Our company redid its online order system before I left 4 months ago. Drivers were mostly unhappy with the new system, although I realized we were all getting bigger tips. The site allows users to pre-select a tip amount, usually $2 (the standard tip), $4 or 10 percent of the total. While the system should be good news in that it promotes good tips, it’s a bad idea for a couple reasons.
The first problem is incentive. Suppose you order a sandwich at noon and add a pre-tip. If a security guard calls in a cash order at 12:05 and the same driver takes both for delivery, chances are your stomach will be growling while the guard is chowing down.
The driver’s reward from you is fixed, regardless of the time and energy he expends reaching you. But that same driver can wow the security guard by pedaling straight to her and earn himself an above-average tip. Only then will he leisurely cruise your direction.
The second problem with pre-tipping is that drivers won’t see increased reward for increased effort. This is one of three characteristics that make for meaningful work, as described in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. (The other two are autonomy and sophistication of tasks, in case you were wondering, although this article makes a good case for the overarching importance of significantly affecting others’ lives. But I digress.) So not only is your driver going to take his time getting to you, but he’s also going to like his job less overall.
But it’s not all bad news. There is one way this system differs from, say, the downfall of communism. If a driver–I can only speak for myself–if I get sent with just your order and a healthy pre-tip, I am more likely to get there quickly out of appreciation for the tip. Good tippers just get it. I like customers like you. And it’s more than sentiment; I want to reenforce your tipping behavior, and I’ll bend over backwards to please you.
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As an aside to my readers, I’ve been keeping track of how my delivery customers pay, what they tip and a few other notes. I’m doing a quantitative study to test my hunch on mood and tipping, and I also want to look for tip correlations with gender and race as well as weather. Do people give sympathy tips when drivers getting snowed on (as is forecast this week)? Do they tip because it’s sunny and they feel chipper? Will they stiff when it’s cold and cloudy? I’ll be doing this kind of project, and I’ll produce stories on Charlotte news from street level. Expect 2 to 3 posts a week, and stay tuned!
Should be an interesring study. How do the customers feel about the mandated tipping scheme? Have you received any feed back yet?
To be clear, customers can still choose to write in a credit tip when their food arrives. More often than not, though, online customers tip beforehand. I don’t think anyone has mentioned it in person.