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The tips thing, revisited

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earthfriendly
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Post by earthfriendly » Sun, 18 May 2014 10:49 pm

Even if the tip does not go to the intended waiter who served you, it is added to the pot. The imposition of a fixed percentage of service charge offers consistency in revenue. Uncertainty of how much they will take in tips is being taken out. This allows them to budget better and they can offer the waiters and staff members a better pay rate, as opposed to if the service charge is not in place.

As a student, I used to work for Denny's Restaurant on Orchard Road. It was not common to get additional tip on top of the service charge. The pay was pretty good for waitressing. I could not help but think that the fixed service charge made this possible.

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Post by earthfriendly » Sun, 18 May 2014 11:19 pm

Since the waiters in USA derive a large portion of their income from tips, there are more fluctuations in their take home pay. Makes it harder for them to do budgeting.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sun, 18 May 2014 11:20 pm

Sadly, that is why service standards are so abysmal here. You can be a mediocre waitstaff and make as much as the ultimate waiter. Doesn't lend itself to be any better if you are 10x better the the rest but only get 10% of what you should have received. Kinda takes the incentive away, don't it. :-/
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by JR8 » Sun, 18 May 2014 11:58 pm

@SMS +1

Who would want to be career front-of-house staff here? How ever great you are, you'll be living off a pooled income with all the coasters and wasters. So, why bother even trying ...

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aster
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Post by aster » Mon, 19 May 2014 2:37 am

The whole "++" culture is ridiculous.

All it has done is done is sabotaged service standards as well as ensured that business owners get to collect even more revenue under the guise of a "service charge."

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PNGMK
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Post by PNGMK » Mon, 19 May 2014 1:35 pm

aster wrote:The whole "++" culture is ridiculous.

All it has done is done is sabotaged service standards as well as ensured that business owners get to collect even more revenue under the guise of a "service charge."
I'm waiting for "+++" to start....

+ SSC
+ GST
+ FU

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Post by rajagainstthemachine » Mon, 19 May 2014 1:51 pm

PNGMK wrote:
aster wrote:The whole "++" culture is ridiculous.

All it has done is done is sabotaged service standards as well as ensured that business owners get to collect even more revenue under the guise of a "service charge."
I'm waiting for "+++" to start....

+ SSC
+ GST
+ FU
what is +FU ? F*** Y** ? that would be pretty apt
To get there early is on time and showing up on time is late

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Post by earthfriendly » Tue, 20 May 2014 8:14 am

I am not saying shared service charge revenue is better than individual tipping system or vice versa. I am only showing the other side of the coin. Why even bother your lovely customers with sales tax and service charges? Why not include all of that on the menu item price? Like how we only need to pay one price at the hawker centers, no extra charges. I am not sure of the technicality or difficulty involved e.g. setup of the register, sales tax remittance. In Korea, I only pay the price of the food and just one total. Sales tax is included and it is not a tipping culture. It is a more seamless experience. Services are good except that they don't speak much English :P.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/0 ... 98027.html

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Post by JR8 » Tue, 20 May 2014 9:18 am

earthfriendly wrote:I am not saying shared service charge revenue is better than individual tipping system or vice versa. I am only showing the other side of the coin. Why even bother your lovely customers with sales tax and service charges? Why not include all of that on the menu item price? Like how we only need to pay one price at the hawker centers, no extra charges. I am not sure of the technicality or difficulty involved e.g. setup of the register, sales tax remittance. In Korea, I only pay the price of the food and just one total. Sales tax is included and it is not a tipping culture. It is a more seamless experience. Services are good except that they don't speak much English :P.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/0 ... 98027.html


An all-in approach seems to cause a lot of confusion. For example: “Good Food Great Service Without Having To Pay GST”

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Post by Primrose Hill » Tue, 20 May 2014 9:53 am

usual typical restaurants in SG, I can't be bothered, especially if my plate arrives 20mins after my husband's. Pet peeve- why can't the cooks here cook per table rather than the buffet style?
The upmarket restaurants, I will pay on top of service charges if the service is exceptional.
Hair salon - in London GBP5, here $10
taxi - nada
I hate it when I get charged for tap water too. Or the subtlelity of London waiters - Mdm, you want still water or........ :mad:

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Post by earthfriendly » Tue, 20 May 2014 10:00 am

Still water? As opposed to moving water? :o

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Post by Primrose Hill » Tue, 20 May 2014 10:23 am

earthfriendly wrote:Still water? As opposed to moving water? :o
:lol:

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Post by earthfriendly » Tue, 20 May 2014 10:33 am

My French was almost non-existent or the waiter could not understand my French? I was trying to ask him if the bill included the tip. To no avail. I resorted to drawing diagram, something like this one and asked him to please pick one. And it still did not help. I gave up and offer him a separate tip.

Image

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Post by ecureilx » Tue, 20 May 2014 11:50 am

JR8 wrote:@SMS +1

Who would want to be career front-of-house staff here? How ever great you are, you'll be living off a pooled income with all the coasters and wasters. So, why bother even trying ...
or rather you only like to appreciate the "front office" for good service but don't care about the chef who made sure it turnaround well, the dish washer who ensured that all is clean, the floor manager who kept ensuring all come out fine?

just asking ....

from my experience in FnB here .... almost all restaurant / bars have regular crew meetings and bo chaps are weeded out quickly as the crew know the score, these meetings rarely have management in attendance ....

more sales, more profit sharing, more sharing of tips ...

those are FnB joints a lot line up to join up ....

those with the who-cares type of staff rarely have people lining up to join or staff attrition is super high ....

I know all these as I helped a lot of bar tenders/waiters/service crew find jobs, by references

almost all have an informal chitchat with current crew and one of the main thing they ask is how much tips/SC do the salary adds on to

when i asked a guy opting for a 1800 $ basic vs 2500 basic he said the lower basic place has more vibrant staff, energetic and I figured our tips/SC can add another 2k or more, vs the higher basic but Bo chap staff at the second one, hard pressed to add even 500$ to basic is his guess ...

the service crew knows they can always help maintain / boost sales ... and rarely have I seen coasters in such places....

just my 2 cents ....

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Max Headroom
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Post by Max Headroom » Tue, 20 May 2014 12:39 pm

Primrose Hill wrote:usual typical restaurants in SG, I can't be bothered, especially if my plate arrives 20mins after my husband's.
For the life of me, I cannot fathom this; from the point of view of a nice evening out, having a meal together, getting served one plate is as useless as having none of the plates out there. You're not scoring any points by serving one meal fast if the next one is brought out 10 minutes later. What is that person supposed to do, watch his meal go cold? Start eating alone? (Hint: no and no.)

And this oddity has been going on for yonks. It still happens now, even in places where they feel it's justified to charge gourmet prices.

If any restaurant peeps are reading this: do your establishment and your guests a big favor: just hold that ready dish in the kitchen (Tip: under a light) until all other dishes are done. Then carry them all out at once.

:wave:


Edit: Stuffs.
Last edited by Max Headroom on Tue, 20 May 2014 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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