The 5 years I have been open, I have had the option to add a tip to online pickups turned off. It seems like I am asking for a tip, or pesumptious.
Tonight 2 customers said somthing about it. And the crew asked me to turn it on. Like many times before. I said “ok, if a third person comes in and ask about I’ll turn it on”. I assumed I was more likely to get struck by lighting. But a third person did ask about it. 
What do you guys do?
We have it on. We also have a tip jar on the counter
I understand your concern about seeming like youre asking for a tip. I wouldnt worry too much bc with online orders especially you aren’t putting any unfair pressure on them to tip, like an instore prompt on those customer facing credit card screens. If the web order customer doesn’t want to tip they can just hit “no”
Alot of people like to tip though. It makes them feel good
we added it before Covid hit and its been huge (like really huge)…been a few years now and only had a couple comments. As long as there is a no tip option I do not see what the big deal is. Brace yourself though for how you will handle the distribution of the tips. Think long and hard about the problems that may arise…
We added it couple of months ago and the crews inside tips have quadrupled since. They are very happy.
First night on. Every online pickup had tips.
I’m just gonna say that from the consumer standpoint I absolutely hate being asked to tip on “fast food” that all the food joints are adopting. I know you can technically not tip them but it definitely makes you feel like an asshole if you click no and with the costs of everything going up it just makes my meal cost even more. It also screams to me “I don’t want to pay my employees more so I will make you subsidize there wages” I have even had some places where you get to the end of the order on there app or online and there is no option not to tip, just an option for how much your going to tip. I actually find myself avoiding places that ask for tips now.
for some reason I get pissed when I see fees for credit cards, etc but not this as long as there is a no tip option. From an operator standpoint, this has been an invaluable tool for employee retention. My counter girls average over $30/hour (minimum wage of $13 plus tips)
How often are you distributing these?
we have a tip jar as well that the girls empty out at the end of their shift. For the other tips I have to run a report at the end of the shift which resets the amount and jot it down. I have a blank template I use by day & employee to keep track and add to weekly payroll checks. The girls know where I keep it so it is transparent but I do not leave in plain sight since it would cause BIG issues with kitchen staff. My goal is to eventually distribute these tips amongst ALL employees since oftentimes the majority are pre-tipped online orders that have no refletion on the service received. I started looking into the rules in my state and got dizzy since I know there have been lawsuits with many larger restaurants with tip sharing, etc.
During 2020 covid summer my dining room was closed for 2 months some of my servers alternated days doing pickups and were making 200-300 in tips daily for months. I think it was unfair because the cooks were getting killed and I think people giving huge tips assumed they would share the tips but servers were so greedy. In normal times I’ve always had a tip line and jar and my hosts make decent tips, but they also get tipped out by the servers. I pay hosts 12 and here server pay is 6.98 …
We collect all tips (cash and cc) for the month for all carryout orders. At the end of the month all kitchen staff and managers (not GM) have the tips split by hours worked during the month. For the month it averages about 50-60 cents per hour.