Customer service in restaurants

Check and make sure that the people that are seated first are served first because people do see that. We were sitting in a restaurant and a table that was seated after us got attention first. People do see that, and it can really impact how they feel about the restaurant. Of course, on a Friday at lunch time a restaurant can have some unusual spikes of people showing up and making sure that everyone gets served would be a good thing.

Something that we have come to realize that in some restaurants the servers are only working to get their tips and paycheque and aren't there for the customers. You can actually tell by how they interact with customers and how often they are checking their personal devices. There are other restaurants where the staff seem to stick around for ages, and they care about the customers.

One thing we noticed is that if you are nice to a server, you can make them change their attitude. In our case there was a spike at lunch time, and the restaurant seemed to be understaffed which meant people were sitting waiting longer than normal to get served. In our case we were not in a hurry because part of me wanted to spend some time writing. Sometimes where are times when I just want to hide and sit in a spot and write and enjoy watching people.

The nice thing that happened with our server is she thanked us for understanding that they were busy. Just acknowledging that a restaurant can be very busy makes a difference on how you are served. Sure, someone else in a different section might be served before you but if you server has just taken an order before you were seated and the other server is free it can make a big difference.

Our server made sure that we felt appreciated and did everything she could to make our visit a good experience. It does help a lot when you feel appreciated and valued as a customer because there are times you will either spend longer and purchase more, or you will make sure you return to the location.