How do you gauge your wait staff's performance? Is it by who gets the most compliments from customers, who always works the extra shifts when needed, the person who tells the best jokes, the best looking one, the one who's cash out is always accurate, the one who never needs voids etc. etc. etc. All these things can be indicators of great performance but the true performance of a server is their contribution to the operations revenue and profit. If you took all the personality and judgement away and just looked at the numbers, would you rather have a wait staff member who has a $10 lunch check average or the one with the $12 lunch check average? If they each served 7500 customers in a year the $12 server would have contributed an extra $15,000, deduct food cost and that is an extra $10,000 directly to the bottom line.

How do you then scientifically track wait staff? First, you need to break down your check averages by meal period in order from lowest check average to highest check average (a breakfast server will always have the lowest check average). Then you need to track menu items or groups of items (ie desserts) by meal period (wine sales will always be highest at nighttime). The raw data must then be taken and put into a format that allows for comparison. Who is the better server, the one that sold 25 of the highest priced entree or the one who sold 20? The raw data must be formatted into volume divided by customer count to give you comparison percentages (the 25 steak seller had 250 customers or 10% steaks versus the 20 steak seller who had 100 customers or 20% steaks, now who is the better server?). When you combine the two reports you now have a very clear picture of who your best and worst are. You can then use this data to coach each and every employee on their performance.

TRUE STORY: The first time that I did this type of tracking we increased the check average at lunch by $2. With approximately 50,000 lunch customers per year we added $100,000 to the units sales! What we found was that there was a lunch wait staff member who was a really nice lady, single mom and was easy to work with. She was never late, always did her side duties, never complained and was a pleasure to work with ... until we started to look at check averages. Hers was the lowest, a full $3 lower than the best check average. Upon looking at her menu item tracking, we noted that she only sold 9% of her customers coffee and she didn't sell any desserts. The average coffee percent was 22% and no one else was less than 18%! We realized she was finished with the table the minute she dropped the food off and never properly took the table the rest of the way. After discussion with her, the following week she had 28% coffees, 1% desserts and her check average had risen substantially.

The same goes for fast food, your check average will tell you when you have good staff who want to serve customers and when you have bad staff or managers. The only two revenue controllables in fast food are average check and customers; so if you can't increase the customer count, increase how much each of them is spending.

Think your bartender is stealing? Compare the percentages of types of drinks sold to the other bartenders and you may see where the revenue is being generated. If they don't ring in the pops or coffee's, the vodka they brought in or ... the numbers will tell you where to look.

Whether you call them wait staff or service staff you are going to miss out on the collection of revenue. What you should be calling your servers is commissioned sales representatives, and the best part is that the customer pays the commission, you only have to pay the base salary!