Restaurants in Texas do not technically need to be Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission-compliant. If there is a violation, TABC-certified businesses often face lower fines and lesser penalties. It’s also important for individuals. Most employers in the state require such certification.
Like any compliance process, TABC certification can be cumbersome and time-consuming. TABC online certification offers a streamlined course and verification of completion. That gives you added confidence as you begin or pursue your hospitality career in Texas. What are some specific reasons you should take this step?
Learn Some Ways to Deal with Real World Situations
A brief TABC certification process makes you a better server. For many restaurants and clubs, alcohol sales represent the largest proportion of their earnings. So, situations like these are very common:
- Sales to Minors: Most people know that the old “s/he looked older” defense hardly ever works. But did you know that you could be held responsible for such illegal sales even if the customer presents a fake ID? Or that even if you sell to an adult you could still be punished for indirectly selling to a minor? Only a TABC certification class gives you solid answers to questions like these.
- Refusing Sales: Cutting off a customer who has become intoxicated, or refusing to sell alcohol to someone who is already intoxicated, is a combustible situation. A few crossed signals, and the exchange can end very badly for everyone involved. After a TABC certification course, you’ll know how to recognize the signs of intoxication. You may be able to avoid situations like these altogether. TABC certification also teaches you how to handle these situations and defuse a potential conflict.
Perhaps best of all, TABC certification helps you do your part to keep drunk drivers off the road and keep alcohol out of the hands of minors.
Learn the Effects of Alcohol
Even though the physical symptoms are fairly clear, intoxicated patrons are sometimes difficult to spot in busy bars or clubs that are also dimly-lit.These symptoms include:
- Bloodshot eyes,
- Slurred speech,
- Odor of alcohol, and
- Unsteady balance.
Moreover, these symptoms may not be unique to intoxication. Smokers often have bloodshot eyes, as do people who have allergies or did not sleep well the previous night.
A TABC certification course includes training on the effects of alcohol. It’s very empowering to have an approximate idea as to when a person may become legally intoxicated based on gender, age, weight, and other factors. This knowledge also helps you prepare customers for cutoff.
All this may sound like an overwhelming amount of information that’s difficult to digest. But the format of an online course is so user-friendly, and everything is broken up so nicely, that it’s almost like learning by osmosis.
Improve Your Employment Prospects
It’s very difficult for employers to gauge servers simply by their resumes and references. If a resume listing is from out-of-town, an employer has little way to know about the environment. Moreover, largely for legal reasons, most references only give generic “s/he did an okay job” responses.
TABC certification, on the other hand, is objective. An employer instantly knows that you have some additional tools that others do not. The boss also knows that you have a dedication to being a good server, and this is not just a stopgap job-of-the-moment.
There’s a legal reason as well. Texas’ dram shop law has a TABC “safe harbor” provision. If a TABC-certified individual commits an alcohol-related infraction, the employer’s license cannot be revoked. All employees must be certified for this provision to kick in. That requirement gives bosses an additional incentive to hire only TABC-certified applicants. Others may not even get a second look.
Finally, a TABC certification means that the employees are well-trained and less likely to make costly mistakes. In other words, employers know that certified employees are safer for everyone.
There are significant benefits to certification and practically no downside, so take your course today.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
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