Waitress Job Description: Top Duties and Qualifications

A Waitress is a woman who serves customers at their tables in a cafe or restaurant. Their duties include offering the menus to customers, answering questions about the menu, processing, delivering food and drinks orders. They also prepare and process the bill payments.

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Waitress duties and responsibilities

A Waitress’s main duties include providing customers with the menus, performing multiple front-of-house duties and collecting orders and bills, other duties include:

Attending daily or regular meetings with managers to learn about menu changes and occasional menu specials
Waiting for the customers to place their orders and answering any questions about the menu items, ingredients and the occasional menu specials
Writing down the customers’ orders and passing them to the kitchen staff for preparation
Delivering food items and drinks to the tables, inquiring to see if the customers are satisfied and fetching additional courses if necessary
Preparing cheques for customers and processing payments through cash or credit card and returning any balances

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What does a Waitress do?

When a customer walks into a restaurant, the Waitress will introduce them to the menu and the occasional specials. The Waitress will clarify any questions relating to the menu, take the customers’ orders and pass them to the kitchen staff for preparation. At times they prepare drinks and serve them to customers by themselves.

Depending on the restaurant, Waitresses can clean tables after customers and set them ready for the next customers. They are often required to work in shifts with random changes during the weekends and holidays. Their ultimate duty is to provide an excellent dining experience for customers.

Waitress skills and qualifications

Waitresses often need to have great physical strength, stamina, and the ability to work under constant pressure in order to cope with the nature of the work. Look for people who are well-mannered and show good customer service skills. A successful Waitress candidate will have various prerequisite skills and qualifications that typically include:

Great physical strength, stamina, and the ability to work fast under constant pressure
Attention to detail and the ability to multitask
Good verbal and written communication skills
Great customer service skills
Must be able to handle cash transactions responsibly
General maths skills
Ability to maintain cleanliness and proper sanitation
Must be of legal age and familiar with alcohol restrictions and laws

Waitress experience requirements

Previous experience in working as a food server in a restaurant, conference centre operation or hotel is incredibly relevant for all Waitress positions. They should also have proven experience working with a cash register or ordering information systems. Those with customer service and customer-oriented businesses are also good options.

Waitress education and training requirements

There are no minimum education requirements to become a Waitress. Students with minimum GCSEs in maths and English, or diplomas from higher education institutions high school diploma with previous working experience as food servers can be a great fit. Depending on the type of restaurant, they maybe required to have licenses and certifications from relevant local health departments and alcoholic beverage commission institutes. Those with additional training in food safety are also preferable.

Waitress salary expectations

According to Indeed Salaries, the average salary for a Waitress is £9.23 per hour. However, this will often differ based on factors like experience, education, location and company.

Job description samples for similar positions

Here are similar job description templates that relate to Waitressing:

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Waitress job description FAQs

What are the qualities of a good Waitress?

Customers often judge restaurants by the customer service offered. This is why a good Waitress not only needs to dress appropriately, but they should also speak properly to customers. Waitresses need to be neat, tidy, and presentable to the guests. They should attend to customers needs, be hospitable and have strong knowledge of the menu.

How do you describe Waitressing on a CV?

Waitresses are particularly employed by cafes and restaurants to provide the ultimate dining experience to their customers. Therefore, the average CV samples should describe Waitressing as the profession of providing menus to customers and meeting their special needs, taking orders and delivering food and drinks to the tables, refilling glasses and billing customers.

What questions should you ask a Waitress during an interview?

In order to find the most fitting candidate for your establishment, you need to ask the right questions. Such as explain what you think a Waitress does?, explain how you would deal with a difficult customer?, What are your thoughts about teamwork? and what do you expect your daily responsibilities will be?.

How should a Waitress wear her hair?

It’s important that Waitresses keep their hair short, tidy and healthy. This means that they should be going to the hairdressers often. Hair should be styled in a classic fashion for work. If the hair is long enough to be twisted into a ponytail, it should be kept out of the way when they are serving food and carrying it on the tray.