Give Them Candy

Techniques > Tipping > How to Get a Bigger Tip > Give Them Candy

Description | Discussion | See also

Description

Give them mints or chocolates. For best effect, this is done when giving them the check, so they know the candy is free. See below for even better (and proven) ideas.

You can alternatively have a basket of candies near the till where they can help themselves.

Discussion

Strohmetz et al (2002), in one experiment found that giving a piece of candy with the check returned on average an 18% tip as opposed to a 15% average tip when no candy was given.

They then did a series of experiments in another restaurant to find the best strategy. The results are below.

Action	Tip (%)
No candy	18.95
One piece of candy	19.59
Two pieces of candy	21.62
One-plus-one: Give them one piece of candy then, as server is leaving the table, stop, turn back, and offer another piece	22.99

So why is the one-plus-one strategy the best? Probably because it feels like two gifts rather than one. It also indicates that the server likes the customer so much, he or she is 'breaking the rules' of giving just one piece, to give another piece 'just for them'.

Whatever the strategy, what is happening here is that the server is giving a gift, and there are strong social rules about exchange that say 'If I give you something, you must give me something back'.