Comprehensive Drink Knowledge
The best paid bartenders know their drinks and premium options. This is essential for providing the best experience possible for your customers. A gin and tonic from the well of your bar will have a different taste profile than one made with a premium liquor, like Hendricks. Adding touches like muddled cucumber in the cocktail will also add to the experience.
Customers will often ask bartenders for recommendations or give just a few parameters like, “something sour,” or, “something with whiskey.” Comprehensive drink knowledge will allow you to mix a cocktail on the fly and have it turn out unique and balanced. Adding a twist to a common drink will also delight your customers.
When food is available at the bar, customers will also ask bartenders for drink pairing options. Knowing the menu and having solid drink pairing suggestions will make you an outstanding and well-paid bartender.
Great Customer Service
Best paid bartenders are also the best listeners. Sure there are awkward stories about bartenders subjected to hearing about people’s bitter complaints or whacky philosophies, but listening is the best way to become a sought after bartender.
Your regular clients are going to come back again and again when you provide them with what they want. Knowing what a regular customer wants before they even order is what sets a best-paid bartender aside from the rest.
3 signs of a good listener
Asking Questions
Find out what your customers like. Just as importantly, find out what they don’t like. For example, I like ciders and I hate hops. Once a server brought me a Hopping Mad Cider and I thought, “What a perfect way to ruin cider.”
Being Attentive
Fortunately the server saw the look on my face after the first sip and offered to change the drink right away. This is the art of being attentive. Pay attention to the quality of your customer’s experience. The “Quality Check” is a standard of the hospitality industry.
Being Patient
Losing patience with your customers is never a good idea. When you are busy, it is still important to focus on the experience of your customer. Take the time to explain your drink knowledge in plain language, provide options and listen for what they like.
Best Paid Bartenders Stay Organized
Save time and frustration by staying organized behind the bar. Something as simple as putting a premium liquor back in the proper place on the shelf will save a lot of aggravation for you and your co-workers. Knowing where every tool is placed behind the bar will make drink preparation smooth and efficient. No one wants to have to go hunting for a strainer or ice scoop.
Stress Management
Save yourself a mental breakdown and don’t let the stress get to you. Often bartenders are working in tight spaces with loud music and drunken, rude or impatient customers. No matter how the night is going, greet each customer with a smile because that will make you the best paid bartender of the night.
