Grin big, predict sun and tuck a flower behind each ear
Your waitress tells jokes, touches you on the shoulder and draws pictures on the check. Does she have a thing for you? Think again. She may be angling for a bigger tip, using a list of 14 suggestions from a researcher’s new booklet.
“Mega Tips: Scientifically Tested Techniques to Increase Your Tips,” by Michael Lynn, an associate professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, N.Y., is based on more than 25 years of studies by Lynn and others.
Among other tactics Lynn suggests to servers is to recommend higher-priced entrees, wear unusual clothing, introduce themselves, call customers by name and even offer sunny weather forecasts.
You may be wondering where service fits in. It doesn’t. Which is the most surprising conclusion in Lynn’s work. If you thought you were, at most, mildly confused about how much to leave servers, read on. It turns out that we don’t know our own minds, much less the mores of tipping.
People typically say they tip to reward good service, Lynn said, which seems logical, “but it’s obviously not true.”
In his studies, he asked diners to rate their server’s performance based on attentiveness, knowledge, promptness and other measures. Then he tallied the tips. The two numbers had little correlation. Service quality accounted for only 4% of the differences in diners’ tips, he found.
What does boost tips, he said, are higher meal tabs and servers’ actions that help them connect with their patrons.
Research shows the bill’s total accounts for about 70% of the differences in tips -- hardly a shock, given that most people tip on a percentage of the check; the usual recommendation is 15% to 20%. That’s one reason savvy servers prompt diners to choose pricier entrees and extras such as appetizers, after-dinner drinks and desserts.
Such suggestive selling works well during slow times. During busy times, the best strategy is “get ‘em their entrees, get ‘em out,” said Lynn, who worked his way through college as a bartender, busboy and waiter. Better to have a table of four wolfing down $20 rib-eye steaks than dawdling over $2 coffees and $5 slices of cake. No wonder some diners feel they’re being rushed out the door on Saturday nights. They are.
But it’s the customer-server rapport that’s really revealing. What we’re buying with restaurant tips is not service, Lynn contended, but social approval from our server and tablemates. The motive: “I don’t want them to think I’m a cheapskate and a bad guy.”
If we feel a personal connection with a server, we care more about what she or he thinks of us. We’re willing to pay more for that approval, so we tip more, Lynn said.
Many of Lynn’s tactics will sound familiar to frequent diners. His advice to servers:
* Wear something unusual. “This will help customers perceive you as an individual ... rather than a faceless member of the staff.” In one study, waitresses who wore flowers in their hair earned 17% more in tips than those who didn’t.
* Introduce yourself by name. This can “make you seem friendly and polite and make the customer feel more empathy for you.” In a study at a Charlie Brown’s restaurant in Southern California, taking this step increased average tips from $3.49 to $5.44.
* Squat next to the table. This makes you more equal to the customer, brings your face closer and improves eye contact. In one study, this action earned about $1 more per table in tips.
* Touch your customers, preferably on the shoulder (which feels less private than other zones) for a second or two. Effect on tips: As much as 17% was left, up from 12%. Diners may flinch at this idea, but that’s because “people don’t know what they like,” Lynn said. They may not even notice they’re being touched, but they’ll still tip more.
* Repeat customers’ orders, word for word. This increases others’ “liking for and interpersonal closeness to the imitator.” In a Netherlands study, it also doubled tips.
* Call customers by name. It’s flattering -- and profitable, earning 10% more in tips at several Kansas restaurants studied.
* Draw on the check. A “smiley face” personalizes the transaction and improves customers’ mood. In a study at a Philadelphia restaurant, this increased waitresses’ tips by nearly 18% but, oddly, had no significant effect on waiters’ tips.
* Smile. At a Seattle cocktail lounge, a waitress earned 140% more in tips when she sported a “large, open-mouthed smile.”
* Write “thank you” on checks. This may make diners “feel obligated to earn that gratitude by leaving larger tips.” In one study, the average tip went up from 16% to 18% on a “thank you.”
* Give customers candy. “People generally feel obligated to reciprocate when they receive gifts from others.” Effect on tips in one study: 23% instead of 19%.
My favorite suggestion is to write a favorable weather forecast on the check.
“Sunny weather puts people in a good mood, and people in a good mood leave bigger tips than those in a bad mood,” Lynn’s booklet says. The payoff in one study: 19% more in tips.
Manipulative?
“Of course,” Lynn said.
He acknowledged that there are insincere servers “who hate a customer’s guts, and yet they smile, write ‘thank you’ on the check and ‘come again.’ ” But more common, he said, are servers who like their customers and want to please them but aren’t sure how. That’s where his pointers come in.
Diners who don’t care to become best friends with their server or who cringe at being touched by a stranger may find Lynn’s work dispiriting because it looks as though “Hi, I’m Mike, I’ll be your waiter” isn’t going away soon -- at least not at the middle-brow eateries that Lynn’s studies focus on.
Lynn, by the way, takes his own advice. He tips 15% to 20% or even 40% if he’s at a regular lunch spot, he said.
“It really depends,” he added, “on how much I like the server.”
Jane Engle welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.
