If tipping is necessary in restaurants to promote good service, why isn't it equally necessary in other contexts? In businesses without tipping, managers have an incentive to please customers, so good managers[1] encourage employees (by various means) to provide good service. Why can't the same be done in restaurants?
I'm not claiming tipping is certainly useless. Just questioning the argument in its favor.
[1] Not all managers are good, and so we encounter businesses that provide poor service. Sometimes the market weeds those out, sometimes not. According to the parent commenter, that's what happened at the restaurant s/he visited.
> "If tipping is necessary in restaurants to promote good service, why isn't it equally necessary in other contexts?"
Maybe it is.
No Tips vs Tips:
Delivery:
Package/Letter (no tips): constant missed deliveries. poor to
non-existent delivery scheduling.
crushed boxes.
Food (tips): reliable delivery within the hour. delivery person
knocks on the door more than once. never found a pizza
carelessly thrown into the bushes beside my door.
Luggage handling:
Checked luggage (no tips): constantly lost.
Porter/redcap (tips): the people you go to if you *actually* want
your luggage taken care of.
Service/Repair:
Cable (no tips): only able to schedule service during inconvenient
hours a week in advance, with service windows so large
that I need to take a day off work.
Plumbing (tips/negotiable pay): I have gotten plumbers to my home in
the middle of the night.
Apartment repair guy (no tips): Ahahahahaha....
The one counter-example that I can think of is cab/uber service. There is a hell of a lot wrong with the cab industry though.
You know what, here's the example I give you. Please have a look (may not happen in your place but happens everywhere else):
- You have got to get your store's license renewed but there's a huge lag and there are many people ahead line: Pay the officer, problem solved.
- Need to renew your passport: Pay the consul officer, you get it all expedited.
- etc etc
Yes, that's exactly what you are doing. You are bribing them to do something that they should do normally. They will basically keep misplacing other people's deliveries, treat other guests bad, losing others' luggage, making others take their day off, not do plumbing in time, not fix people's flats, while they do yours because you pay them some "extra money".
Rephrase it what you want but we are talking about clear bribes here.
If bribery is necessary for me to receive good service, then I will use bribery. Paying a bribe does not violate my moral code (although demanding one does) so that is not important to me. What is important to me is correctly getting the order that I payed for in a timely manner.
For the record:
Bribery, as you describe it, is alive and well in America. My brother wanted to go to the Naval Academy. In order to be accepted, he needed a nomination. How did he get a nomination? He volunteered for the reelection campaign of one of his senators.
Asking your senators/representatives for help expediting the processing of documents is fairly common too.
That is rather irrelevant. While I could reward the UPS delivery guy of the week with a few dollars, the offer would catch him by surprize. Tips cannot retroactively improve service; they only improve service if you are a recognized repeat customer, or if they are common.
I'm not claiming tipping is certainly useless. Just questioning the argument in its favor.
[1] Not all managers are good, and so we encounter businesses that provide poor service. Sometimes the market weeds those out, sometimes not. According to the parent commenter, that's what happened at the restaurant s/he visited.