When we were in the US, one of the daily happenings that we noticed is the stark difference in service and professionalism displayed by most of the restaurants’ waitstaff as compared to that in Singapore. We can’t help but wonder if the poor service standards in Singapore is due to the lack of a tipping system.
Waiters, by and large, is not a respected profession like doctors and lawyers. In recent years, chefs are starting to get more recognition due to media publicity of celebrity chefs around the globe. Waiters? Not a chance. And the irony is waiters are the frontline staff in the restaurant and they have the ability to make or break your dining experience.
What do you think? Would tipping improve service standards in Singapore? Here, we look into tipping in Singapore, as well as the pros and cons of tipping.
PROS OF TIPPING
The benefits are obvious. Tipping serves as a motivation for waiters to provide better service. It is also the most practical way of showing your appreciation – let’s face it, you would yearn for that too if you were one. Service staff are not being paid a lot to begin with, so leave a tip and thank them for their good service. A small gesture like this goes a long way. Who knows? The next time you return, he or she might make even the most ridiculous request possible – just for you.
In a recent conference, Labour Chief, Mr Lim Swee Say voiced his thoughts on how “it is possible to improve service productivity and customer satisfaction with a lean workforce through the innovative use of technology and business process re-engineering.” Sometimes, it not only about the latest technology, but perhaps making a small tweak to business processes may help to increase worker’s productivity.
Think about it, service staffs will be more motivated to provide better customer service, so that they can get a bigger tip, resulting in fewer customer complaints for the company, and more effort can be spent on developing their business. Sounds like a positive cycle doesn’t it?
CONS OF TIPPING
On the flip side, some restaurants are able to pay higher wages to their staff because of the mandatory service charge. In fact, some upscale restaurants in America are starting to adopt a ‘no tipping’ policy and charging 15% higher prices to cover paying higher wages to staff. On a side note, tipping might cause ridges between the staff – one who did not receive any might feel more inferior to another who had better luck with generous tippers. And this might in turn cause unhappiness, job dissatisfaction and lack of motivation to work.
WOULD TIPPING IMPROVE SERVICE STANDARDS?
While having a tipping system serves as an motivation for waitstaff to provide better service, it may not change the ecosystem entirely. As we have discussed before, service is something that involves three parties – workers, employers, and customers. It is definitely not a one-sided affair when it comes to providing good service; employers and customers contribute to the ecosystem and have parts to play, too.
At the end of the day, businesses need to understand what motivates their workers to improve their services so that they may be more productive at their work. Regardless of the system, we certainly hope that service standards will improve gradually to befit Singapore’s growing reputation as the dining destination in Asia, if not the World.
This message is part of a ladyironchef x Labour Movement project where we seek to share with you insights on the different initiatives by the Labour Movement to give workers in Singapore better jobs, better pay and better work-life balance.
I say training is the way to go. Saying that tipping will increase service standards insinuates the server simply is reluctant to provide a service because he/she is just not paid enough.
Case study: Singapore Airlines is world renowned for its high level of service finesse and hospitality. And they do not require tips.
Moreover, if we go the way of the USA and rely on tips, as a consumer this means a $40 meal will then become $60 at the end of the day. This means that consumers will cut back on expenditure. This then will show tipping will be lucrative in the initial short term but may be counter productive in the long term.
This article completely misses the point that tipping is common in the US not because the service is great but because the minimum wage is obscenely low. Tipping is required because the people serving you actually need the tips to supplement their wages to survive. Even if the service was average, you’d still drop a tip since it’s customary to do so.
Tipping cannot be the main motivator for better service. By that logic, because tipping is not required in Japan, the service must be crap there. Except that it is not; in fact the waiters in Japan are pretty darn fantastic.
Maybe start paying our wait staff a decent wage and you’ll get better service oriented folks. I’ll bet though that’s not how most restaurants work – they probably want they the cheapest staff. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys.
Here’s the kicker. Singaporeans generally don’t care about service. If the food is good, cheap and there’s a queue, we’ll be lining up for 2 hours… so I can post it on Instagram later.