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Hospitality Leadership Through Learning
Faculty & Research

Increasing Servers' Tips

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Vol 4 No 5
By: Michael Lynn Ph.D.

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Executive Summary: Restaurant managers would do well to assist members of their waitstaff to earn larger tips. Although tipping seems beyond management's purview, both research and common sense suggest that good tips mean a satisfied staff, which will improve service levels and reduce turnover.

Managers can help servers improve their tips by encouraging the servers to: (1) introduce themselves by name, (2) squat down next to the table when introducing themselves, (3) wear big, open mouthed smiles, (4) wear unusual ornaments or items of clothing, (5) entertain customers with jokes or puzzles, (6) practice suggestive selling, (7) repeat customers' orders back to them, (8) touch customers briefly on the arm or shoulder, (9) forcast good weather, (10) write "Thank You" on the check, (11) draw pictures on the check, (12) use tip trays embossed with credit card logos, (13) call customers by name, and (14) give customers after dinner candies.

A convenient way to encourage these behaviors is to distribute Mega Tips, a publication designed to inform servers about the psychology of tipping and specific techniques to increase tips. This publication is available free of charge from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research. Managers who are skeptical about the benefits of distributing this booklet to their waitstaff might consider accepting an offer to conduct an experiment to establish the tip-enhancing actions' effect on tips, sales, turnover, and customer satisfaction.

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If this CHR Report made a positive impact on your management approach or business operations, we welcome your commentary. We would like to post your comments on our website. Please submit your comments to js372@sha.cornell.edu and rohit.verma@cornell.edu.

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About Michael Lynn Ph.D.
Dr. Michael Lynn is a professor of consumer behavior and marketing at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the Ohio State University in 1987, and has taught in the marketing departments of business and hospitality schools since 1988. Dr. Lynn paid his way through school by waiting tables and bartending. This experience sparked his interest in service gratuities (tipping), a topic on which he has over 35 published academic papers. His other research focuses on consumer status and uniqueness seeking. Dr. Lynn is the past editor of the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Academy Marketing Science, which gave him an outstanding reviewer award in 2006.