I recently spoke with my boss, Kelley, after she returned from Hong Kong yesterday and it went really well. I explained that serving and the late work hours have really been taking a toll on me and they haven't really allowed me to take advantage of some other opportunities that I could be getting involved with around here. She understood 100% and she explained that the last ten days have been difficult, as I arrived at a pretty unfortunate and inconvenient time for everyone, with Gary dying and Kelley traveling to Hong Kong for a little while. She didn't really know what to do with me while she was gone and during all the planning/mourning/etc of everything that the loss of Gary has brought with it. So the best option seemed to be letting me get a feel for customer service, as it is a crucial aspect of any entrepreneur's success. She said that I'll be done serving after this week, I'll start working only 5 days a week, with regular hours, and she is going to create a list of all of the possible projects that I could get involved with over the next few months. We're going to sit down on Thursday and she's going to give me a chance to look over the list of projects to pick and choose what I'd like to help out with. I guess what I'm really looking for is an opportunity to figure out exactly what all is involved with starting a new business or expanding upon an existing venture. I'm excited to see the list of options that she comes up with for me. I told my manager, Mia, that my last day of serving will be this Friday and she was pretty bummed but she understood that I'm not here to provide free labor to the restaurant :-) She has asked me to create a list of the things that I learned during my short tenure as a server these past 8 days, and so here my 'top ten lessons of serving':
- Don't be afraid to say something to someone if you're confronted with a problem and need some help
- Use common sense as often as possible
- Set a good example for co-workers
- Be attentive to customers' needs/wants/concerns/comments
- Be helpful - go to the customer, don't make them come to you - and be prepared to answer any possible crazy question about the food, the drinks, or anything either related or not at all related to the restaurant
- Don't use your phone in front of customers :-)
- Be respectful and presentable at all times
- Try to stay busy, and if you can't then at least look busy
- You cannot make every customer happy - you just have to accept that
- Kill 'em with kindness when they [customers] are being a little ridiculous
I'm pretty excited to see what the next few weeks of my internship will bring now that some of my questions are cleared up. Kelley said that we're trying to find a new brewmaster, and some applications have come in but nothing has solidified quite yet, so that definitely puts a damper on the forward progress of the brewing factory that she had planned. Plans are still on for another location of the next BCB restaurant though, so that's good. And she also said that she is in the works of opening a high class martini bar as well as a Shanghai Cuisine Tourism project, so it will definitely be interesting to see what I get to be involved with in the near future!
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PMM
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