The 10 Most Important Server Responsibilities (2024)

Most people might assume that being a server in a restaurant is easy, but they’d be wrong. As a server, you’re the face of the restaurant. So much of a customer’s experience of an establishment relies on you.

And for that reason, a server has many responsibilities. From knowing your menu to maintaining health and safety standards, here are 10 of the most important server responsibilities.

1. Providing excellent customer service

First and foremost, it’s your job to make sure your customers get the best possible service. But what does this mean?

In a nutshell, this means being attentive to your customer’s needs and doing your best to meet them.

This could mean offering a booster seat for a family with a child or informing customers of an extra spicy dish on the menu. It could mean greeting your customers with a warm welcome when they enter the premises. It could mean suggesting a dish you think would suit their tastes. Or it could mean making small talk to help people feel at ease.

As long as you do your best to meet your customer’s needs, you’re delivering great customer service.

2. Cleaning and preparing the dining area

As a server, it’s usually up to you to ensure that your dining area is as neat and clean as possible for your customers.

Cleaning your dining area is usually done right after service and involves vacuuming, sweeping, shampooing, and washing surfaces. You will need to wipe down bars, tables, floors, and fixtures. You may also be required to rearrange the dining area’s tables according to the floor plan.

You’ll also be responsible for preparing table settings, including utensils, tablecloths, wine glasses, centerpieces, candles, and more. It’s vital to ensure that your customers have a clean, welcoming, and well-set place to dine, no matter if you work in a fast-food restaurant or a fine dining establishment.

3. Knowing your menu

As a server, you’re the connection between the customer and the kitchen. Many kitchens, because of supply issues or seasonality, will often change their menus on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. It’s up to you to stay informed about the goings-on in the kitchen so that you can let your customers know what their options are.

4. Knowing your food

Servers are salespeople, and food is their main product. They need to know what’s in every dish, and how those dishes are likely to be received by customers. This means knowing which dishes are spicy, which ones are savory, and which ones are sweet. It’s the server’s job to ensure that customers get dishes that match their tastes.

It’s also vital to know the allergens in the foods you serve. Knowing the presence of allergens like nuts, shellfish, wheatgerm, milk, eggs, soy, and gluten will help you guide your customers away from problematic dishes and towards safer options.

5. Taking orders

Taking orders sounds simple enough, right? You make a recommendation or two, the customer informs you of their choice, and you tell the kitchen to whip it up.

Well, not so fast.

Most servers don’t just serve one table - they serve several, with many tables flipping to new parties several times during a service. It’s very easy for orders to get misplaced, for one table to get the order of another, and for orders to get entirely lost in the constant shuffle.

To make sure your tables get exactly what they order, you need to ensure that the kitchen is working on the right tickets at the right times. Make sure your restaurant has a top-notch point of sale system that will allow you to input orders and take payments efficiently.

6. Upselling when appropriate

A restaurant can do a lot to promote its menu. Marketing, interior decor, and even the typeface on the menu can all help to sell the customer on the dining experience.

But there is no better advocate for a restaurant’s food than a server. A server is the face of the restaurant and is able to connect with customers and assess their needs in a way no other method can.

Upselling is a great way to bring in extra money for the restaurant. This can mean encouraging a table to buy a bottle of wine instead of tap water or opting for an extra dessert. The kitchen may also have new dishes with big profit margins, and it will be up to you to sell these dishes to your customers.

7. Taking payments

Taking payments from your customers can be one of the trickiest parts of being a server. Not only do you have to ensure that your point of sale system is working correctly, but you also have to handle potentially tricky situations where a customer’s payment isn’t approved. This can be awkward, and it’s vital to handle these situations with grace.

8. Coordinating with kitchen staff

The front and back of house need to work together to make a service work. It’s important for servers to get to know the kitchen’s capabilities and processes so they can make good recommendations to customers. It’s also important for servers to have a good relationship with kitchen staff so that a service runs smoothly.

9. Serving beverages and food

Once orders have been taken and the food prepared, it’s time to take them to the table. This is a deceptively simple process.

You have to ensure the safety of your customers and those around you. In serving, you’re carrying heavy, hot items that could injure or scald a customer if not handled correctly. You’ll also be expected to carry many different items at the same time, some of which could be very messy if spilled.

In serving beverages, the main challenge is to determine who to serve alcohol to. It’ll be your responsibility to judge the age of the customers you serve and to ask for identification when needed. Make sure you know the legal drinking where you work and familiarise yourself with the common forms of identification.

If you serve alcohol to people under the legal drinking age, the restaurant will often be held responsible.

10. Being aware of customer actions on the premises

While your customers are valued, there will always be an unhappy guest here and there.

Whether it’s theft or disruption or damage to property, servers are often put in situations where conflict needs to be de-escalated and resolved.

You’ll need to alert management to any issues around theft, damage, or physical disruption that could harm the business, staff, or other customers. Report all issues to management before they escalate. You may also need to call security agents or the police in certain situations.

Get your restaurant running smoothly

As a server, you’ll be working every day with point of sale systems to take orders and process payments. But now you can make those processes much smoother with dedicated restaurant point of sale systems from Epos Now.

  • Limit contact and improve efficiency with tableside ordering and contactless payments
  • Track time at table and manage floor plans to boost table turnover
  • Streamline back of house operations with our unique Kitchen Display System
  • Group by course and order type to speed up preparation and reduce wait times
  • Serve safely and swiftly with Epos Now Pro, a mobile card machine for a better customer experience

Contact Epos Now today to set up your dedicated point of sale system.

The 10 Most Important Server Responsibilities (2024)

FAQs

What is the main responsibility of a server? ›

A Server's responsibility is attending to diners before, during, and after their meals by helping them place, receive, and pay for their orders. They also ensure the timely delivery of food and beverages by checking on their tables periodically throughout the service time. What makes a good Server?

What is a server responsible for? ›

A Restaurant Server, or Server, is responsible for bringing food and beverages to dine-in customers seated in their section at a restaurant. Their duties include writing down each customer's order, submitting it to the kitchen and bringing out the correct dishes and beverages to each diner.

What is one of the responsibilities of a back server? ›

Back Waiters are responsible for assisting front waiters by performing a variety of tasks: filling bread baskets and water glasses, removing empty plates, replenishing table supplies, making sure food is served in a timely manner, and accommodating special requests.

What is a server job description at a steakhouse? ›

A restaurant server takes orders, answers questions about the menu and food, sells the restaurant's food and drinks, takes payment, communicates orders with the kitchen staff, seats customers, and helps with customer service and cleaning. Also known as a waiter or waitress.

What are the three main functions of a server? ›

A server stores, sends, and receives data. In essence, it "serves" something else and exists to provide services. A computer, software program, or even a storage device may act as a server, and it may provide one service or several.

What are the 4 server roles? ›

Examples of roles include DNS server, DHCP server, File Server, and Print Server.

Are servers responsible for setting up a room? ›

A server is responsible for serving food and drinks to customers. They may also be responsible for cleaning and setting up the dining area. Server job descriptions may vary depending on the type of restaurant.

How do I become a good back server? ›

How to Be a Better Server
  1. Create a System of Organization that Works for You. ...
  2. Double and Triple Check Orders. ...
  3. Be Prepared to Discuss the Menu. ...
  4. Upsell without Pressuring. ...
  5. Maintain Composure. ...
  6. Respond to Mistakes Gracefully. ...
  7. Be Attentive and Tactful When Checking on Guests. ...
  8. Always Say “I'll Find Out” over “I Don't Know"
Apr 2, 2024

What is the difference between server and back server? ›

Front-end servers handle the user interface, while back-end servers handle a web application's logic and data processing. Technologies: – Front-end servers use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, while back-end servers use programming languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript (with Node. js).

What are the server duties at Chili's? ›

Responsibilities
  • Provide hospitable and customized service to each of our Guests.
  • Learn our menu to explain offerings to Guests.
  • Perform opening and closing duties.
  • Partner with other Team Members to ensure Guest satisfaction.
  • Must be available to work some weekends, weekdays, and holidays as needed.

What does a server do at Chili's? ›

The Server is responsible for taking food and beverage orders; entering orders quickly and in proper sequence; serving food and beverages for guests in their section as well as other sections; coordinating with the kitchen to ensure timely service and quality of the food; and providing the highest quality of service to ...

What are the duties of a service crew? ›

The Service Crew is responsible for presenting menus to patrons. He/She takes orders and answers questions on meal items. He/She makes recommendations and serves food/beverages to customers. He/She prepares the bill that itemizes total meal costs and sales taxes.

What are the roles and responsibilities of backend office? ›

A back-office executive can practically find employment in every industry. The duties of a back office executive include conducting data entry activities, offering administrative support, taking calls, and producing reports and presentations. The Back Office Manager is the boss of the Back Office Executives.

What is a back server? ›

The back server works with front servers to support and facilitate attentive, efficient service. The back server is responsible for nightly setup and resetting tables according to the seating plan, in addition to delivering food quickly and professionally to guests in line with proper standards of service.

What is a back waitress? ›

Position Summary. Back Waiters or Bussers help out the wait staff and bartenders with duties such as cleaning tables, taking plates, utensils and drinkware to the kitchen to be washed, making sure guests' water glasses are full, and resetting tables for the next service.

What is a back of house server? ›

Being waiter is part of “front of house”. Front of house also includes bussers, bartenders, barbacks and hosts. The back of the house is where the bookkeeper, kitchen, steward, and dishwashers.

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