career at the Pepper Mill I naturally thought the more people at a table, the bigger the tip would be. I quickly came to find that was not the case. I still remember this one guy that came in for a cheese steak and soda---and left me a $5 tip. I learned early on not to judge my tables by how many people were there, how they dressed, if they were young or old, male or female. I learned to give each table the best service I could, and hoped they would reward me with a tip I deserved. I wasn't happy and excited to be there everyday, especially when it felt like 100 degrees (I honestly could never understand why people ate there in the summer.) But I always tried to smile and tried to handle more difficult customers in a pleasant manner, because I knew my tip depended on it. I wasn't there to make $2.00/hour. If I didn't provide them with good service, I didn't deserve and wasn't going to get a good tip. And believe me, I had my fair share of awful tippers or even better, people that walked out without paying the bill or leaving a tip. They were not the norm.

Fast forward ten years. I've read numerous Facebook posts and blog entries from the server's perspective. I agree with most of what these things say---servers make very little money hourly and rely on tips for income, if you can't afford to tip you shouldn't be eating out in the first place, etc. What I don't agree with is that every server deserves a 20% tip off the bat.

Over the last ten years I have dined alone a lot---more than most people. I am always very friendly to the server that greets me, and can usually detect the "oh, it's only you" disappointment. I completely understand the desire for a table with more people, it typically means a larger tip. At the same time, as the server, you gotta get over it. I'd assume it's pretty safe to say solo diners aren't exactly excited about the fact they are dining alone. They are usually traveling for work. They are living out of suitcases and hotel rooms and are away from their families and their homes. So treat them like you treat your tables of five or six---your job is to provide a service to whoever sits down in your section. You have no idea how you will be tipped until it's all over---but showing disappointment, or being short, or coming up to me and saying "what do you want" (yes, that happened today) is not going to earn you a 20% tip. You will get the standard 15% and hopefully will learn from how you just treated me. However, if you treat me like you're treating the tables around me, and are pleasant and accommodating, you will always receive more than 20%.

I understand serving isn't easy. It's hard work and you have good nights and bad nights and some people stiff you and sometimes the kitchen screws up and you end up paying for it because your customers are irritated. Maybe you just failed an exam or broke up with your boyfriend. I get it---I have those days too. I have been in sales and customer service my whole career. I've had clients that made me want to cry right in the middle of their place of business, but I continued to treat them as if they were my favorites. Why? I earn commission, it is my job to provide good customer service so I continue to earn their business. It's the same exact thing in a restaurant. You earn your tips, and for the most part people are fair. You will always end up with customers like the ones in those posts I've read about, but they are not the majority. I've had customers not pay their bills throughout my career, after I delivered what I said I would and worked hard to make them happy. Those unpaid bills cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars in commissions. I never treated a customer poorly because of what another did, they were unrelated.

After my experience today, I decided I was going to write about this. I hope if you are a server, maybe it reminds you of how your customers would like to be treated, even if they're just a table of one.