It’s fascinating noting the different styles of American waitresses and how they treat you. Of course they are always excessively nice because they depend on your tips to boost their meagre wages, but they still have varied methods of attentiveness, depending on the kind of restaurant they are serving in, the response of customers seated there and the ambience of the surroundings.
We experienced many waitresses during our holiday in the States. The one I liked best was in a Fish Restaurant in Maine. First of all she wasn’t over-enthusiastic, in spite of having to say the spiel “Hello, my name is Katie and I’ll be your server for today”, and she naturally seemed interested in helping us. But it was the fact that when she spilt our fish chowder as the springdoors flapped back and hit her, she smiled apologetically and scuttled off immediately to rectify our order, she refilled our glasses with soda and forgot to include that on our bill, and that she was unaware of a large splodge of tomato ketchup on her skirt, we felt inclined to give her the full 20% tip.
There were many more kinds of waitresses, like the over-zealous one who served us our Lobster Dinner in Bar Harbor, to the one who wielded a huge tray on one hand that seemed too big for her in Boston Harbor. Each knew that constant attentiveness without being over-powering was important if they were to achieve the maximum tip allowance.
So how much attentiveness do you give your customers to make them feel special? Your business may not depend on extra tips to boost your income, but I’m sure if you acted like these waitresses and concentrated all your efforts on providing the best possible experience for your customers, just think what they might be inclined to react favourably even if it isn’t in the form of tips?
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