Improve Restaurant Customer Service – Proper Floor Diagrams & Table Numbering

by Richard Saporito

I recently had a situation at a restaurant where the owner was changing the dining room table numbers during the actual shift. This spells disaster. His explanation was that he needed to keep track of coupons being distributed for his restaurant marketing campaign— which used a separate numbered table for each individual coupon. The owner did not realize how much he was hurting the restaurant customer service by using this system. It was no wonder that the excellent food was quite often being brought to the wrong table by the dining room service staff. Also, I have seen times when restaurants use alphabet letters to identify the tables. There is no reason to use letters for tables at all when there are plenty of good whole numbers to go around.

Below, I have outlined a few simple, but important concepts to help improve restaurant customer service. There are too many operations that do not implement these concepts which cause many unnecessary mistakes. This translates into lost revenue and a poor restaurant customer service that will repel repeat business.

Here is how it works:

Dining room floor diagrams, with correct numbering for each table and position point (explained below), must be clearly printed and handed out to all dining room service staff, with extra printed copies available for any future waiter that is hired. These essential diagrams must be placed in strategic locations for all staff to easily view, preferably out of the customer’s sight.

Position points must be established to improve restaurant customer service. Basically, any customer in the restaurant can be identified by a particular table and seat number. Keeping up with position points will not be a problem for a waiter as long as all dining room service staff knows the arrangement ahead of time. It is most important to establish position point #1 for each table. The easiest way of determining the position point #1 is to have the customer’s back directly in line (or as close as possible) with a particular location in the restaurant, such as the kitchen or perhaps a particularly visible item of decor.

Every customer whose back is closest to this particular location is position #1. Once that is established, rotate clockwise around the table, identifying each customer as position #2, 3, and so on. If a seat is empty, a position number should be assigned to it anyway, as a guest may be arriving late. If customer position points are not used, a waiter, holding hot and heavy plates, will be calling out dishes to customers because they do not know the exact position placements. This wastes precious time and energy, not to mention how unprofessional it looks. Moreover, the customers, often in mid conversation or laughter will be unnecessarily interrupted.

Position points must be clearly explained in every waiter training program. The main objective is for the waiter to serve the food and beverage accurately, safely and cleanly. This is more likely to happen when there is prior knowledge of the table and seat numbers far ahead of time.

The above concepts give the dining room service staff “a sense of where they are,” which is extremely important especially if the restaurant is new or the staff is new to the restaurant. It enhances the ability to communicate, which in turn, improves restaurant customer service all around for everyone.

Click here to improve restaurant service reputation and increase sales immediately:
How to Improve Dining Room Service

About the Author:

Richard Saporito is the Founder of Topserve Restaurant Consulting, author of "How To Improve Dining Room Service." If you'd like to improve your restaurants' reputation and increase sales, contact Richard today for a Free Initial Restaurant Consultation by calling (888) 276-4808 or visiting his Contact Page.