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If tipping is necessary in restaurants to promote good service, why isn't it equally necessary in other contexts? In businesses without tipping, managers have a
by jarrett 13y ago
If tipping is necessary in restaurants to promote good service, why isn't it equally necessary in other contexts? In businesses without tipping, managers have an incentive to please customers, so good managers[1] encourage employees (by various means) to provide good service. Why can't the same be done in restaurants?
I'm not claiming tipping is certainly useless. Just questioning the argument in its favor.
[1] Not all managers are good, and so we encounter businesses that provide poor service. Sometimes the market weeds those out, sometimes not. According to the parent commenter, that's what happened at the restaurant s/he visited.
- Crito 13y ago> "If tipping is necessary in restaurants to promote good service, why isn't it equally necessary in other contexts?" Maybe it is. No Tips vs Tips: Delivery: Package/Letter (no tips): constant missed deliveries. poor to non-existent delivery scheduling. crushed boxes. Food (tips): reliable delivery within the hour. delivery person knocks on the door more than once. never found a pizza carelessly thrown into the bushes beside my door. Luggage handling: Checked luggage (no tips): constantly lost. Porter/redcap (tips): the people you go to if you *actually* want your luggage taken care of. Service/Repair: Cable (no tips): only able to schedule service during inconvenient hours a week in advance, with service windows so large that I need to take a day off work. Plumbing (tips/negotiable pay): I have gotten plumbers to my home in the middle of the night. Apartment repair guy (no tips): Ahahahahaha.... The one counter-example that I can think of is cab/uber service. There is a hell of a lot wrong with the cab industry though.
- dijit 13y agoSounds like bribes to me. At least in the way John McAffee described bribery and corruption in the middle east.
- balladeer 13y agoYou know what, here's the example I give you. Please have a look (may not happen in your place but happens everywhere else): - You have got to get your store's license renewed but there's a huge lag and there are many people ahead line: Pay the officer, problem solved. - Need to renew your passport: Pay the consul officer, you get it all expedited. - etc etc Yes, that's exactly what you are doing. You are bribing them to do something that they should do normally. They will basically keep misplacing other people's deliveries, treat other guests bad, losing others' luggage, making others take their day off, not do plumbing in time, not fix people's flats, while they do yours because you pay them some "extra money". Rephrase it what you want but we are talking about clear bribes here.
- Crito 13y agoIf bribery is necessary for me to receive good service, then I will use bribery. Paying a bribe does not violate my moral code (although demanding one does) so that is not important to me. What is important to me is correctly getting the order that I payed for in a timely manner. For the record: Bribery, as you describe it, is alive and well in America. My brother wanted to go to the Naval Academy. In order to be accepted, he needed a nomination. How did he get a nomination? He volunteered for the reelection campaign of one of his senators. Asking your senators/representatives for help expediting the processing of documents is fairly common too.
- balladeer 13y agoWell then I would just say "good for you" and then let's agree to disagree:-)
- pbhjpbhj 13y agoYou can generally offer tradespeople/servers and the like extra money whenever you wish!
- Crito 13y agoThat is rather irrelevant. While I could reward the UPS delivery guy of the week with a few dollars, the offer would catch him by surprize. Tips cannot retroactively improve service; they only improve service if you are a recognized repeat customer, or if they are common.