Introducing Tips2: Tips For Improving Your Tips

Tips2: Tips For Improving Your Tips

(Note: This week I am writing double duty.  Each day on this blog I will introduce you to a new site on The Hospitality Formula Network.  I will also be posting new and informative posts on the sites I am introducing.  Today’s post was inspired by out friend the only slightly cranky waitress and deals with building and maintaining rapport with your tables.  It can be read in it’s entirety at the new home of Tips For Improving Your Tips, www.tipssquared.com)

Tips²: Tips For Improving Your Tips is the evolution of what this site was created to be.  This is the home of all server related posts on The Hospitality Formula Network.  The focus of this blog is to provide servers with practical information they can use to create happier guests and bigger tips.  The name is actually very accurate.  This is the next level of server knowledge.  It is the home of a variety of posts that used in combination have the power to improve the service you provide exponentially.

Tips² is more than just a new version of this site.  It is designed exclusively for servers and those who hope to lead them.  I have cut out all of the information that will not directly improve a server’s income.  No weird restaurant stories.  No posts about leadership.  It is simply the tips that servers can use to improve their tips.  Conveniently indexed and frequently updated to provide the relevant information without the fluff.

Take a look at the new site and let me know what you think.  You will find it nearly identical to this one.  I kept the formatting the same for the convenience of my existing readers.  For those of you who are new to this site, there is a wealth of information waiting for you at Tips².  Here is a look at what you can find.

The Rules of Serving

The Rules: Rules 1-10

The Rules of Serving: Rules One and Two

The Rules of Serving: Rule Three

The Rules of Serving: Rule Four

The Rules of Serving: Rule Five

The Rules of Serving: Rule Six

The Rules of Serving: Rule Seven

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Selling As A Server

The Most Important Phrase You Are Not Using

Using Words That Sell

Selling Away and Selling Up

I Make A Mean Cherry Limeade

Wine Descriptions That Sell

Three Ways to Describe Dishes

In Defense of Selling as a Server (Part One)

In Defense of Selling as a Server (Part Two)

In Defense of Selling as a Server (Part Three)

How To Sell More Desserts

How To Sell The Bottle

Selling, Upselling, and Integrity

The Lost Art Of Suggestive Selling

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Skills Of A Server

Five Simple Tricks

Budgeting for Servers

Three Ways to Describe Dishes

Foil To-Go: The Swan

Foil To Go: The Shark

Five More Simple Tricks

Making Tips on To-Go Orders

Learning Restaurant Spanish (Nouns)

The Mistake and The Letter

How To Serve A Bottle Of Wine

Job Hunting: The Do’s and Don’ts

Spotting The Complaint

Coupons, Discounts, and How to Deal

Love and Greed

Memorizing Orders

How To Memorize Orders

Resumes For Servers

On A Good Night

Making a Difference

What I Use

Server Safety Tips

How To Make Hostile Guests Love You (Part One)

How To Make Hostile Guests Love You (Part Two)

How To Make Hostile Guests Love You (Part Three)

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Server Issues

A Bit of Publicity and the Response

Fighting For The Server Wage

A Few More Thoughts On Emmer

Refuting Emmer’s Myths

Remembering Labor on Labor Day

The Disadvantages of Set Schedules

The Advantages of Set Schedules

10 Reasons Why Serving Is Not Like Your Job

Serving Sober

Recommended Reading 11/1

Server Safety Tips

Recommended Reading 11/8

The Economics of Tipping

A World Without Tips

Critiquing The Server

 

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Critiquing The Server

Next week we review the biopic of an amateur server critic entitled, "Why did you shove that fork in my eye?"

As you are reading this, I am most likely sitting in a courthouse awaiting a trial.  Not my trial or anything of that nature.  I was summoned for jury duty.  If this is the last post for a while, you will know I was sequestered for the crime of the century.  In anticipation of my potential selection, I have spent some time thinking about my recent guest post and a comment it included.  The idea of critiquing a server was brought up in the post and confirmed by some comments posted afterwards.

I have never been a lawyer, but I was on the mock trial team at North Kansas City High School.  I love Law and Order.  I have several friends who are lawyers and even know a couple judges.  People tell me all the time that I should have been a lawyer.  All of this makes me fully qualified to tell the lawyers what they could do better next time.  Right?

Read the full post on Tips For Improving Your Tips

Foodie Friday: Beef Made Easy (Part Two)

I had a dream about cows last night.  I have consumed more information about cows and steaks in the last week than any man really should.  I also consumed some great steaks along the way.  The difficulty in this topic is differentiating the marketing material from the facts.  The line is blurred because a great number of these terms were conceived as marketing tools.  I tried to sort through it all to provide you with a factual background to increase the knowledge you have to share with your tables and avoid the hype at the butcher counter.

This week I tried to tackle one of the most confusing areas for a server and a consumer.  The difference between some of the most popular and pricey breeds of beef is an incredibly complex topic and the basis for much debate even among experts.  The focus this post is the differences between Kobe, American Kobe, Angus, Black Angus, and Certified Angus Beef.  Confused yet?  Hopefully this will help clarify.

Read the full post at Foodie Knowledge

The Most Important Phrase You Are Not Using

The space between reality and urban legend has spawned the story of the single greatest marketing idea ever.  This phrase was so powerful that it nearly doubled the sale of the product it was written for.  Two simple words that did not even need advertised.  Two words that added to the label caused sales to spike in a way no advertising ever had.  Two words so ingenious that they you cannot even tell they are marketing.  Even if you know that the product they sold was shampoo you may not even realize the words in question.  However in the 1960’s when Proctor and Gamble added the words “and repeat” to the end of the directions on their shampoos, sales skyrocketed.

There is a similar phrase for servers that will significantly increase your sales and income.  This phrase is so powerful that it will make guests ask you to sell to them.  This phrase can be used in any type of restaurant, by any type of server, and will actually make them want to be sold to.  Using it will actually make your guests appreciate the fact that you are giving them a thinly veiled sales pitch.  All of this is done while your guests’ perceptions of you are improved.

After nearly 15 years in the business, I use this phrase with every table and credit it with at least 20% of the tips I bring home.  I have friends who have used it in almost every type of restaurant and all are amazed by how well it works.  I have used the exact same wording in fine dining and corporate chain restaurants.  In fact, the more casual the restaurant the more effective it is.  Prepare to have your mind blown by the brilliance of these six words.

Read the full post at Tips For Improving your Tips