It was our first night out of the year. We went somewhere we'd never been before. Kid's choice. They wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant.
I complied. They had me at guacamole.
Our server, a young man named Nicky, came by and explained how all the food was made to order from scratch. He boasted about the amazing, hand-crafted margaritas. I should note that unless you are on a cruise ship, I don't know of any beverages that are not hand-crafted... but I digress. It all sounded wonderful. We ordered drinks, nothing hand-crafted, just sodas and water. A few minutes later, we had our drinks and placed our orders. Easy!
A fairly long time passed before our hand-crafted food arrived. We weren't offered refills, hot sauces, additional napkins, or anything else. I was sure this would be handled shortly... It wasn't.
We finished our meals and we waited. And we waited... Nicky shows up. I ask for drinks,,, and we waited
Nicky returns and asks is there is anything else we needed. I asked for drinks again. Not because we were especially thirsty, but because we had never received them. He proceeded to tell me someone was supposed to have brought them. I knew that. I told him, but no one had.
Nicky is a young man, but he's not too young to understand the concept of responsibility. Your table, your fault. It's that simple.
Another twenty minutes go by before we get our water. Yes. Twenty more minutes for water. Another fifteen for the check. You see where this is going. He took my credit card and vanished. I wouldn't have minded so much if he'd literally vanished. This would be a better story. I got up and went looking for him. Never good for you as a waiter if your customer has to come looking for you. He was outside. Not having a smoke break or anything. He was assigned tables outside. What kind of station covers this much real estate? An ill-conceived one.
I was angry. No tip for Nicky. Altogether, I spent over ninety minutes in a fairly empty restaurant. I wanted to complain to the boss, but he was nowhere to be found.
Nicky was punished for his inefficiency, sure. But he was also punished because he works for a crappy manager. To explain:
The manager led us to a table and informed us the server would be with us shortly. He then apologized to the people in the next booth. This proves the problems started long before I developed my hankering for guacamole! I find four pretty obvious lessons in this situation:
Lesson 1: Don't just apologize, fix the problem. Take ownership. Just because you're the shift boss, or the G.M. or the CEO, doesn't mean you're above carrying drinks or wiping down tables. Or bringing me my guacamole, for that matter. If you are the waiter and your team fails, don't blame them; apologize the customer, fix the problem, and then address it with your team. Leadership is relevant at every level.
Lesson 2: Logistics matter in every business. Nicky's tables were hundreds of feet apart but the booth immediately next to ours was handled by a different server. Why? It's hard to explain the way this restaurant was laid out but there was so much empty space that the sections occurred naturally. Why complicate it by giving poor Nicky one table here in Florida and another in Canada?
Lesson 3: Use your resources. Staffing was not a problem. There were at least 8 servers on staff for four occupied tables in our section. There were maybe three or four more occupied tables outside. That's it. Because the manager did a lousy job of directing his staff, service suffered. I am never going back to this restaurant. I have told my friends, plus thousands of people on TripAdvisor and other social media, that this restaurant should be avoided. This will negatively impact the owner of the business and the people who rely on the restaurant for their livelihoods.
Lesson 4: Everything is your job! Stop trying to act like your above the menial work of a waiter. You're not. No one is. Walt Disney walked around his parks picking up scraps of paper. Michael Eisner did the same. Marcus Lemonis can clean toilets. You can bring me my salsa! You can refill my water and bring me a fresh napkin. You can be more than a piece of living modern art.
These things aren't complicated. The difference between a happy customer and one who writes an article like this, is simple. It's as simple as stopping by the table and asking if everything is okay. It's as simple as refilling a water glass. It's as simple as knowing that even though you are a leader, the most important part of your job is to serve.
Adolfo Jimenez is an Independent Certified Speaker, Trainer, and Coach with The John Maxwell Company. He is also the Director of The Comedy Shack Standup Comedy Workshop.
If you'd like to learn more about Adolfo, you may visit his website at www.adolfojimenez.com or follow him on Twitter: @adolfojimenez .
