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Mandatory Gratitude – A Disservice to Good Service?

I recently came across this story out of Philadelphia about a couple who landed in hot water with the police after refusing to pay a tip at a city pub.  They were part of larger party and were subject to the pub’s mandatory gratuity of 18%, however after receiving subpar service, opted to pay the bill and skip the tip.  Since gratuity is a supposed to be customary symbol of gratitude/recognition for outstanding service (albeit on the part of the customer, not the employer), the story made me wonder if service suffers when its recognition is not only expected, but demanded.

The waitress at this pub surely didn’t provide poor service on purpose, but I can’t help thinking that she didn’t do her job, let alone go above and beyond to warrant the generous “mandatory gratuity.”  While many waitpersons receive substandard wages because they’re supplemented with tips, in any other industry a poor job is never rewarded – regardless of the circumstances.

Most alarming was the reaction of the management.  While I applaud the effort to support the waitress on what seemed to be a very busy night, he did so by fully acknowledging that the service was lackluster and had the patrons arrested!  What message does it send to this waitress and her colleagues about the mediocre level of performance that management will tolerate?  What’s their incentive for doing a good job going forward?  What message does it send customers about the kind of service they can expect from this establishment?  It’s never a good idea to support and reward poor performance, because it undermines the rewards you give when you get good service.

Recognition, in addition to being about heartfelt appreciation, is also about reinforcing the positive behaviors we want to see repeated and replicated, regardless of whether that recognition comes from leadership, from peers, or even from customers in the form of gratuity.  The primary issue is that somewhere the meaning of gratuity got lost.  The simple fact that those in the restaurant industry count on tips as part of their wage, and that tipping in this country is customary, means they’ve come to expect 15-20%, regardless of the service they provide.  Customers, on the other hand, still feel that tipping is recognition for a job well done, and the reason that waitstaff work for tips is so the establishment has a built-in incentive for employees to provide exceptional service.  Typically, the customer decides how much to give, and what they leave is symbol of the level of appreciation.  By placing “mandatory” in front of “gratuity” the gesture is no longer about recognition or appreciation – it’s a service fee.  And for the benefit of customers and waitstaff, alike, it should be changed from “mandatory gratuity” to “service fee.”  And while we’re at it – how about the industry start paying staff a living wage so that a gratuity can have the meaning it’s meant to have.

What are your feelings on “mandatory gratuity”?