Communication and Interpersonal Skills
This domain tests the everyday exchanges that decide whether service works: taking orders accurately, speaking to guests and colleagues, listening, body language and the written records that back it up.
Core skills
- Listening: hear the whole order, note allergies and special requests, and never finish a guest's sentence.
- Questioning: open questions to explore ('How would you like the steak cooked?'), closed questions to confirm.
- Repeat back: every order, every modification, every time. This single habit prevents most wrong orders.
- Non-verbal: eye contact, open posture, a genuine smile, and a respectful distance rather than leaning over the table.
- Register: plain, polite, positive. Avoid 'no problem', 'can't' and slang, and use the guest's name if known.
Written and team communication
The order pad, POS entry, handover log, briefing notes and incident report are all communication. A handover that omits 'table 6 has a nut allergy' is a safety failure, not a clerical one. Briefings before service align staff on specials, out-of-stock items and VIP arrivals.
Barriers and how to remove them
Noise, jargon, unfamiliar accents, assumptions about what a dish contains, and cross-cultural differences about eye contact or personal space. Ask, check and confirm rather than guess.
Worked example. A guest orders 'the chicken, no sauce, and a glass of dry white'. Reasoning: repeat it back including the no-sauce point, ask whether the sauce should be left off entirely or served on the side (two different kitchen instructions), confirm the wine by the glass and its price, write the table number and time, then enter it in the POS immediately so the kitchen sees it once, not twice.
Traps
Saying yes to a request you have not understood; writing shorthand only you can read; discussing a guest's complaint in the dining room; answering the telephone without the outlet name; relying on memory instead of the handover log.