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.

This is hilarious!

Could you imagine actually getting a $10,000 tip from someone like Donald Trump? The most I ever made when I use to serve tables was about $900 in one evening. And that was pulling a double.

How would you spend a $10K tip?

Have you ever worked in the hospitality industry…? What was your largest tip? Tell us below in the comment section.

What is an automatic gratuity? It is when an establishment or workers at an establishment force a 15% gratuity (TIP$$$) on a customer’s bill. It is usually applied in most places that have this policy to parties/groups of 6 or more people. The customer’s forced tax is then divided between the workers that helped with that table depending on how tips are handled at that particular business.

The disadvantages and advantages have to be weighed with each business model, so in the end you have to decide what’s best for your business.

Who likes to get if over with and start with the bad news? What are the disadvantages of having an auto grat (for short) policy?

Well… for starters, it can alienate and upset your customers because as part of human nature, no one likes to be forced to do anything. Living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada we are already taxed to death here with a 13% combined federal and provincial sales tax, if your unfriendly neighbourhood buffet, big chain restaurant or bottle service lounge or nightclub slaps a 15% grat on your bill, then a 1/3 ON TOP of your bill is thrown to tax and tip on already inflated subjective pricing.

How do you quantify bad will from an upset customer? If one customer is upset and complains and doesn’t come back, then how many were upset who didn’t say anything? Are these people going to recommend anyone to your business?

Auto gratuity without proper management can create entitlement issues with servers that expect a 15% tip whenever 6 people get seated in their section, but are not over delivering in service in order to EARN it. Result? More resentment on the part of the paying customer. Being forced to tip and end up with crappy service? Sign me up!

The advantages of having an auto gratuity policy is that everyone else is doing it, so people are used to it, so it isn’t so bad. Sorry, my mistake if you think this way, but this is actually a disadvantage.

The main advantage is that it helps supplement your employees’ income at the cost of your customer’s goodwill and pocketbook/ available credit.

Knowing that 15% of nothing is still nothing, a good server will up sell each of the 6 or more diners to the maximum point that each diner can politely say ‘no’ to any suggestions thrown at them. Group peer pressure is a great environment for up selling. Almost as good as a guy on a first date. This means bigger sales volume.

If anyone has gone out with 3-4 free loading friends, then you’ve experience the ‘who had the chicken?’ game when the bill arrives. Usually in this fun, friendship destroying game, no one takes into account the tip or the tax whether they recognised good service or not. Simple math is thrown out the window by free loaders because they want to divide the total evenly even though they were the only ones who had an extra beer and dessert. This game always requires a mother hen-like someone to responsibility to round up everyone else’s money (and change), recount, recount again, and ask ‘who had the chicken’, then recount again, coax more money out of the free loaders, then count again, then be last to leave to make sure no one reaches back to grab an extra twoonie?

So having an auto grat on larger parties is good for staff morale. If your staff gives great service, then gets stiffed because you don’t get great human beings in your business, then guess who your staff will blame? You, Your Customers and Your Customers who just walked in the door. This is not good when you are trying to create an inviting atmosphere with repeat business. So if you have a lot of large groups in your business, this policy will help you keep morale high and therefore lower the quit rate (attrition) of your staff.

Having an auto grat allows your managers to expect and push for exceptional service from their staff. When we know what it is worth, then we can play a tighter, more focused game. The results, happy customers and hopefully part of the reason for creating raving fans.

This policy may help keep some people out, which may not be a bad thing. If someone don’t have money to tip and pay tax, then they might avoid places that do that when they going out with 5 people or more. Or they might take up the large table and skip the appetizers, desserts and drink water.

This policy may waived to be used as a bargaining chip when employee mistakes happen and customers are looking for a court room settlement to applease their dissatisfaction. You might have to bench the unhappy employee for the rest of the night that cost that loss, but at least you won’t be giving out free food.

In the end, as with everything in life- it’s up to you. The smart businesses have the policy listed on their menus, and give the managers the flexibility to wave it to make the customers feel special and therefore indirectly coaxing a 15% or greater tip through reciprocal guilt. And the smart managers may choose to give this option to the best staff to decide for the chance of earning a greater than 15% tip, and decide for the weaker staff.