Another Review For Tips²: Tips For Improving Your Tips

I was pretty stoked (yeah, I’m old) to get this great review in my email today from Guy who writes Guy’s Work Blog. Guy writes a great server blog, but I was unaware he also had a copy of Tips². He has been serving even longer than I have, so I was really interested to see that he found the book helpful as well. I will let him tell you in his own words:

“As someone with over 20 years experience in the business, I bought this book knowing that I would learn a thing or three from reading it. I was not disappointed in the least with my decision. After reading it, I brought it into my work for others to benefit from, and was surprised to see how many of my co-workers made remarks such as “I don’t need to read that” or “I already know everything that book could teach me.” However, about three others devoured it as enthusiastically as I did.

While there was much I already knew to be found in reading it, there was much I did not, and also much that I needed to be reminded of and put back into practice. David begins his book the same way as I train new hires – by focusing on all that must be done before you even approach your first guest, if you want your shift and your job to be more profitable. And making more money this is the primary upshot of all that David writes about.

As a result of reading the book, I now pay much more attention to sincerely thanking my guests for coming than I ever had before (something easy to take for granted). I practice David’s “squared and present” concept always now, with great results. I also “take credit” for my recommendations in a way I had not ever thought of, and compliments guests’s good choices, and I’ve seen how their feelings about the meal get transferred to me and my tip more than I had ever thought was possible before reading Tips Squared. My up-selling has always been good, but now I think it’s better thanks to this book (especially the “deserts to go” pitch David teaches.. I generally hate selling deserts, haha!). I’ve also stolen – where appropriate – David’s easy to rehearse and memorize lines on wine sales, which amazingly are useful (and profitable) no matter where you work or what wines you serve. There’s more I might say about organizational skills, rapport, and sales, but you need to read it for yourself, in David’s words.

Any current server who thinks they don’t need this book (paraphrasing the author but on a different topic) are “choosing conceit over profits.” I would bet that this book paid for itself the very first week I implemented what I learned from it in fact, and has since done so many, many times over.”

Wow! That is a killer unsolicited review. I think Guy really hit the nail on the head. I would never contend that this book in entirely new information for a professional restaurant server. Instead, it serves two very important purposes. The first is to remind you of many of the things you let slide and the important of the basics. The second is to give you some new techniques that will help you get better results from the interactions you are already having with your tables. It is not about reinventing the wheel, but rather finding ways to make it faster and more efficient. In an industry where the difference between 15% and 20% can come from a single interaction, I feel you owe it to yourself to gain every advantage available to you. So pick up your copy of Tips²: Tips For Improving Your Tips today.

While you are waiting for it to be delivered, go check out Guy’s Work Blog . You will be glad you did.

The author of These American Servers, Joe Sixtop, provides this glowing review of the book:

     “David instructs how to deal with different kinds of customers in different situations; those in a hurry, celebrating their anniversary, “problem” guests, et cetera. What he says about waiting on business people who’ve just nailed down a big deal will, by itself, net you more Benjamins than if you were a sensimillia dealer at Bonnaroo.
     Everyone involved in the restaurant business can benefit from “Tips².” I’ve been waiting tables for a couple of decades and I got a lot out of reading it. If you run an independent restaurant, unburdeded by the advantage of company-mandated corporate training materials, you should buy several copies of this invaluable resource for your staff. It’ll undoubtedly make your store better and everybody more money.
     David’s got a little humor for ya too. After describing one particularly clever sales gambit, Mr. Hayden asks, “Don’t you wish you had a table to try this out on right now?” And even though my enthusiasm for waiting tables is at kind of a low ebb these days, right then I did wish I had a table to try it out on!”

Read the full review at These American Servers

The author of the very popular serving blog “Do You Do That At Home?” provides these very kind words about the book: 

“As a long time reader of Tips for Tips and The Hospitality Formula Network I know what David would do.  By using his techniques I’ve learned to upsell, with sincerity, to the benefit of my guests.  The techniques Mr. Hayden outlines in his book are so awesome guests won’t even think of it as upselling, but rather having something they forgot they wanted.  Yes, in the end this means more money for you, but isn’t that what it’s all about. ”

The book is not the advice of someone who has been waiting tables for a couple of years; it is the successful every day methods perfected by a 15 year veteran of the food service industry.  Chapters include everything from the essentials such as looking your best and being early (yes, it seems self evident, but trust me, it isn’t) to dealing with problem customers and/or managers.  All servers will face one unhappy person (and depending on where you work, it might be one per hour) so knowing how to treat that guest will not only help you keep your job (if you want it), but also allow you to keep control of the situation and defuse it.

Best of all you will learn to be a knowledgable professional rather than someone who brings people their food.  This book will change your life.  Really.  I’m not lying.”

Read the full review at Do You Do That At Home

Kansas City’s most popular blogger breaks the story of the book and offers this rave review:

“Credit to the Tips For Tips Blog author David Hayden for taking his game to the next level. His blog is one of my regular reads and provides some SPECTACULAR insight on all issues related to the local restaurant scene. 

THIS KANSAS CITY SERVER IS SOON TO DROP THE BOMB ON THE LOCAL RESTAURANT SCENE WITH THIS GROUNDBREAKING NEW BOOK!!!”  (emphasis in the original)

Read the full post at Tony’s Kansas City (WARNING: The picture he selected to accompany the article is Not Safe For Work)