Paul Silcock tackles the thorny subject of tipping in pubs
When did the trend to start ordering bitter by the most obscure and smallest piece of writing on the pump clip start? I’m over 50 now, so maybe I missed this on TikTok. Is it some kind of playful prank, or some attempt to “appreciate” every bit of text on a pump badge? Wherever it started, it’s a strange thing.
You probably haven’t even noticed that it’s a thing, unless you work behind a bar though. Or pay particular attention to what the person in front of you is ordering. Seemingly though, when confronted with an unknown beer, perhaps one in four customers will opt to order said beer not by the name of the beer, as in “A pint of Bombshell please,” or by the brewery name, “A pint of Chadlington, if I may.”
Instead, they’ll search the pump clip before ordering, “A pint of session ale,” or “Just half a 4.2% ABV,” or even
“A glass of the Designed and Printed by InstaPrint.” This is not the point of this article, so why am I going on about it? As a way of demonstrating people’s selective observational skills.
They might not be able to pick out a brewery name from an ABV, but everyone can spot a tip screen, even if it’s just to skip it. And there’s no judgement there either. Which is more than can be said for some people’s reactions when faced with a tip screen. I won’t detail every grumble I’ve heard, but mainly people feel they’re already paying enough for beer and they’re probably right. Beer’s not cheap, and having to add a tip on top does seem a bit harsh.
But here’s the thing, you’re not expected to, it’s completely voluntary. But if you’re settling the bill after dinner, when multiple staff have been involved in the pouring of beer, cooking and delivering of food, as well as the clearing away of all the used plates and dishes, not to mention the washing up, and you’ve enjoyed yourself, then maybe tipping is a little bit more acceptable.
Just remember as I explain how valuable tips are, that tipping is, and always has to be, purely voluntary. Otherwise it’s not a tip, it’s a cost. Like the booking fee cinemas and live venues slap on your ticket price when you buy a ticket online. If I have to pay it anyway, why even show it? If I buy a pair of trousers I don’t expect to find the price doesn’t include a left leg, and I have to pay a Legging Fee at the cash desk. Just roll it into the price.
I digress.
I’m going to try and explain what tipping can mean for staff without going into actual numbers, and just using the tip screen on the card machines at the Gardeners Arms as an example. Firstly though, it’s worth pointing out we always had a tip screen on our card machines. But it was just a numeric keypad, a blank tip screen asking customers to enter their own tip amount, or skip to payment. Which just about everyone did.
On a whim I changed the tip screen to one that simply displayed tips as set financial options, including two options to add No Tip, just to see what would happen. Remember my earlier point about selective observation? When faced with a tip screen with actual amounts on it, rather than a blank keypad, people noticed. People noticed in two ways:
They tipped more, a lot more. With the need to stop and decide what they would like to add done for them, customers are much happier, it would seem, to tip. Or
They would exclaim how ridiculous it was to tip for a pint, given how expensive beer is. And I don’t need to go over the facts about No. 2 again.
So to the point of this article: the value of tipping versus humanity’s selective observational skills. Faced with a pre-selected set of tipping options, instead of a “tip what you like” screen, tips have risen tenfold. I mean that literally. And not literally like people use the word literally nowadays, I mean literally literally. People are tipping ten times the amount they were. The effect of this, when passed on to the staff, is a substantial pay rise.
(I should humbly and modestly point out at this juncture that neither myself or my business partner take any of the tips. All tippage* goes entirely to the staff.)
If I wanted to give the staff the same pay rise as this new tip screen has, per month, I would need to increase the price of all my cask ales by a pound, as well as adding a pound to the best-selling lager on the bar, AND the best-selling keg ale (Time Better Spent by Tap Social, in case you were wondering).
Image: Wikimedia Commons by Nan Palmer
I know everyone in small business always talks about the problem of increasing costs, either through bills, national insurance or the minimum wage, but it is hard to find the money to pay staff competitive wages when it’s already hard to find the money to pay the rent. So bless everyone who can find a spare bit of cash for the staff.
You don’t have to do it on every trip to the bar, you don’t even have to do it on every visit to the pub. But if you can, and only if you can, tipping is very much appreciated, certainly by all the staff at the Gardeners Arms.
Who, it must be said, have been far friendlier, helpful, smiley and dutiful since the new tip screen appeared.
I couldn’t possibly say if there’s any correlation.
*Tippage – it’s a perfectly cromulent word.
Paul Silcock is landlord of the Gardeners Arms, Plantation Road, Oxford.
Tipping Point
Paul Silcock tackles the thorny subject of tipping in pubs
When did the trend to start ordering bitter by the most obscure and smallest piece of writing on the pump clip start? I’m over 50 now, so maybe I missed this on TikTok. Is it some kind of playful prank, or some attempt to “appreciate” every bit of text on a pump badge? Wherever it started, it’s a strange thing.
You probably haven’t even noticed that it’s a thing, unless you work behind a bar though. Or pay particular attention to what the person in front of you is ordering. Seemingly though, when confronted with an unknown beer, perhaps one in four customers will opt to order said beer not by the name of the beer, as in “A pint of Bombshell please,” or by the brewery name, “A pint of Chadlington, if I may.”
Instead, they’ll search the pump clip before ordering, “A pint of session ale,” or “Just half a 4.2% ABV,” or even
“A glass of the Designed and Printed by InstaPrint.” This is not the point of this article, so why am I going on about it? As a way of demonstrating people’s selective observational skills.
They might not be able to pick out a brewery name from an ABV, but everyone can spot a tip screen, even if it’s just to skip it. And there’s no judgement there either. Which is more than can be said for some people’s reactions when faced with a tip screen. I won’t detail every grumble I’ve heard, but mainly people feel they’re already paying enough for beer and they’re probably right. Beer’s not cheap, and having to add a tip on top does seem a bit harsh.
But here’s the thing, you’re not expected to, it’s completely voluntary. But if you’re settling the bill after dinner, when multiple staff have been involved in the pouring of beer, cooking and delivering of food, as well as the clearing away of all the used plates and dishes, not to mention the washing up, and you’ve enjoyed yourself, then maybe tipping is a little bit more acceptable.
Just remember as I explain how valuable tips are, that tipping is, and always has to be, purely voluntary. Otherwise it’s not a tip, it’s a cost. Like the booking fee cinemas and live venues slap on your ticket price when you buy a ticket online. If I have to pay it anyway, why even show it? If I buy a pair of trousers I don’t expect to find the price doesn’t include a left leg, and I have to pay a Legging Fee at the cash desk. Just roll it into the price.
I digress.
I’m going to try and explain what tipping can mean for staff without going into actual numbers, and just using the tip screen on the card machines at the Gardeners Arms as an example. Firstly though, it’s worth pointing out we always had a tip screen on our card machines. But it was just a numeric keypad, a blank tip screen asking customers to enter their own tip amount, or skip to payment. Which just about everyone did.
On a whim I changed the tip screen to one that simply displayed tips as set financial options, including two options to add No Tip, just to see what would happen. Remember my earlier point about selective observation? When faced with a tip screen with actual amounts on it, rather than a blank keypad, people noticed. People noticed in two ways:
So to the point of this article: the value of tipping versus humanity’s selective observational skills. Faced with a pre-selected set of tipping options, instead of a “tip what you like” screen, tips have risen tenfold. I mean that literally. And not literally like people use the word literally nowadays, I mean literally literally. People are tipping ten times the amount they were. The effect of this, when passed on to the staff, is a substantial pay rise.
(I should humbly and modestly point out at this juncture that neither myself or my business partner take any of the tips. All tippage* goes entirely to the staff.)
If I wanted to give the staff the same pay rise as this new tip screen has, per month, I would need to increase the price of all my cask ales by a pound, as well as adding a pound to the best-selling lager on the bar, AND the best-selling keg ale (Time Better Spent by Tap Social, in case you were wondering).
I know everyone in small business always talks about the problem of increasing costs, either through bills, national insurance or the minimum wage, but it is hard to find the money to pay staff competitive wages when it’s already hard to find the money to pay the rent. So bless everyone who can find a spare bit of cash for the staff.
You don’t have to do it on every trip to the bar, you don’t even have to do it on every visit to the pub. But if you can, and only if you can, tipping is very much appreciated, certainly by all the staff at the Gardeners Arms.
Who, it must be said, have been far friendlier, helpful, smiley and dutiful since the new tip screen appeared.
I couldn’t possibly say if there’s any correlation.
*Tippage – it’s a perfectly cromulent word.
Paul Silcock is landlord of the Gardeners Arms, Plantation Road, Oxford.
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