When going out to eat you don’t expect to get bad service, but unfortunately it happens. Often times its easy to blame it on the first person available- your server. While it may or may not have anything to do with the server, they are often the person who will hear the complaints and suffer the loss of a tip.
Recently one couple, Makenzie and Steven Schultz, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa went out to eat together for dinner and had a similar experience. While dining at Kazoku Sushi, the couple waited over twenty minutes just to get their drinks, forty minutes for their appetizers, then an hour for their dinners. Instead of becoming impatient with the server however, the couple looked around and assessed the situation.
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They realized that the restaurant was incredibly understaffed. Their server was not just taking care of their table, but he had eleven other tables he was trying to serve, as well as the bar area. The couple said that they watched him run around, trying to help every table. He was polite and never became impatient.
Watching him reminded the Schultz’s of when they used to wait tables for a living, and it reminded them of what a demanded career it could be. Instead of leaving their server a small tip for the long wait, they did the opposite. On their bill of $66 they left their server a $100 tip with a note that read “We’ve both been in your shoes. Paying it forward.”
