If you own a restaurant, bar, or cafe then you know from personal experience that tipping is more than just a “nice to have”. For a lot of your wait staff and bar staff it’s how they manage to make ends meet. One way to help them is to help them increase tips.
If you want to retain the best staff without blowing your own budgets it’s important to run a business where the customers are generous in their tipping. This will also encourage staff to provide better service to your customers, and ultimately your business has a better chance at success.
A quick google search on tipping advice will bring a fun array of tactics and stats. A survey by Crusco and Wetzel in 1984 showed that touching a customer will increase your tip percentage by 14% (and only comes with a slight chance of a harassment charge). Ok I’ll admit I added the last part, but still. Other stats show that wearing bows in your hair will help, as does drawing pictures on the bill.
Yoco’s new feature
At Yoco we don’t think you need to tell your staff to touch people, wear head gear or start taking art classes. But, you may want to consider enabling our new feature: On-device tipping.
So far Yoco and TabletPOS merchants who have been trialling this feature have seen great results. The lowest increase in tip percentage we’ve seen to date is 13% and the highest has been 386%
The way it works is simple. Before your customer enters their PIN they are asked if they would like to add a tip. They then key in the amount on the Yoco card machine and finalise the payment as per normal. Ronald from Yoco takes you through how it works in the video below.
Which business types benefit the most?
If your customers pay at the counter and you’ve had to rely on the the cute ‘tip jar’ at the cash register – you need this feature. No matter how many smiley faces you draw on that tip jar, how big you write “Thank you” or how creative you get it probably won’t increase your tips as much as Yoco’s on device tipping (ok maybe the sloth could get you more tips).
The reality is that few people carry change these days. And those who do, already need to ration it out between the car guards, parking machines and lose cigarettes in awkward times. So people pay by card. But to add a tip onto a card when you’re already at the counter means your staff has to explicitly ask for it. And that’s a little awkward. With Yoco this is all done for you. Goodbye awkward. Hello money.
