Working 2 jobs has it's ups and downs, and one of the downsides is definitely a shortage of time to blog. But I've finally got a couple of days off, so I'm squeaking out yet another thrilling installment of my series on tipping (and the auto-grat) today. If you're new to this site please read Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 and Part 7, and subscribe to this blog for the final installments.
For you cool kids in the know already ...
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| Source : TheAtlanticWire.com "Please Welcome the Rise of the Automatic Gratuity" |
For example, where I currently work the menu reads "20% Gratuity will be added for parties of 7 or more."
Maybe it's (an archaic) 15% where you like to dine most, and just maybe 20% seems a little bit steep to you.
Over the years I've worked at restaurants where the auto-grat was 15%, 18%, and now (finally!) 20%. What this means to me actually (I'll get to you soon enough) is simply that "I've moved up" in the past several years. I can say this most especially because I've also worked in places where there was and still is NO auto-grat for large groups... and you know what? By comparison, these are the crappiest restaurants you can choose to frequent. I'll explain why later, but just know that I've found the longer I'm in this business, I finally see how the auto-grat actually benefits the paying customer now, not just how it benefits me.
"OH RE-A-L-L-L-Y?" you may be thinking.. "But I thought automatic tips just produced lazier waiters, who don't work as hard because they know they're going to get paid no matter what! HOW can you say such a preposterous thing, young man?" Read on John...
I'm with you, to a point anyways, as I can freely admit that occasionally the guarantee of getting a tip does cause some workers to slack off a bit. More than a bit in rare cases, conceded. And as I've already made clear, you the customer have every right to speak to a manager and have that charge removed or reduced if you don't feel the service was adequate. But as I've also said, it happens much more frequently that good servers who give great service get stiffed or screwed over by cheap or unknowledgeable (often foreign) customers, than good customers get taken by bad servers.
It happens, I know, but most often these are the laziest workers and/or the most mis-matched people for the job, who eventually weed themselves out and either 1) Quit because they're really just not suited for this line of work, or 2) They get themselves fired for their non-customer-service attitude or their shoddy work ethic overall. Good riddance either way, I say.
For the majority of us in the business however, the psychology behind the auto-grat actually has a reverse effect of what you might initially think. What actually starts going through a decent worker's mind are thoughts like "Oh I can't slack off or mess up on this table. I don't want them accusing me of acting lazy because of the auto-grat. I can't afford to have them talk badly about me to a manager, because I might lose my job. Or I might never be given a big table again. I'd better make sure I'm doing an extra good job on this table, EVEN IF this means I have to kind of ignore other tables..."
(Exhibit A : Old-time blog readers of mine will remember my "work-wife" story, where I shared that the first time I was given a table of 12 people at a new job, I actually paid my co-worker $20 - in advance! - to help me make sure the table got great service.)
Seriously folks, as I "moved up" in this field, I've spoken with many, many, servers who have told me that THIS is the attitude they began to take when assigned larger tables that will be auto-gratted. At a personal level, we simply don't want to be accused of "being lazy because the tip is included." Of course there's bad apples in every field, and if you'll just hang with me on this I'll try not to come to your job and judge your performance by what your laziest co-worker does, okay?
Look, no supervisor wants to deal with angry customers, right? Not one, not two, but definitely not ten at once! So speaking in very broad terms here of course, I want you to understand that when given a choice, restaurant policies and the individual managers are going to default to giving the larger tables to the servers who have proven that they can and will consistently give such parties good service. This is but one way seeing an auto-grat on your bill has worked in your favor that you didn't even know about. It's exponentially truer by the way, if you made a reservation, and management had the chance to plan the evening, and to make a personal merit-based judgment call on what server(s) are going to be assigned your large table.
Are you starting to follow me yet, even just a bit? The management doesn't want to get bitched at by the customers of course, but especially not by his or her bosses either, if your complaint goes over their head to their superior (or online, these days). Simply put, the greater the number of people at the table, the more a "floor manager" has a vested interest in your satisfaction, and wants to give your table to the best server(s) available at the time you walk in - if he or she has any choice in the matter. Without a reservation, it may come down to random rotation of course, and the server you get - especially if they happen to be new - will be in a "sink or swim" position... Either they step up and do a good job by you and hope you say something nice about them to the manager on your way out so they can move up, or they'll possibly get a complaint and be out of work without some drastic improvement. And generally speaking, they know this.
If it's any consolation to those of you that may resent the autograt, every place I've ever worked, auto-gratting a check can only be done on the computer by a manager. Our pimply-faced minimum-wage friend Fred can't just add a tip to any check he pleases. At my last two jobs, both companies' policy stated that the manager on duty HAD to drop by the table, and check in with the party before the autograt even got added to the bill. Generally, this will happen sometime after the entrees have been served, or while you're enjoying desert. (That's your chance to speak up, by the way. Otherwise, forever hold your peace.) If at that time the table is a hot mess of uncleared dirty dishes, the manager will either speak to the server to correct it, or tell them they're not going to auto-grat the table, simply because he/she either thinks the auto-grat wasn't earned, or doesn't want to risk the complaint of such coming back to his/her boss.
So now you know okay? I'm sorry to you younger servers reading this who may not appreciate me telling the customers exactly when and how it is most strategic to lodge a complaint or get you un-gratted. But hey, I've got a book to sell and that's not going to happen without me spilling some secrets okay? Just do your job and you'll have nothing to worry about. If you're overwhelmed and can't keep up (which still happens to me, to all of us) part of doing your job involves knowing when to ask your teammates or management for help, thus ensuring that your guests receive the service they deserve. So swallow your pride youngster, drop the attitude that the world owes you a living, get help when you need it and you will start making more money as well as stop giving the rest of us a bad name.
Where was I?
Oh. The fact is that - bad apples aside - nicer restaurants are staffed with decent workers who have bills to pay and who have goals in life, who therefore actually do want to do their job well, so that they can move up a little over time, and who are going to work hard to earn the right to be assigned the larger tables (that are auto-gratted) more and more frequently because (light bulb!) that's where the money is!
I and every other server in America know that we make our money based on three factors and three factors only, and "Surprise! Surprise!" only one of them even PARTLY relates to how good our service turns out to be.
#1) Volume : the number of people we wait on per night, multiplied by
#2) Sales : the amount of money you spend (or that we convince you to spend) multiplied by
#3) Gratuity: the percentage of the total bill that you leave as a tip (10, 15, 18, 20, 30%+, whatever...)
Except for the auto-grat, the last of course remains out of our control. Some people are just poor tippers who will never change, and that's just one sad fact of my and others servers' lives. For every story you can tell me about receiving bad service and seeing the tip added, I can tell you dozens about when I gave great - impeccable even - service and still got tipped 0-10%. We servers all know that whether or not we get a 20% tip (our minimum expectation when service is great) depends as much upon WHO we're waiting on and the TYPE of customer you are, as it does on the quality of service we give.
Receiving 25-30% tips (this may shock some of you, but yes, some people do tip in that range voluntarily) begins with the type of customer first, combined with giving fantastic, attentive, personalized service. 30% doesn't happen every night (to me at least) and for the most part whether a server receives 0% or 30% remains fairly unpredictable, and largely out of our control.
So what CAN we at least influence, if not control.......?
Total sales per guest check can be increased over time if we work on little things like suggestive selling of appetizers, deserts, highly-priced wine, etc. And we do, and some restaurants reward us (via daily contests, via better schedules, or by monitoring our PPA - Per Person Average - because the company wants to see those numbers go up, and their profits increase).
As to volume, we can't really do that much as far "marketing" to get more people walking through the doors, except from giving fantastic and personalized service that results in you asking for us by name when you do come in. "Call parties" (as we refer to them) aside, we can't otherwise do that much to effect how many people come in, or how many sit in our section tonight. (Well, actually there was this one time when I was dating a hostess and got more tables than I should have, but that was a long time ago and it's not a tactic I could employ now. However, offering occasional bribes, drinks, food, flirting and compliments actually does work out pretty well for some waiters.)
BUT in general, we CAN work our asses off to prove to management that we're worthy of being chosen to get that party of 8 or 12 that does call up for a reservation tonight. With the minimum gratuity being guaranteed and the volume being handed to me, I can focus so much better on service (and salesmanship ;) with your party, than I can with my other tables. If my manager knows beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt that you are going to get great service from me and have nothing but nice things to say about our restaurant when you leave for days and weeks and months to come, then he's going to assign you to me, as well as many more large tables over time.
But if he's going to receive complaints and perhaps be told that "We resent the tip being added because our server seemed lazy and really didn't deserve it" just how long do you think it's going to be before he assigns me to another large party? Or to the Unemployment Office?
Point being, contrary to what you might think or even have experienced a few times in your life ... I, and every decent server knows that making a conscience choice to give bad service "because the tip is included" becomes so counter-productive to our financial needs and goals that it's not even a logical choice. Exceptions of bad workers aside (blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, okay?) we DON'T give you worse service "because the tip is automatic."
Generally speaking we will try to give you better service, or at least the best that we're capable of, because doing so equals money in our pockets, and will continue to do so long after you're gone.
So, those times when you see a gratuity added, it's most likely worked in your favor because - out of the servers you could have gotten that night - the odds are you got one whom the hostess or manager knew would result in the least amount of complaints to them personally.
That's just one way the auto-grat works in your favor. I'll share another one next, as well as support my earlier statement that restaurants that don't ever include the tip in your bill are likely the worst places to eat.
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