Cornell Professor Publishes Updated and Expanded Techniques to Improve Restaurant Tips

The Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) has issued an expanded booklet of techniques that waiters and waitresses can use to improve their tips. The booklet, "Mega Tips 2: Twenty Tested Techniques to Increase Your Tips," by Michael Lynn, is published with the intention of improving the incomes of the two million people who wait on guests at restaurants in the United States. "MegaTips 2" is available from the CHR at no charge, http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/tools/2011.html.

Lynn, the Burton M. Sack Professor of Food and Beverage Management at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, has both conducted his own research on tip-enhancing techniques and examined studies conducted by numerous other researchers. "In this booklet, I present twenty specific techniques that have been shown to increase servers' tips in many cases," he explained. "Of course, not all these techniques will work for all people in all restaurants. Most are particularly suited to the fast-casual restaurant environment. However, some will work in almost any restaurant. The main point here is that these techniques have been tested and proven to work in at least some environments, so that servers can be confident that the techniques are worth trying to see if they work for them as well."

"MegaTips 2" adds six new techniques to the original fourteen outlined in Lynn's original "MegaTips" manual. The added techniques are as follows: use makeup (for waitresses); stand physically close to the customer; compliment the customer's food choices; write a patriotic message on the check; provide tipping guidelines; and play songs with pro-social lyrics.

Lynn also provides additional explanation about one of the more intriguing of the original techniques, squatting at the table. "It turns out that not all customer groups will appreciate this, because some customers have greater personal-space needs," Lynn said. "I explain how this works in the booklet."

Lynn describes the techniques in detail, outlines the experiments that demonstrate their effectiveness, and suggests the reasons they work. Lynn stresses that he would very much like to hear from waiters and waitresses who have tried the techniques. For those interested in seeing whether the "MegaTips" work for them, the booklet explains how to test the techniques, and Lynn is willing to analyze data from servers who conduct their own experiments.

Thanks to the support of the CHR partners listed below, all publications posted on the center's website are available free of charge, at www.chr.cornell.edu.