Sweets can make a difference

My daughter sometimes works as a waitress at the local Pizza Express. If she has a good night then sometimes she can earn more in tips than her wages (although that is not very often).

In the book 59 Seconds it quotes an experiment where changing the number of sweets and how they were given affected the tip at the end of a meal.

In the control condition, diners were unlucky enough to receive their bills without any sweets at all. A second group was given a single sweet. Compared to the control group, this simple gesture of kindness resulted in a measly 3 per cent increase in tips. A third group of customers received two sweets each, and, compared to the control group, gave 14 per cent larger tips. Not bad. However, here comes the really clever bit. In the fourth and final condition, the waiters were asked to present the bill to customers along with one sweet each, then, just as they were turning away from the table, reach into their pocket and quickly hand everyone a second sweet. In terms of sweets per customer, everyone ended up with exactly the same number of sweets as those in the third group. But psychologically speaking, this was very, very different. The waiter had just carried out an unnecessary and nice favour, and, because of that, tipping increased by an impressive 23 per cent.

Another article claims the following are some of the ways to increase the tip given (I have only picked out the ones that are positive for both the server and the person being served):

1. Introduce yourself - Customers tend to tip friendly servers more than they do less friendly servers.
2. Use positive body language - One of the most effective ways to look friendly is to smile.
3. Repeat the order - people like it when others subtly imitate them.
4. Give compliments - receiving a compliment activates the same region of the brain that receiving money does. It also encourages spending.
5. Be entertaining - A French study found that giving customers a card with a joke on it almost doubled the number of people who left a tip and increased the average size of each tip.
6. Garnished check, please! - writing, and in some situations drawing, on the back of the check increases tips
7. Call customers by name - servers got the customers’ names from their credit cards and thanked half of them by name when returning the credit cards and charge slips.

Maybe she should try some of these if she doesn’t already do them? And some of them would certainly improve the customer experience, regardless of a better tip.

Links

59 Seconds

12 Scientifically Tested Ways to Earn More Tips 

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