If you’re in the alcohol industry at all, the chances are that you’ve heard of ‘alcohol awareness training’ or ‘alcohol safe serving.’

Perhaps you own a bar or a restaurant, and you’re looking at ways to reduce your liquor liability risks. Or maybe you’re just looking for a job serving alcohol, and you’ve been told that you need an alcohol-safe serving certification in order to get the job.

Whatever your situation, there is a social responsibility initiative sweeping through America state by state that ensures alcohol is served in a responsible manner to reduce the amount of harm it may cause.

Why do I Need Liquor Liability Insurance?
Because of dram shop legislation in America, liquor stores, bars, and restaurants can be held liable if something goes wrong (death or injury) due to alcohol intoxication from the alcohol they served someone.

The most common scenarios are drunk drivers causing accidents or assault cases when a customer has been allowed to become too intoxicated. No longer is it okay for the venue owners and staff that work there to serve a customer ‘one more for the road’ if the customer has already had one too many. And no longer is it okay to ‘turn a blind eye’ to underage drinking.

If and when anything goes wrong – as things tend to do when too much alcohol is involved – then having Liquor Liability Insurance will cover you as a venue owner in the event of a lawsuit and/or settlement.

Bartending Liability

How do I Reduce Liquor Liability?
Once you’ve got your Liquor Liability insurance as a venue owner, the insurance company then wants you and your staff to do whatever it takes to reduce the liquor liability risks of something going wrong. This is where the ‘alcohol awareness training’ or ‘alcohol safe serving’ certification comes in.

Rather than turning a blind eye to turn a profit, we all need to ‘keep our eyes peeled’ so that we keep our streets and our homes as safe as possible. If you’re a bartender, you need to know if a customer is drunk and slurring his words. Perhaps the customer is getting aggressive, or their eyes are bloodshot.

‘Alcohol safe serving’ involves being able to spot these signs – and then knowing what to do. The next steps involve letting your fellow staff members know not to serve the customer any more alcohol and learning to politely and discreetly refuse the customer directly.

Checking for fake IDs, avoiding second-party sales, and understanding what alcohol does to the body are other things you will learn about when you and/or your staff participate in alcohol safe serving training.

Choosing the Right Safe Serving Certification
More than half the states in the US now have some version of a legislation that can find a venue that serves alcohol at fault if alcohol played a part in the accident. So whether you’re a business owner or just someone looking to make some cash as a bartender as a side hustle, the chances are this includes you.

To be on the right side of the law, you need alcohol awareness training certification. Comedy Seller Server does this – and more. We keep it real by keeping it light. Our online alcohol safe serving training and certification involves using comedy as a way to crack open the skull (not literally!) and ensure that all the important information is retained long after it has been taught.

Our proven track record has shown that mixing comedy and education is the best way to teach alcohol servers how to sell and serve alcohol and think for themselves. So if it’s time for you to get socially responsible and minimize your liquor liability risks, then have a laugh while learning what you need to do. And do it with Comedy Seller Server – the best seller server training state for state!