Technologies Increasing Tips for Restaurant Employees

While restaurant employees and lawmakers maybe putting the pressure on the restaurant industry to increase their wages. Technologies like Presto, mobile payment apps, and IncentivizeMe! are the first to increase tips for servers and cashiers.

Presto

E-La Carte’s Presto is a tableside tablet that allows guests to order food and pay for the check without the assistance of a server. Tech Crunch reported that restaurants piloting Presto saw an 11.2 percent improvement in table turn time and most importantly an increase in tips.  Reporter, Sarah Perez writes,” Servers can then focus more on making sure guests are happy, instead of running back and forth with paper tickets. And even though servers may have to do less work, tablets that suggest tip amounts have been shown to increase tips.”

Mobile Payment Apps

Like the tabletop tablets, mobile payments allow guests to pay for their meals without the server’s assistance.  And with apps like Dash and Cover, the minimum gratuity is set at 18 percent which is 3 percent higher than the “standard.” In the article posted on Today Money, Cover’s founder-Mark Egerman states, “The New York City-wide tipping averages tend to fall between 18 and 20 percent of the check. And for us having the average tip be over 22 percent means that there is a noticeable difference.” The article attributes the increase to the fact that patrons are given a percentage to choose from, causing them to tip higher than they normally would.

IncentivizeMe!

MarketingVitals.com’s IncentivizeMe! app puts restaurant employees in charge of their gratuity.  The app provides servers and cashiers with tips on how to improve their performance or sales during workplace contests. Typically servers and cashiers believe they either can’t win, don’t know how to win or where they stand in a contest causing them to lose momentum. With the app, each team members can view their ranking and how much they need to sell in order to surpass other contestants. In case studies published on MarketingVitals.com, we’ve found that a fast casual concept was able to improve in selling by 45 percent. While a quick service concept’s cashiers improved by 77 percent during the contest.

Is your restaurant using any of these technologies? Share your experiences by commenting below!