Right this Way
...seriously. As a hostess you are the first thing the customer sees when they walk into your restaurant, and first impressions mean everything. You want the guest to have a good experience from the beginning until the end…not just when they are happily eating their food. 3) The First Impression First, you open the door for them, and flash a great, big smile because if you are not smiling and in a good mood, they will notice. Second, you must talk to them. Say something warm and comforting like, “Welcome to (name of restaurant)” or “How are you doing today?”. Make sure you give them your absolute attention. For instance, do not have side conversations with other employees, talk on your radios, and certainly do not do anything that prevents you from having full eye contact. 4) Finding the Right Table Next, ask how many people will be joining them for their meal. To find the right table, you must first look at what your employer has provided you: 2 papers to help you stay organized. One of them is a list of every server in order from which they came in. The other is a map of all the restaurant’s tables. Keeping all this information organized can be hard to do, but one easy way is to “X” out open tables (which are clean tables, with no one sitting there). Then, when it starts getting busier, circle them when fewer tables appear to be open. The next open table will be for the server who is next in line for a table (so that no one server will get more than the others). 5) Bringing the Guest to the Table Bringing the guests to their table is easy if you are relaxed and you know what you are doing. Again, you will talk to them to show they are in a friendly atmosphere. Bring one menu for each person, and walk at their pace; do not leave them behind. Show them their table and allow them to sit down before handing out the menus. Now all you have to do is tell them their server’s name, say “Enjoy your meal”, tell the server about their new table, and walk back to your host stand to seat more people. 6) The Wait List If there is a wait, things can get very tricky. Follow these steps and you should be fine. Ask how many people are in their party, and tell them your estimated wait time. If they are willing to wait, write down their name, number of guests, and the time they came in on a wait list. When a table is clean and ready to be sat, bring the guests at the top of your list (the ones who came in first) to their table. 7) Opening and Closing the Restaurant It is the hostess’s duty to make sure the restaurant is ready to open and close, and there are many chores that must be done. As a closing hostess, you are the last one to leave. You must clean up the host stand, take out the trash, clean the windows in the doors, sweep up your area and the bar area, clean the entry-way, gather all the menus (bring them to the front of the restaurant), bring silverware and side plates to tables which need them, fill the candy jar, make sure the toothpick container is full, pick up any trash in the bathroom, make sure each stall has toilet paper, fill the soap containers, and help any server who needs help with their closing duties. As an opening hostess, you will do whatever the closing hostess forgot about. It is very irritating to open when the hostess who closed the night before did a poor job, but that’s part of the job. 8) Dealing with Rude Guests In the restaurant business, you will work with a number of really rude customers. The reason why restaurants have to deal with such ill-mannered, impatient guests is becaus...