OLIVE GARDEN WAITERs??

Question

does anyone know why the olive garden waiters always seem like they want you to get desert really really bad?? im serious, we eat there often and one of the waitresses even went as far as saying " if i bring you another bowl of soup will you get dessert? im just trying to get you to get dessert." not that his bothered us i just thought it was a little strange. I also noticed that when we do get dessert they seem really happy and almost exited... i've heard something about them getting some kind of commission outta selling dessert but im not sure this is correct...does anyone know??

Answer 1

idk. maybe they sell you more food, bill gets higher tip gets better.

Answer 2

i work in a restaurant and the waiters are always pushing for their customers to get desert(not as forcefully as your olive garden waiters) but they do push for it and it's mostly because if you're going to sit their talking for an hour after you eat they want you spending money and not wasting their time.

Answer 3

Idk? But good question though.

Answer 4

you should go to their website and complain about that. They might actually send you a gift certificate :)

I am serious though.

Answer 5

so your check is bigger, which makes you tip more

Answer 6

There are two reasons they want you to get dessert.  One is to boost the check average that you will tip on.  Otherwise, they would rather see you go so they can rotate the table to get more tips from other guests.  

Also, Darden Restaurants, which has 2 chains, The Olive Garden and Red Lobster, have what they call "add-ons" which is a figure that consists of liquor, extra beverages, appetizers, and desserts.  They have contests to see who can get the highest amount of "ad-ons" in a given one-week period, and sometimes daily.  After every shift, a manager checks them out, checks their add-on sales, and if, as a server they continually fail to meet the quota, it will eventually lead to their termination.

This is what you get when you eat at a major corporate "chain" restaurant.

Answer 7

No commission, although some locations have sales incentives .  So when they sell X amount of appretizers or desert or special or certain drink that shift they get cash bonus or food.  They like to push drinks, appetizers and desert because it increases check and hopefully tip.  Plus Olive garden pushes servers to sell more than just meal. The managers like seeing coffee and desert on checks.  It is strange.  Many servers cannot effectively sell products and the managers look for servers that can, they get better table sections, better shifts, more tables, etc.  Therefore the servers are happy when this occurs.

Answer 8

i actually worked at the olive garden 4 a little while. it's to increase the check so that u tip more. the way they think is that "the bigger the check, the bigger the tip". that's the reason they suggest wine, apps, entrees, and desserts.. they try to "upsell" so that they get a bigger tip. ever noticed if you order a drink they try to push the better liqour?? they don't want you to know they have a house liqour that is cheaper. they want u to spend more money so that they make more moeny...i've waited tables for a very long time.... they don't get commission out of selling desert.

Answer 9

OG is garbage