Waiter Training Newsletter

Look Sharp - Use Trays!

I hear a collective groan from some pocket of the universe out there!

Trays are useful, handy, more sanitary than using your hands and, by golly, they make you look like a professional!

There's nothing worse than dining in a restaurant that is supposed to be fine dining, up-scale casual or even casual, and the servers are carefully maneuvering through the dining room with five glasses of water wedged between their fingers.  Even two glasses without a tray looks crude.

Waiters, if you're reading this and you do that (the wedge thing/no tray), you look cheap and tacky, your name tag should read "Huh?" and you should be chewing gum and twirling your hair while talking to the truck drivers passing through.

In short, use a tray!

I'm always thoroughly impressed by the server who can carry five plates on her arm and not spill a drop of sauce on anybody - including herself!  It just doesn't look professional in most settings.  I can forgive two plates being carried to a table of two diners; I cannot forgive glasses of anything, any number, any type or shape, size or religion being carried without a tray.  You are handling the glass where you shouldn't be handling it.  A tray allows you to create the illusion that you care about cleanliness and that you're not putting your fingerprints all over my glass!

Many times I've been out on trainings and the staff claims to hate trays and they don't want to use them.  Worse yet, sometimes trays don't even exist within the four walls!  Trays instantly become a part of my training session.

Managers, set aside some time when you can practice using trays, both the large, hotel trays and the small, cocktail trays.  Have your staff practice setting them up for proper balance; practice using your legs to bend and pick them up and, of course, practice walking around the restaurant with them.  Servers don't have to be able to carry huge loads on them; the secret is in the balancing act!

Don't forget to practice setting them down onto a tray jack.  Figure out the best places to place tray jacks on the floor.  They have to be situated so you and others can get around them without knocking them over.  There is an art to all of this; it just has to be practiced until people feel confident. 

Cocktail trays should become an extension of your arm.  As you're passing through the dining room, you can pick up items, trash, stray glasses and empty plates.  The tray allows you to carry more and do it with finesse!

Homework for you servers who are afraid to use trays:  go home and get your laundry basket out.  Carry it around empty until you feel confident; next step is to put some telephone books in it and carry that around for a while.

Right now, some of you may want to kick me for bringing up this topic.  Believe me, once you get used to having your tray with you, you won't feel complete without it!

Short and sweet - to the point.  That's the attitude of this newsletter!  If you want me to go and on about it, bring me in for a training!  There's my shameless plug.

Have a great month and best of luck out there!

Training and information is the key!  Contact me, Susie, at Waiter Training, either by phone or email.  My business number is (720) 203-4615, and email address is Susie@waiter-training.com.  Web address is http://www.waiter-training.com.

Excellence is an act won by training and habituation.
We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence,
but rather we have those because we have acted rightly.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
                                                                                - Aristotle

 

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