Managing Customer Behavior in Restaurants

Every time I go out to eat on a Friday and Saturday night, I see the same issues with customers. As you put your name on the waiting list, you hope that the time will pass by quickly so you can sit and eat. Of course, we all know that this time on these days, restaurants are always really busy so it is expected that your wait will be long. The hostess will say that the wait time is at minimum 1 hour to 2 hours. We all know this! So why do customers get irate when they are waiting? Hunger pains and impatience.

As a manager of a restaurant during this time, he/she must be professional and exude patience themselves as to not become enraged with the behavior of customers who no longer want to wait. They constantly ask where they are on this list to be seated. Watch everyone who gets seated before them to ensure they were not skipped (and will harrass the hostess about it). Managers at times have to ensure proper customer behavior by checking the waiting area to ensure customers are acting civilized. He/she will ask is everyone ok, give something to kids to snack on, offer drinks, and just be friendly.

I am sure that when these days roll around managers are like "here we go again. let's hope for a good dinner service, and no irate customer behavior in the lobby." Working in the restaurant business is challenging but as a manager it can be financially worth it.

What is your opinion about how managers should handle irate customers waiting to be seated and how should they encourage their hostess staff to handle those these people?

Managers Policing Their Employees

Some times managers feel the need to really micromanage their employees every move as they make it. I saw this one manager watch every action of a procedure an employee was taking and literally spoke about every single step while the employee took it. The employee had to answer questions as well while he made each action. The employee was getting frustrated with his manager because this was happening in front of customers. However, the manager didn't care as he was seriously trying to ensure that the employee did every thing correctly. I was one of the customers that watched this and I laughed a little inside but understood the frustration and embarrassment the employee was dealing with. He was nervous as he tried to not make any mistakes. But in such a situation, that could be easy to do while someone is harping over everything you are doing while you are doing it, especially without saying anything positive when you have done a good job. But definitely made comments when actions were not being taken in the proper way as the manager would have done it.

Do you think that this manager was just ensuring good quality work or was being too obsessive over the employee's actions (those actions if wrongly done could have lead to customer dissatisfaction and harm)?