Credit card gratuities
Our cash paying customers are very very generous when it comes to gratuities. However, our credit card user rarely adds a tip. I am curious as to why, and then what would you suggest we might do to open that door a bit.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on
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Have your POS provider add a line on the CC receipt for Tips.
Then you'll have to deal with cashing out the tips and dealing with the lost percentage on those tips. I recommend against it. You're not a bank.
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Permalink Reply by Andre Guimond on
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I have a hunch that the cheaper customers use credit to avoid tipping. They walk up to the counter, you can hear the change in their pocket, yet they don't tip. I understand when its a student, but when you're buying a 5 dollar drink everyday (sometimes twice) you clearly have money to be thrown away. Greed.
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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on
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Jay Caragay said:Have your POS provider add a line on the CC receipt for Tips.
Then you'll have to deal with cashing out the tips and dealing with the lost percentage on those tips. I recommend against it. You're not a bank.
we pay around 2% on our credit card transactions, and we average probably $30 per day in CC tips (we have a tip line, and everyone has to sign their receipt). i'll gladly pay the $0.60 per day so my employees can make an extra $30. no biggie.
also, it's 2010. electronic transactions are here to stay, and cash will be an anachronism in the near future. if you're that fussed about losing the percentage, get square (https://squareup.com/) and you'll save 2.75% in receipt paper alone.
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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Additional thought... going from the signature required approach to no-signature required reduces this even more. We stopped printing receipts automatically to save paper and went from several CC tips a day to only one or two.
BTW, that change rattling around is probably meant for the parking meter or the coke machine this afternoon. One thing about switching to mostly debit cards for purchases is that you no longer have a constant stream of change coming into your pocket. I guess this increases the value of a couple of quarters by quite a bit.
My hope is that when everyone switches to paying with their smartphones in a few years that the "add a tip" option will make an appearance. In the meantime though I think we're screwed tip-wise.
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Permalink Reply by Greg Hill on
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are you sure theyre not tipping in cash? we get that a lot. we have a pretty service industry experienced crowd in this town, they all know cc tips get taxed, but cash tips dont.
or like andre said, they could just be cheap, or poor.
evil greg says: if you really want your staff to get extra money from these people, stop taking credit cards, put in an atm, and take your cut of the service charge and take your baristas out for beer.
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Permalink Reply by Dustin DeMers on
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I think it truly boils down to having a dollar in there hand or not. Simple as that, if there receiving cash back its a lot easier to throw some in the tip jar. I also agree with andre, people that dont want to tip pay with credit cards. At the last place i worked we stopped taking credit card tips for "tax reasons", which meant that it was easier on the owner not to mess with them. LAME!
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Robertson on
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Dustin,
Totally agree. Seems I see about 50/50 credit card customers tipping.
JoeR
Dustin DeMers said:I think it truly boils down to having a dollar in there hand or not. Simple as that, if there receiving cash back its a lot easier to throw some in the tip jar. I also agree with andre, people that dont want to tip pay with credit cards. At the last place i worked we stopped taking credit card tips for "tax reasons", which meant that it was easier on the owner not to mess with them. LAME!
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Permalink Reply by ray peck on
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It seems we actually perform MORE service for CC users as they tend to buy more, but they tip less. We have looked at how we are being in general, like, maybe we are not as good as we think. But, we do pride ourselves on customer service.
We also considered it was more instantly visible to notice the amount of the tip in the moment and that a customer would rather not tip if they felt it was small. Thanks for the conversations. I am determined to bring our CC tipping up. It does get a little irritating that even after a $10, 20 or 30 sale, they do not tip on the card.
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Ray,
How regular are those customers you refered to at the end of your last post?
JoeR
ray peck said:It seems we actually perform MORE service for CC users as they tend to buy more, but they tip less. We have looked at how we are being in general, like, maybe we are not as good as we think. But, we do pride ourselves on customer service.
We also considered it was more instantly visible to notice the amount of the tip in the moment and that a customer would rather not tip if they felt it was small. Thanks for the conversations. I am determined to bring our CC tipping up. It does get a little irritating that even after a $10, 20 or 30 sale, they do not tip on the card.
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Permalink Reply by Bob Von Kaenel on
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I agree with Jay. When we added the tip line to the receipt slip the frequency of tips went WAY up. Yes, you'll have to deal with converting the tips to cash and you'll give up that 2% to the credit card company. I suppose you could deduct the 2% from their tips but is it really worth the time and trouble to give somebody 98 cents instead of a dollar?
Many systems don't require a signature on purchases under $20 but you'll pay a higher rate to the credit card processor for this feature and your barista's tips will decline because the customer will no longer be presented with a convenient way to tip. We opted for the cheaper rate and thus still require a signature for every credit or debit purchase.
People tip larger and more frequently when presented with an easy way to do it and especially when it doesn't require cash out-of-pocket.
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here here,
Our POS CC system doesn't require a sig. I like it better that way.
Bob Von Kaenel said:I agree with Jay. When we added the tip line to the receipt slip the frequency of tips went WAY up. Yes, you'll have to deal converting the tips to cash and you'll give up that 2% to the credit card company. I suppose you could deduct the 2% from their tips but is it really worth the time and trouble to give somebody 98 cents instead of a dollar?
Many systems don't require a signature on purchases under $20 but you'll pay a higher rate to the credit card processor for this feature and your barista's tips will decline because the customer will no longer be presented with a convenient way to tip. We opted for the cheaper rate and thus still require a signature for every credit or debit purchase.
People tip larger and more frequently when presented with an easy way to do it and especially when it doesn't require cash out-of-pocket.
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You know what your right. Ive spent a disproportionate amount of time thinking about tips in my day(more than i should that is) And people are way less likely to tip a small ammount on a credit card(because they feel embarrassed or ashamed to tip 43 cents instead of a dollar) So they end up tipping nothing, which for some reason feels better to them.
Now if there change from a cash purchase was 43 cents, it doesn't feel weird to them to throw it in the tip jar for two reasons(in my opinion that is) One, its all ready in there hand(so its easy). And two, it doesn't feel like as small of an amount(sense its in coin from)
Im not sure if what im trying to say is coming across, but what it boils down too is a psychological experiment in which value changes based solely on perception.
ray peck said:It seems we actually perform MORE service for CC users as they tend to buy more, but they tip less. We have looked at how we are being in general, like, maybe we are not as good as we think. But, we do pride ourselves on customer service.
We also considered it was more instantly visible to notice the amount of the tip in the moment and that a customer would rather not tip if they felt it was small. Thanks for the conversations. I am determined to bring our CC tipping up. It does get a little irritating that even after a $10, 20 or 30 sale, they do not tip on the card.
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