Arent tips my only way to insure that I get prompt service?
Actually, it turns out that tips and quality of service are usually very loosely correlated, at most (see “Tip Levels and Service: An Update, Extension and Reconciliation” by Michael Lynn of Cornell University, 2003, and “Incentives and Service Quality in the Restaurant Industry: The Tipping Service Puzzle”, by Ofer H. Azar of Ben-Gurion University, 2007). People generally just tip what they tip. Its a pretty unusual occasion where quality of service affects the amount of the tip much, and as a result it’s even rarer when a prospective tip affects the quality of service. Interestingly, however, female servers drawing smiley faces on the check has been shown to increase tips by 18% (Rind & Bordia 1996). Anecdotally, our experience agrees with the research. Since we switched to this policy, feedback from our guests regarding our service improved significantly, meaning that by not accepting tips we were able to improve our service.
