Essential Waitress Job Duties

While not every restaurant will use the same job description for waitress positions, the basic duties for this type of work are similar from one employer to another.

Customer Service Duties

Waitresses are responsible for a variety of customer service tasks, including:

·         Providing excellent customer service

·         Greeting patrons once they are seated

·         Presenting menus to customers

·         Explaining menu items to customers

·         Answering questions from patrons about food and beverages

·         Sharing information with customers about the status of their orders

·         Refilling customer drink orders throughout the meal

·         Finding out if customers need additional items

·         Verifying that customers are satisfied with their order

Sales Duties

Waitresses handle a variety of sales-specific tasks, including:

·         Taking food and drink orders

·         Up-selling additional food and beverage products to patrons

·         Entering each item ordered into restaurant register system

·         Delivering check to customers

·         Accepting payment for the meal

Operations Duties

·         Communicating customer orders to kitchen staff

·         Ensuring that customer orders are assembled properly in the kitchen

·         Delivering orders to customers

·         Removing empty plates, used silverware, and soiled napkins from tables

·         Determining when customers have completed the meal

·         Attending scheduled team or shift meetings

Compliance Duties

Waitresses play a role in regulatory compliance, including:

• Verifying age of customers who order alcoholic beverages
• Following all relevant health department rules and regulations.
• Since each restaurant location or chain has its own guidelines for customer service and staffing, wait staff may be asked to perform a variety of different functions. In some facilities, working as a waitress requires additional duties.

Hostess Functions

Not all restaurants have a dedicated hostess staff. In these facilities, waitresses will likely be required to perform the following tasks:

·         Taking reservation phone calls

·         Greeting customers at the door

·         Seating patrons

·         Cash register operation

Additional Operations Duties

In some restaurants, waitresses are required to be heavily involved with all aspects of operations. Additional duties may include:

·         Assisting with preparation of some food items

·         Preparing table for the next guests once a party has departed

·         Preparing cocktails

·         Training new food servers

·         Keeping the restaurant location clean and tidy

·         Restocking salad bars or buffet lines

·         Folding napkins

·         Arranging table settings

Amenity Duties

Some restaurants offer more amenities than others. Depending on the "extras" provided at a particular restaurant, waitresses may be required to perform the following tasks:

·         Coordinating with other wait staff members to provide team oriented service

·         Presenting a dessert tray once the main course is finished

·         Singing Happy Birthday to patrons upon request

·         Encouraging customers to complete customer service surveys

·         Providing private event and banquet service

Additional Requirements to Work as a Waitress

Some employers prefer to hire waitresses who have previous serving experience, while others are willing to give chances to inexperienced individuals with a positive attitude and good work ethic. When interviewing candidates for waitress positions, hiring managers tend to look for those who come across as positive and upbeat and who can demonstrate that they can be expected to be reliable employees.

Regardless of employer hiring preferences, there are several skills and abilities that individuals who want to work as waitresses must have. For example, working as a waitress is a physically demanding job. Waitresses must have the ability to work on their feet, performing a combination of standing and walking, for extended periods of time. They must also be able to lift and carry very heavy trays from the kitchen to where customers are seated.

Potential

An upscale restaurant waiter should have an ability to remember things. This includes food and drink orders, customer names and their preferences. Advancement is rare in this profession, but some waiters can be offered formal management training and manager positions in the restaurant.

Education

It is common to be required to have some previous serving or fine-dining experience to get a job as an upscale waiter. Waiters do not typically need any certain educational achievements besides a high school diploma. Several establishments provide on the job training, proper food handling methods and cleanliness procedures. Training provided may focus on certain serving techniques, the restaurant's philosophy, how to work as a team and customer relations. It is possible to obtain additional knowledge through classes available privately and publicly at educational institutes, associations or restaurant chains.

Function

An upscale waiter works in a prominent restaurant. Their job description differs, depending on the company but many duties are typical. This includes describing items on the menu (ingredients used along with how it is prepared, cooked and served), taking food and beverage orders, serving and checking back with customers during the meal for any additional needs along with providing checks and taking payments. They must be able to work with other restaurant employees to present an enjoyable dining experience to their customers.

Significance

Upscale restaurant waiter performs the duties of a regular waiter with more attention given to the customers, the service and the overall dining experience. This type of a waiter typically dresses more formally and may be directed by a headwaiter. Some high-end restaurants that provide a certain style of cuisine need waiters to serve food in out-of-the ordinary or formal styles. It is also possible to require these types of servers to be fluent in foreign languages.

Environment

This type of job requires the ability to stand on your feet the majority of the time. It also entails carrying trays weighted down significantly with food, glasses, dishes and working with items of extreme hot or cold temperatures. It is common to have peak periods of business that must be handled sufficiently. An upscale restaurant waiter is paid more than other servers but relies on tips for an income. The tips are typically higher than in more modest restaurants. Work is part time and full time, with schedules based around busy meal times, holidays, events and weekends.

Skills

1) Speaking -- Talking to others to convey information effectively.

2) Active Listening -- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

3) Service Orientation -- Actively looking for ways to help people.

4) Social Perceptiveness -- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

5) Coordination -- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.

6) Reading Comprehension -- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

7) Instructing -- Teaching others how to do something.

8) Learning Strategies -- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.

9) Critical Thinking -- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

10) Time Management -- Managing one's own time and the time of others.

11) Active Learning -- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

12) Writing -- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

Abilities

1) Oral Comprehension -- The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

2) Oral Expression -- The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

3) Speech Clarity -- The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

4) Speech Recognition -- The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

5) Trunk Strength -- The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without 'giving out' or fatiguing.

6) Gross Body Coordination -- The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.

7) Problem Sensitivity -- The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

8) Information Ordering -- The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words,

pictures, mathematical operations).

Salary

National Wage Statistics

Because the rate of hourly pay earned by waitresses tends to fluctuate, all statistics reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are averages. As of May 2011, the average of all hourly rates of pay for servers was $10.05, and the median wage reported was $8.93. Half of all waitresses reported average hourly wages of between $8.25 and $10.61. The lowest-paid 10 percent of servers earned an average of $7.73 per hour or less, while the highest-paid 10 percent of servers reported average hourly wages of $14.34 or more.

Pay by Employment Sector

As of May 2011, most waiters and waitresses were employed at full-service restaurants and earned an average of $9.93 per hour. Those working at limited-service restaurants reported an average hourly wage of $9.03, and those working at drinking establishments such as bars averaged $9.43 per hour. Waitresses employed at other amusement and recreation facilities averaged $10.81 per hour, and those employed at restaurants connected to hotels averaged $11.87 per hour.

Pay by Area

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, waiters and waitresses working in the District of Columbia earned an average hourly wage of $14.06, higher than those in any other state. Other high-paying states for servers included Washington, at $13.94; Massachusetts, at $13.27; Vermont, at $12.58; and Oregon, at $12.37. The highest-paying metropolitan area for servers was the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area of Washington, with an average hourly wage of $14.87. Servers working in northern Vermont reported the highest average wage of any non-metropolitan area, $14.19 per hour.

Variations in Pay

Because waitresses rely on gratuities for the bulk of their income, pay can fluctuate significantly between shifts. Servers may earn little on some days and a lot on others. In general, the servers who can treat their customers politely and provide efficient service will earn more per hour. Because most customers tip as a percentage of their meal cost, servers working at upscale establishments tend to earn the highest hourly wages.