Comments on: The point of tipping http://www.jacobgrier.com/blog/archives/661.html Coffee, Cocktails & More Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:44:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: AS http://www.jacobgrier.com/blog/archives/661.html#comment-192730 AS Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:04:19 +0000 http://www.jacobgrier.com/blog/archives/661.html#comment-192730 I think you offer solid reasons in support of tipping. As a frequent tea drinker at coffeehouses that use prepackaged tea bags, I often feel awkward about tipping. It is like saying, "Thanks for, uh, pouring hot water into a cup for me." Having said that, I do tip for personable service. I think you offer solid reasons in support of tipping. As a frequent tea drinker at coffeehouses that use prepackaged tea bags, I often feel awkward about tipping. It is like saying, “Thanks for, uh, pouring hot water into a cup for me.”

Having said that, I do tip for personable service.

]]> By: Chad http://www.jacobgrier.com/blog/archives/661.html#comment-192320 Chad Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:15:37 +0000 http://www.jacobgrier.com/blog/archives/661.html#comment-192320 While I pretty much accept your proposed reasons for tipping a barista, I don't see how most coffeehouse tipping arrangements actually allow the customer to demonstrate his or her motives for tipping. The basic problem with tipping in coffeehouses, in my opinion, is that people generally prefer to tip an individual and most drinks in a coffeehouse are prepared in a highly interactive team environment. Let's say I want to tip for a personable experience. That experience probably comes from my interaction with the cashier, and now I feel like I'm either tipping for punching buttons on the register or demonstrating that I know I make more money (Dr. Lynn's neurotic guilt thing). On the other hand, let's say I want to tip because I know baristas are skilled employees who deserve it. Now I'm putting money into a jar the baristas probably can't see, and I could just as easily be rewarded with a poorly prepared drink as a high quality one. Moreover, I know that if I put my money into a tip jar there's almost certainly tip sharing, which means that my revealed preference is diluted beyond recognition. In other words, regardless of the intent of my tip, in reality my tip is essentially a gesture of altruism. To be fair, things aren't quite as bad as I'm describing, mainly because the coffeehouses you're concerned with are designed to cater to the repeat customer. Baristas can easily information share as they get to know the tipping habits of the regulars, and if I'm a regular I have an incentive to tip visibly and often in an effort to build a favorable relationship. But if I'm too infrequent a customer to earn visual recognition, I don't see how I have any incentive to tip because even if I have a good reason to do so I have no way of signaling that reason to the baristas. If we really can't think of a way for the individual customer to demonstrate preference through tipping, I'd love to see a coffeehouse -- or perhaps a restaurant that practices tip sharing -- try to tackle the problem of incentivizing desired barista behavior through internal tip allocation. Could a manager find a way to evaluate the quality of drink preparation and distribute tips accordingly? Could the manager institute some sort of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_shopping" rel="nofollow">mystery or secret shopping</a> program to incentivize personability? I dunno -- would love to see the experiment though. While I pretty much accept your proposed reasons for tipping a barista, I don’t see how most coffeehouse tipping arrangements actually allow the customer to demonstrate his or her motives for tipping. The basic problem with tipping in coffeehouses, in my opinion, is that people generally prefer to tip an individual and most drinks in a coffeehouse are prepared in a highly interactive team environment.

Let’s say I want to tip for a personable experience. That experience probably comes from my interaction with the cashier, and now I feel like I’m either tipping for punching buttons on the register or demonstrating that I know I make more money (Dr. Lynn’s neurotic guilt thing). On the other hand, let’s say I want to tip because I know baristas are skilled employees who deserve it. Now I’m putting money into a jar the baristas probably can’t see, and I could just as easily be rewarded with a poorly prepared drink as a high quality one. Moreover, I know that if I put my money into a tip jar there’s almost certainly tip sharing, which means that my revealed preference is diluted beyond recognition. In other words, regardless of the intent of my tip, in reality my tip is essentially a gesture of altruism.

To be fair, things aren’t quite as bad as I’m describing, mainly because the coffeehouses you’re concerned with are designed to cater to the repeat customer. Baristas can easily information share as they get to know the tipping habits of the regulars, and if I’m a regular I have an incentive to tip visibly and often in an effort to build a favorable relationship. But if I’m too infrequent a customer to earn visual recognition, I don’t see how I have any incentive to tip because even if I have a good reason to do so I have no way of signaling that reason to the baristas.

If we really can’t think of a way for the individual customer to demonstrate preference through tipping, I’d love to see a coffeehouse — or perhaps a restaurant that practices tip sharing — try to tackle the problem of incentivizing desired barista behavior through internal tip allocation. Could a manager find a way to evaluate the quality of drink preparation and distribute tips accordingly? Could the manager institute some sort of mystery or secret shopping program to incentivize personability? I dunno — would love to see the experiment though.

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