Service advice to increase restaurant server tip compensation

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5 tips to higher tips

Service advice to increase restaurant server tip compensation

The retail and health care industries are luring good foodservice employees away by paying them higher wages. So, why not fight fire with fire? You can help your servers increase their paycheck instantly by teaching them some subtleties of exceptional service. Tips can be affected as much by the service the guest receives as by the dollar amount of the check. Selling additional desserts or appetizers will increase the check total, but if the service is less than exemplary, tips can go right back down.

Here are five tips for higher tips to share with your servers:

1. Learn the names of the guests in their parties
The sweetest words a person can hear are their own name. (Pronounced correctly, of course.) Enough said.

2. Personalize the guest check
Tips will go up when a server hand writes "Thank You" and signs their name on the guest check. Increases of over 10% are possible when the server jots a personal note. We've tested it. Results are guaranteed.

3. Perfecting plate placement
Set a plate down in front of the guest with the entrée a bit to the right or left of the 12 o'clock position. Then take and extra second to gently turn the plate to center the entrée. An old trick, but it works.

4. Pause a beat
how respect for your guests' conversation. When approaching the table, make eye contact with the guest and wait for the guest to finish their sentence, motion for a moment, or suspend the conversation.

5. Smile
A genuine smile sends a strong message that a server is truly interested in delivering a great dining experience. You better mean it, though. It's easy to spot a fake.

Share this Trade Secret with your service staff by downloading our 5 Tips To Higher Tips Flyer . Print, photocopy and pass them out at your next pre-shift briefing.

Bill Main is a nationally-recognized author, consultant and speaker. His company, Bill Main & Associates, specializes in strategic growth plans for foodservice entrepreneurs. For information on how you can grow your top line revenues through innovative marketing, menu, leadership and training systems, visit www.billmain.com.