Restaurant Job Board Blog

Increasing your tips as a server and/or bartender can make a substantial difference to your bottom line at the end of the year. Anyone who has or currently works in the restaurant industry in North America knows that servers and bartenders depend on their tips to make a decent living.

Increasing your tips is a very lucrative strategy to increasing one’s annual income. For example, lets say you are server who sells $1000 in a night and your average tips is 15% of your sales. So your take home in tips would be $150 for that shift. Now lets also say, you work 4 shifts a week – that equals $600 a week which is $28,800/year in tips. If you could increase your average tips to be 18%, you’d be now making $5760 more a year. That is like getting a pay raise of 20%, which is virtually unheard of in any career.

Dr. Michael Lynn who wrote Mega Tips, which offers a list of 14 proven methods for a server to increase their tips. Dr. Lynn gives real life example and case studies in his free pdf report . Below is annotated list of his proven findings and me adding a few personal notes to each method.

1. Wearing a flower in your hair can increase tips by 17%. Now this obvious was for the ladies, not the male servers.
2. Introducing your self by name can increase tips by 53%. I think is a very good practice for all servers to introduce them selfs by name, but I was surprised to see it increased tips by 53%.
3. Squatting down next to the table can increase tips by 25%. This is a tricky one. It depends on what type of establishment you work at. At a fine dinning restaurant you could never get away with this. I do understand that by allowing people to see you eye to eye can create better rapport. So I understand where they were going with this one.
4. Repeating customers order back can increase tips by 100%. This is a method that is very often over looked. The reason why this works is because people feel heard. I have experimented with this one in my personal life too and it helps with all your relationships. Just by repeating what someone has said to you in your own words makes the other person feel heard. People love to know they are being heard. Now don’t become a parrot or mimic people in a childish way, simply repeat what they ordered. (SIDE NOTE): WRITE ORDERS DOWN. There is no award for having a great memory, but there is a great risk of losing your maximum tips when you mess someone’s order up.
5. Smiling can increase your tips by 140%. A smile can go a long way.
6. Suggestive selling can increase your tips by 23%. This is true, generally speaking people tip 10-20% on the bills total in North America, so just being logical, it only makes the larger the bill the more in tips you will receive. Upselling doesn’t only benefit the business, it benefits servers and/or bartenders too.
7. Touching Customer can increase your tips by 22-42%. Now this one can be a little tricky. Some people hate being touched. If you don’t believe me just look at the comments on this post. What I think it really means is “flirt” (in a non sexual way). Being a little coy can build a fun & quick rapport with the customer, which in turn, should translate to bigger tips.
8. Entertaining Customers can increase you tips by 18-40%. I thought this was interesting and something I had never used when I used to server tables. The idea is by using a joke or quick funny puzzle to make your table laugh. When people laugh they feel better and when people feel better they seem to be more generous with their money.
9. Forecasting good weather can increase your tips by 18%. Who knew staying tuned into the weather channel could pay off so big. This was a really interesting tip that I never would have thought of.
10. Writing a “Thank-you” note on the check can increase your tips by 18%. This is an easy one to do. If you are not already employing this method then you should do so immediately.
11. Drawing a picture on the check can increase your tips by 18-37%. Now I thought it interesting that sometimes people will tip more if you took the time to draw picture on the check as opposed to only writing a “thank-you”. The picture doesn’t even have to be anything too special, a happy face, etc. I think it’s worth the 3-5 seconds more it takes to make a happy face.
12. Using tip trays that have credit card logos on them can increase tips by 22-25%. This works because more people will pay by credit card when they see those Visa, Mastercard, or Amex logos and when people pay on plastic they have tendency to spend more. So it only makes sense that they would tip more too.
13. Give your customers candy can increase your tips by 18-21%. This is so true. This is an old selling principal called the reciprocal agreement that Robert B.Cialdini wrote about in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (which I highly recommend reading if you haven’t read it yet). By giving something to someone makes them feel they need to give back. So something so simple as giving a little candy can dramatically increase your tips. If your restaurant doesn’t supply candies then you may want to invest in a bag of Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, you will most likely find your ROI to be good.
14. Call customers by their names can increase tips by 10%. When you receive a credit card it give s you a great opportunity to thank customers for their business by their name. It’s obvious that it makes people feel more like friends than strangers and people would usually tip a friend more. This the reason why you know your regulars names and they usually have the tendency to tip more than patrons that you have never served before.

There are your 14 proven methods to increase servers tips! Now tell us what your thoughts are below. Do you agree/disagree with these methods…? Do you have any other strategies to increase your TIPS…? Let us know in the comment section below.