Continue to Site

Mandatory Tipping

idahopizzaman

idahopizzaman

Member
I have a question, what would you do in a situation where you have a big order come in, over $400, to be picked up & they do not leave a tip? One of my assistant managers has said we should require a 10-15% tip on all orders over $100 that are picked up. Any ideas? Usually delivery drivers get a nice tip as do the front staff when they have a large orders.
 
Last edited:
Why would anyone tip on a pickup order?

Because it is a $400 order? What if it was 20 $20 orders - would a tip still be expected?
 
Last edited:
I have had assistant managers bitch about this before. Basically i tell them this, An order is an order. Be it 1 pizza or 500. Yes it sucks to spend all that time on large orders and not get a tip, but that’s not a requirement.
 
Last edited:
I am against mandatory tipping in all situations. In my opinion a gratuity is to say thanks for going above and beyond the basic service.
 
Last edited:
that is ridiculous…I would have trouble keeping a straight face…this guy is a manager? hmm?
 
Last edited:
We only have a tip added if it is a catering situation… i.e. we bring the product and serve it. We have done this for some larger orders where we bring a lot of pizzas, catering size salads, whole pans of wings and plates, plastic, napkins etc… and we serve it out and clean up. Then we add 18% like all the other catering outfits do. Otherwise, tips are voluntary… ESPECIALLY on carry-out. However, I would “notice” if another business owner in town ordered $400 and did not tip. We are in a resort town with a service industry economy and what goes around comes around.
 
Last edited:
On an order that size I tip those that helped me put it together, regardless if the customer tips or not. I am put off by mandatory tipping in places that have it.
 
Last edited:
bodegahwy said:
We only have a tip added if it is a catering situation… i.e. we bring the product and serve it. We have done this for some larger orders where we bring a lot of pizzas, catering size salads, whole pans of wings and plates, plastic, napkins etc… and we serve it out and clean up. Then we add 18% like all the other catering outfits do. Otherwise, tips are voluntary… ESPECIALLY on carry-out. However, I would “notice” if another business owner in town ordered $400 and did not tip. We are in a resort town with a service industry economy and what goes around comes around.
Click to expand...
We have had quite a few situations like this where there is no tip given by the customer. Sometimes, in situations like this, the person paying might now know if tip/gratuity is already included, etc. We are considering adding a gratuity for orders like this with our catering trailer.
 
Last edited:
Here is what we did
We went to a “No Tipping Allowed” environment, For a few different reasons, and it has been much easier being an employer with it
We added a 15% “service charge” on all menu items (its not a tip!) we call it our “Fair & Equitable Wage Program”
Due to federal laws, tips cannot be pooled and disbursed among all crew members, so we disburse this “Service Charge” equally among all hourly employees (not management or ownership)
This allows me to attract the best labor the area has to offer (that’s not saying much these days though) It is no longer a fight getting my BOH people to help out up front, and another bonus i’ve found is that when my staff feels someone is not pulling their weight, they speak up about it because it is cutting into their pay by needing to split that EWP (Equitable Wage Program) amount with slugs gets them upset and they speak up to the employee being less productive, and to management.

The one event that turned me to this was a large pick-up order of about $1,500.00, a week earlier a cashier spent 30+ minutes with the customer getting all the info, figuring amounts needed, setting time/dates, entered the prder into the POS.
So the day of pick up, the customer comes in, A different cashier just clocked in, looks up and greets the customer, they said they are here for their large order, she accepts the money, they tip $75-$80, guess who that tip got assigned to? Not the person who did all the work booking the event, not the cooks who prepared and packaged it, not the support staff who cleaned up and did prep for it, the girl who just clocked in and did absolutely nothing concerning this order. I saw that as very unfair, so working within the laws, I saw no remedy. So enter or EWP …
For the receipt., I use a Canadian printer template so the EWP shows as a line item, and we have notices all over the entry and counter of our establishment to inform customers of the program/

99.9% love the plan, but there is always a few bungholes who cannot wrap their head around it.
the way I explain, is we could have raised prices by 15% , but we still end up with unfair tipping disbursement and a chance of getting into trouble with current laws if tips are pooled/

My cashiers do not get a paid a “Tipped Wage” they get well above minimum, the EWP funds collected get split among all employees according to hours worked, so each get a different percentage

Read this >>>> http://www.deltadiner.com/follow-up-on-comments-regarding-no-tip-policy/
We use a similar program, but instead of our staff getting the same hourly pay, it slides with the sales we do, so if we are slammed, they make more money, not so busy, they don’t make as much.
The week of July 4th, my main line cook exceeded $25/Hour, my dishwashers/support crew made over $15/Hour, cashiers came in around $18/hour
So not everyone gets payed exactly the same, they get paid hourly according to their skills, then get the EWP on top of their hourly.

Check it out, it really got a team environment happening here, and happy happy happy staff that can now have a better quality of life
 
Last edited:
durbancic said:
We are considering adding a gratuity for orders like this with our catering trailer.
Click to expand...
Gratuity is always added in the catering business. Customers who use catering will be familiar with this. Often it is called “service fee” but in the catering world it is the norm.
 
Last edited:
bodegahwy said:
Gratuity is always added in the catering business. Customers who use catering will be familiar with this. Often it is called “service fee” but in the catering world it is the norm.
Click to expand...
Funny thing is, when before we opened as a restaurant, we catered for several years, and I did not add a service charge or gratuity onto our bill, that was also clearly spelled out in our contract that we do not charge a gratuity .

The main reason I went this route was to stop the butthurt between BOH & FOH staff, and when I need to pull an FOH person from up front to help in back, there is no whining then either about “Gotta make tips”
 
Last edited:
GotRocks said:
The main reason I went this route was to stop the butthurt between BOH & FOH staff, and when I need to pull an FOH person from up front to help in back, there is no whining then either about “Gotta make tips”
Click to expand...
In my catering experience (my pizza business as well as an employee in a catering firm and also a restaurant that did catering) all employees split service fees. There was no BOH/FOH issue.
 
Last edited:
bodegahwy said:
In my catering experience (my pizza business as well as an employee in a catering firm and also a restaurant that did catering) all employees split tips. There was no BOH/FOH issue.
Click to expand...
Be careful with tip splitting outside of your FOH people, there is a federal law prohibiting that, so if an FOH person wanted to raise a stink, it could go very badly.

Here is an article that highlights that practice, and a good explanation of why others, and we did what we did >>>>> http://www.eater.com/2016/2/26/11119264/restaurants-tip-pooling-banned-ruling-court
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
GotRocks said:
Be careful with tip splitting outside of your FOH people, there is a federal law prohibiting that, so if an FOH person wanted to raise a stink, it could go very badly.
Click to expand...
Certainly an issue if you have servers being paid a gratuity added by the customer which the business then seeks to split among different employees. Not the case when everyone is being paid well above minimum wage and the service fee is on the invoice and is being shared by all.
 
Last edited:
bodegahwy said:
Certainly an issue if you have servers being paid a gratuity added by the customer which the business then seeks to split among different employees. Not the case when everyone is being paid well above minimum wage and the service fee is on the invoice and is being shared by all.
Click to expand...
|

Gotcha, I misunderstood. I thought you were pooling tips and disbursing among non-service personnel in a restaurant situation, not catered events.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top