Consumers are fed up of the disconcerting ritual at coffee shops, food trucks, bakeries and other businesses using tablet credit card readers. The customers are asked to quickly decide the tip in the presence of the one who served them and other people in the queue.
So out of guilt, you are forced to leave a tip for the counter service that you are provided. The customers are given an option to pick up a tip of 18%, 20%, 25% or “no tip”.
Mr Dimyan, one of the customers said,
It’s so awkward. You press the middle button so you don’t look cheap to the people behind you in line.”
Thom Kenney, another patron says,
It guilts you into it. It absolutely does, because they are standing there. You want to make them happy.
John Velez who is a clerk at Squeeze explains how he deals with the awkwardness of that moment. He simply averts his eyes as he can’t watch this ritual pushing the customers to tip them. He says,
I feel so weird. We feel like we are pushing you to give tips.
The technology used for payment is making the tipping custom just impossible to escape. Susan Randall feels that giving a tip for stellar services is perfectly fine. She adds on,
You buy a muffin, and you tip the person who carried it 14 inches from the case to the counter? Please.
Emily Post Institute says that tipping for counter help is not an obligation, unlike other sit-down services provided by waiters. Only occasional counter tipping is recommended and that too if you are a regular customer and are happy with the service.
The device explicitly prompts the consumers to give tip and you can’t escape it by making any excuses. The businesses are now able to deploy a non intrusive way to ask the customers for tip.
Source: wsj.com, Independent Recorder
