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Will Self-Checkout Tip Prompts Prompt a Tip Backlash?
Customers may not be comfortable with payment solutions automatically prompting them to leave a default tip of 20 percent, 30 percent or more when they pay at restaurants and bars after interacting with a server. Now as payment solutions with built-in tip prompts continue to proliferate, they are showing up in new retail verticals and even at self-checkout kiosks.
“Emotional blackmail” is how a traveler visiting a gift shop at Newark Liberty International Airport described how he felt when he was prompted to include a 10 percent or 20 percent tip on a single $6 bottle of water, according to a Business Insider article (quoting original reporting by The Wall Street Journal). Other customers in the article encountered prompts to tip at cafes and even the self-service beer fridges at sports stadiums. Some shared concerns that they were unsure where the tip money was going for transactions in which they did not interact with a staff person.
Customers became more gracious with tipping early in the novel coronavirus pandemic partly because of the health risks associated with public-facing jobs. The pandemic also led more businesses to implement digital payment solutions to speed transactions and minimize customer contact. By 2022 customers felt forced to add a tip before paying at several major foodservice retailers. Reports began appearing of customers feeling shamed into tipping.
Earlier this year, customers began complaining of “tip creeping” with an ever-expanding list of business verticals nudging customers to tip, a practice once reserved chiefly for sit-down restaurants.
Rachel Wolfe, who reported the original story in the Journal, told CBS News that customers feel more obligated to tip when prompted at a kiosk than they otherwise would. Ms. Wolfe also pointed to researcher concerns that some businesses are guilting customers into leaving big tips instead of raising employee wages.
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: How widely do you see self-checkout kiosks with suggested tip amounts being deployed at retail? What do you think the eventual fate will be of the tip request at kiosks?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Lisa Goller
B2B Content Strategist
Bob Amster
Principal, Retail Technology Group
I see these tip prompts more often than I find acceptable. There will be resistance and backlash to them. Fortunately, it is only a soft switch in the POS software required to turn this annoying feature on or off.
Consumer backlash to guilt-tipping at self-serve kiosks will minimize the deployment of this practice.
Retailers are in a testing phase–most will adapt to feedback to optimize the customer experience.
Tips for self-checkout? I do see this as a bridge too far. It’s already frustrating people that workers expect a tip for just serving a beverage, etc. When there is not a person in front of the customer to enable the “emotional blackmail,” I don’t think shoppers will take the bait and tip. Although I don’t know a single person who isn’t beyond annoyed with the tip-creeping that has occurred in the industry, when there is a server staring at you, most people default to the one-touch amount vs. going through the prompts to lower the tip or not tip at all. Until people or a customer advocacy group raises the issue to a level that would cause regulatory involvement, I don’t see this changing.
You are spot on Dave! I recently purchased a $40 bottle of wine at an event and the default tip was 30% ($12). All the server did was pull it from the rack and hand it to me. Is that worth a $12 tip? The tip creep is getting out of hand and annoying.
This questions gets the old consultant answer: it depends. If the service is worth it, I don’t mind. If it’s DIY, that’s annoying. So sure, ask–so what. And besides, I’m not sure how you could be upset if asked about a tip because “none” is always an option. Bring it on.
People can, and should, refuse to leave tips that they think are unjustified. There is no way I would pay a tip for buying something like a bottle of water in a retail store. Technology has made promoting for tips more pervasive but, ultimately, the customer is still in full control. As Nancy Reagan once said: just say no.
What’s next, I tip my dentist? “Great job on the filling, doc. Is 25 percent really the minimum tip amount here?” These tip prompts at self-checkout are just wrong. Self-checkout has challenges enough–loss prevention in particular. Why even invest in self-checkout if shoppers know they’ll be asked for a tip when they use it? I don’t see the value-add and where the money is going. I don’t even like the charity prompts at POS, as you also don’t know where that money goes. The point of tipping is more of a thank you for service by a particular person. But with self-checkout, who are you really thanking? Why can’t we shift to a European model and stop this tipping madness?
Unfortunately, this will be a trainwreck. I don’t think customers like to be arm twisted into tipping. If this becomes the norm, shoppers will go elsewhere.
In some instances I don’t mind the prompts, especially when there is an another human involved in helping me. But being asked to tip at a self-checkout is too much. Who gets the tip? Me?
Tipping 20 percent or more to a server who has taken my order, answered questions, checked in on me during my meal, and otherwise offered great service–no problem. Tipping 20 percent to a person behind a register who took my order, entered it into a register, and then sent me to a pickup window for my order–not so much. The prompts are already out of control and I think many consumers are starting to resent the social engineering, i.e. having to dig through prompts to find the no tip option.
It’s a sad comment on the state of the market that this question even needs to be asked and answered. I happily tip helpful human beings. But when that helpful human being is me, doing my own checkout, the machine will not be getting a tip.
Eventually customers will figure out that if all a business has done is take your order (if that) then you don’t need to tip. Not a lot of retail places do this in my neck of the woods (Atlanta) but I know restaurants have gotten a lot of backlash for automatic amounts. A number of places have gotten less in tips because a.) people have the tip amount removed and then b.) tip less.
I wonder how some cruise lines have gone to no tipping and just rolling it into the fee while others seem to be going in the other direction. Even with Uber–the simplicity was beautiful, now I have to think about a tip and how I will get rated if I don’t tip. Just add a reasonable amount in and make it simple for me. What really makes me nuts is when room service adds the tip in and then has an additional tip line that you might add to because you didn’t realize they already put the tip in. That borders on a scam, not to mention $6 for a can of soda. I think the point here that I resonate with is the emotional impact. Are they trying to make you feel cheap? If so, that will build customer dislike at some level.
Wait–so I ring up my own groceries and bag them, then I’m supposed to tip someone else?
There’s a comedian, Rod Man, who does a whole routine about becoming an employee–and others saying he isn’t going fast enough.
It’s getting frustrating for many customers (including me) when it comes to how tips are being asked for:
I get that it’s tough for retailers to hold onto staff, and finding ways to pay them more is part of the solution. Raise your prices if you have to, but don’t ask your customers to pay your staff directly out of their own pockets when there is little to no service provided.
There are a number of restaurants in Toronto that now refuse tips and instead pay their employees a living wage.
There is an elephant in the room here — retailers simply aren’t paying employees enough if they expect consumers to make up the difference when consumers are also doing the labor.
Tip prompts are so pervasive now that in nearly every type of retail environment I’m in, there is a prompt for tips. And some are exorbitantly large, starting at 25 percent! On two recent occasions I was in a craft brewery and a MLB baseball game. In the brewery, I ordered two IPAs and I did tip because I know the owner and many of the servers. I also know how hard they work to deliver an exceptional customer experience, and I’m OK with this. The MLB game, however, is a different story. There was a long line, and then an associate pulls a bottle from a fridge that’s two feet away, puts it on the counter and then you tap/slide/enter your card and pay. Of course the first prompt asks for a 10 percent to 30 percent tip. Naturally, I skipped it and paid only for the bottle of water, which was extremely expensive anyway! Consumers shouldn’t be shamed or shy to say no.
Tip-creep has gone too far. Consumers will absolutely become more comfortable selecting the “no tip” option.
These prompts are everywhere and constantly being asked to tip on top of your bill to “recognize,” say, someone putting a croissant in a bag for you, is frustrating. Further, it is rare to see tip requests start at 15 percent, most of them start out at 20 percent, AND the tip suggested is calculated off of the total bill including taxes, which are “typically” not part of the calculation. I believe, at this point in my post, that as of right now I am due a tip from anyone reading this–Venmo ID will be provided in future posts as part of my profile!
Tipping has reached a tipping point. It used to be for a reward for good or great service rendered at the time of payment. Now it has become an expectation for almost any payment transaction. Most people I know are already unhappy about this trend. Adding tipping to self-checkout would certainly move them and others to rebel and cause them to adjust their response to automated tipping suggestions.
Even though the customer can always refuse to tip, the pressure, which is unnecessary, still remains. Retailers need to understand when tipping is appropriate. Certainly not for a self-serve bottle of water. The key is to limit tips requests to services provided. Plus, communicate how the tip is shared.
There is sometimes an issue where employees get angry when a customer does not tip. I recently had this happen at a donut shop using a Clover register (used to not have tip prompt but does now). The employee asked me how much I wanted to tip and told me to select my option. I selected none and got the look of death as the receipt printed. I haven’t returned…
Guilting is an excellent way to describe it. Yes, we are generous during/post-Covid, but I think it is going too far. Who does it go to when you tip at self-checkout? That’s the question that comes to mind. You tip for the personal/human experience and interaction, not the automation. Also, have you noticed the options for tipping moved upward to 25+%, is that the new norm?
My guess is the airport shop that gave a tip prompt on a water purchase was using a point of sale like Clover or Square that is designed for restaurants and it was misconfigured to tip prompt at the transaction.
There is a key cutting shop that started using Square years ago in my area and when they first got it the tip prompt was coming up and they automatically skipped it because they had no intention to collect tips and not long after they figured out how to get it to quit appearing.
Never heard of tips at self checkout but have heard of tip prompts at some fast food kiosks.
Many fast food and coffee places now want tips and ask via the pinpad. Many customers leave tips. Even if only 25% if customers leave tips, employees will be upset if the tip option is taken away as they will lose those tips. The slippery slope has happened.
More consumers will get comfortable saying no tip due to being asked too often.
A can of worms opened courtesy of newer checkout software platforms enabled tip generosity and kindness during the pandemic lockdowns, great, fine. But tip requests at self-checkout or routine services is out of control.
Retail store owners must reel it in or risk alienating customers. If you’re not paying people competitively, then build it into the product or service. Don’t put your customer in the spot of solving these issues.
Of course, there will be a consumer backlash. This practice will not end well. Unhappy shoppers go elsewhere.
I think the tipping issue is just the tip of the iceberg (sorry) of a potential backlash against consumers being asked/required to do the jobs that for time immemorial retail workers, cashiers, and others have done and being asked to pay more for it,
A baclklash is comming. Consumers are getting tired and will stop tipping unless they do get outstanding customer service.
Tipping at self-service kiosks? Oh my! When does it stop? Some of the more recent popular articles I’ve written (for Forbes and The Shepard Letter) have to do with tipflation and tip-creeping. But tipping at self-service kiosks? How about they tip me for doing the work myself? (That’s rhetorical!)
Wow, this is something I had never considered. Tipping in retail in Europe is not common practice which might explain this.
in common with some parts of North America, across Europe it is common to be charged for a plastic carrier bag – and when using self-checkout this is an additional question, and hence moment of friction, that is added.
I cannot help thinking that asking about tipping could be another moment of friction.
I spent my high school & college time as a waitress. My employer told me that T.I.P. stood for “To Insure Promptness.” I’m not sure if she was right or not, but that description always stuck with me. As a server, I learned to work hard for that tip to make sure my customers were happy.
I can understand how, during Covid, companies needed to automate service, make up for increased costs, account for lack of employees, etc. However, most companies have left that automation in place. Many companies are extending it to kiosk’s. I do not agree with this practice. I think if you are being served, you should tip the server appropriately. If you are self-serving, that tip should stay in your own pocket.
I grew up in a region of the world where it was customary for people to leave “the loose change on the table”, and rather get up from the table, find and approach the server, and shake their hand while placing a “paper tip” into their hands. This discrete act served not only as a gesture of respect but also as a way to show appreciation for exceptional service that went above and beyond. The prevalent business practice involved sharing the profits with the entire team at the end of the night, fostering a sense of collective achievement. It was a collaborative endeavor where everyone emerged as a winner. Sadly, we are witnessing the automation and dehumanization of a most precious interaction, expressing gratitude.