Dining room report

After only 3 weekends as a "server", I really don't have too much to report.

I got to buy a new pair of black pants but they are making me wear my husband's shirt and nametag.

Tips are way lower than I expected. Almost without exception, I tip at least 20% whenever I eat out. Tips people are leaving me average much closer to 10%.

I'm grateful I haven't had to clean the bathrooms. I have a HUGE public bathroom phobia.

For the most part, I'm enjoying the customers, especially taking orders over the phone. But the dine ins are great too. Like the man last night from Louisiana who was floored that I knew how to pronounce crawfish, and a beautiful teacher couple with an amazing 2 year old son.

Last night I had 2 different tables stiff me. One was a lady who came in a sour mood. She snapped at me twice before I even took her order. The other was a group of 2 who didn't like the sauce on their 3 handtossed pizzas. Manager Nick wouldn't agree to take anything off the check when I mentioned it to him. I saw him speaking with the lady as she paid on her way out. I don't know if she got him to help her out or not but she left me zilch.

One thing I learned from working in libraries....KEEP YOUR CUSTOMERS HAPPY AT ALL COSTS. One disgruntled patron would spread their experience to at least 10 other people. And they'll all take their business elsewhere. Our pizza chain is competing with at least 3 others within walking distance. I wish we would do more to make a good impression.

There was a pickup order who had to wait for his calzone like meal to be remade after it got stuck in the oven. He had waited to begin with because we thought it was still cooking, then he had to wait for it to be remade and recooked. All he wanted to do was sit down and have a beer on the house. We charge $1 for a 12 oz frosted mug. Now, we could have had him sit at a table and be served the beer. He would have had to pay for it because of state laws but his meal could easily have been discounted to make up for it. For a lousy dollar, this man could have been made satisfied and left with a happy impression of our restaurant. But instead, he was made to sit in the hot lobby for an additional 15 minutes and left probably never to return.

The woman with the 3 hand tossed pizza's...why didn't the manager offer to remake her pizzas on our traditional crust? Or take half off her bill? Neither one of those things would've hurt us as much as one disgruntled customer can.