Tipping
The perceptions of waiters and customers on restaurant tipping
Chu-Mei Liu
Hsin Sheng College of Medical Care and Management, Pingzhen City, Taiwan
Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to see whether people who serve and people who receive service in restaurants are aware of the factors that researchers and restaurant professionals believe affect the size of tips. Design/methodology/approach – The research comprises two studies. Study 1 focuses on waiters – an anonymous questionnaire was used. Study 2 was designed to assess the attitudes and beliefs of customers about the same variables that waiters had earlier reported on. Findings – The findings confirmed a number of hypotheses. Respondents claim that they themselves tip more than most people. Results indicate that waiters-customers were more generous tippers and were more accurate in the bill than customers. Although waiters and customers share many beliefs about tipping, waiters may be more aware than customers of the relevant characteristics of the situation and of the individual involved. Research limitations/implications – Additional research is needed to help managers to identify dissatisfied customers by training to watch customers and read customers’ non-verbal signals of dissatisfaction. The study may be a useful approach to studying other occupations as well. Practical implications – The findings suggest that management should not rely on tips as the only motivation for service, and as an indicator of waiters’ performance and level of customers’ satisfaction. Originality/value – This current effort was undertaken using the new dyad, non-waiter customer versus waiter-customer, to capture the effect of experience and understanding of the waiters’ role in the tipping process. Keywords Restaurants, Service delivery, Customer service quality Paper type Research paper
An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
From academic
Chu-Mei Liu
Hsin Sheng College of Medical Care and Management, Pingzhen City, Taiwan
Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to see whether people who serve and people who receive service in restaurants are aware of the factors that researchers and restaurant professionals believe affect the size of tips. Design/methodology/approach – The research comprises two studies. Study 1 focuses on waiters – an anonymous questionnaire was used. Study 2 was designed to assess the attitudes and beliefs of customers about the same variables that waiters had earlier reported on. Findings – The findings confirmed a number of hypotheses. Respondents claim that they themselves tip more than most people. Results indicate that waiters-customers were more generous tippers and were more accurate in the bill than customers. Although waiters and customers share many beliefs about tipping, waiters may be more aware than customers of the relevant characteristics of the situation and of the individual involved. Research limitations/implications – Additional research is needed to help managers to identify dissatisfied customers by training to watch customers and read customers’ non-verbal signals of dissatisfaction. The study may be a useful approach to studying other occupations as well. Practical implications – The findings suggest that management should not rely on tips as the only motivation for service, and as an indicator of waiters’ performance and level of customers’ satisfaction. Originality/value – This current effort was undertaken using the new dyad, non-waiter customer versus waiter-customer, to capture the effect of experience and understanding of the waiters’ role in the tipping process. Keywords Restaurants, Service delivery, Customer service quality Paper type Research paper
An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
From academic