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Loading ...An article in the Wall Street Journal, If a Half-Eaten Burrito Lingers, There May Be No Busboy to Blame informed us that restaurants are cutting busboys and making the servers do the work. This has resulted in unkempt tables, dirty floors and some of the best employees leaving.
“”The busser is a luxury that, in this environment, is very difficult to justify,” says Mark Godward, president and founder of SRE, a Miami consulting firm that has advised several restaurants to cut busboys.”
I can’t imagine a stupider recommendation to a restaurant. If a table is unavailable because it is not clean that is a hard cost – much greater than any saving in personnel.
Such double-duty reminds me of Kevin Kline’s comedic performance in Soapdish as an actor playing Willie Loman in a Florida dinner theater. He fills the glasses and interacts with the audience doing neither well.
The WSJ article goes on to say, “In many states, it’s cheaper to keep servers on the clock than bussers because of a loophole that allows restaurants to pay servers who earn tips less than the minimum wage — as little as $2.13 an hour. Bussers must be paid at least $6.55 an hour.”
Penny-wise and pound foolish. It reminds me of Circuit City’s brilliant idea to fire the commissioned salespeople to hire lower wage clerks. And we saw how smart that move was in postponing their $2 billion going-out-of-business sale.
The article went on to say, “At a Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza, servers got so backed up after a recent football game that patrons had to wait for tables because there was no one to clean them off. Regional manager Carly Ward says the change has gone smoothly, though she concedes floors aren’t getting swept as often.”
Yeah, people don’t care if a restaurant is clean right? Oops, sorry it is NUMBER ONE to customers deciding whether to return to a restaurant.
The voice of reason came in the article when Nelson Marchioli, chief executive of breakfast chain Denny’s said, “it would absolutely be the last place I’d cut.”
Restaurants have fresh food that needs to be pitched, to be sold to the diners. Everything from appetizers to desserts to specialty salads need the full attention of a well-trained server. And many do a great job.
To think diners won’t notice or servers will just “deal with it,” is ridiculous, especially when there are fewer customers dining out. You staff for the rush, not for the cheap. And the good ones will leave at the drop of a hat leaving you with servers who can do neither job well.
You want to increase sales – get some help with training and increasing average check.
We’ll get out of this recession and on to recovery if we reinvest in selling instead of cutting.
