Anything else?

This evening my dad came over to spend time with the kids. We decided to order in some dinner as everyone was starting to get hungry. I took everyone’s order and called in.

“Hi, I’d like to place an order for carryout”

“Okay, what would you like”

“Can I please get a burger medium well”

“With fries?”

“Sure”

“Anything else?”

“Yes, I would like a shrimp dish with rice”

“Anything else?”

“Yes, I would also like a steak medium well with a baked potato. Light on the onions please”

“Anything else?”

Anything else. Hmmmmmm. I point this out because this happens all the time. The person taking the order doesn’t know what to say, so they say “anything else”.

To me, that says, “Are you done ordering yet?” This is silly because I would think the restaurant would want me to order as much as possible. We are taught as servers to upsell as best as you can. What they should be saying is, “what else can I get you?”

When I hear “anything else” I feel like I’m bothering them. They have better things to do then to take my carry out order. This also leads me to believe there is a higher chance of a mistake in the order. “Anything else?” Yes, my confidence is now shot.

By simply saying, “what else can I get for you?” makes me feel like you are invested in my order. You want me to order. You want me to order a lot so your restaurant makes money. My order is important enough that you’ll check it to make sure it’s right.

The lady did read the order back to me so that did make me have hope the order would be correct. And it was….. well, mostly. My dad still got a heaping amount of onions on his steak 😬.