Many business owners have encountered a situation where a candidate who seemed perfect during the interview didn't quite live up to the role's demands. Here are some restaurant interview questions to ask that will help gauge job candidates’ attitudes toward customers and work.

During job interviews, restaurant owners often focus on the applicant's experience, rather than attitude toward customer service. Job experience is not enough to decide whether to hire someone.

In "Lessons in Service from Charlie Trotter," author Edmund Lawler notes that premier now-deceased Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter looked for more than experience in his servers. He looked “for passion and sincerity in a potential service employee," writes Lawler. Trotter owned one of the most successful restaurants in the country, and he made the right hire about three-quarters of the time, according to his estimates. Can you afford to have less than a .750 batting average? You can learn a lot about how a potential employee approaches his employment, prepares for work, and interacts with customers by asking restaurant job interview questions like these:

What do you like most about working in a restaurant? If the answer is a shrug of the shoulders or "I really can't think of anything," save yourself some time and yell out, "Next!" Whether a full-time worker or a student trying to make extra cash, they should still be able to say something spontaneous and positive about working in the hospitality industry. You do not have to demand perfect, articulate answers. Someone could say, "I like working with people" or "Every night is different." Those are good answers, too.

Tell me about a time when you went beyond the call of duty for a customer. If you are interviewing someone who does not have much experience, you can change this question and ask, "Give me an example of what you think would be going beyond the call of duty for a customer." If the applicant is experienced, the anecdote will be revealing.

Or maybe the anecdote would be something you do not want to hear. A potential hire may give you an answer that sends a chill down your spine such as, "I let his credit card go through even though it was turned down because he told me he'd already mailed the bill in." You be the judge, but the answer will tell you what the potential employee is willing to do for a customer and the attitude with which he does it.

How do you stay fresh when you are doing the same job over and over? Whether working Sunday brunch week after week or as a hostess five nights a week, every job has some elements of monotony. Customers can be challenging night after night, and the best employees must keep their enthusiasm high. You are not looking for the perfect employee, and if someone tells you, "I just love work so much that every day I jump out of bed and sing all the way to work," you could very well question his sincerity. It is OK to admit that sometimes it is challenging to stay fresh, but the applicant should be able to offer techniques and insights he uses to keep himself excited and positive about the job at hand.

Tell me about how you handled a difficult customer. The answer to this question will give you two insights into your applicant. First, you will hear how the applicant defines a "difficult customer." Hopefully, it will not be someone who "insisted on hearing the ingredients in our house salad" or "kept asking for water when we were short-staffed." Does the applicant describe a "difficult" customer as a normal customer? You will learn a lot about the applicant by his appraisal of "difficult." Second, you can analyze how your applicant approached the problem and possibly turned a bad situation into a good one.

Visit RestaurantOwner.com for more useful resources on asking the right restaurant interview questions to find the best candidates:

5 Questions That Make It Easy To Hire the Best Hourly Employees: Knowing who to hire is one of the most important continuing responsibilities of a restaurant owner, and it can be a challenge. Learn the five core dimensions every employee should have to powerfully reshape the performance and culture of your restaurant.

How to Conduct Better Interviews (to hire better people): Smart managers know that one of the most important decisions they make is deciding who (and who not to) invite to become part of their team. Asking the right questions and then listening carefully to an applicant's responses is a critical skill for every manager to have.

How to Stop Hiring Problem Employees: Learn how to determine if a candidate has the 5 core attitudes needed to become a valuable member of your restaurant team by conducting a screening interview. Our screening interview guide walks you through every step of the process.

Source: Restaurant Business