Tipping fatigue has reached a breaking point. It feels like a constant expectation, even when we’re interacting with machines. Remember the first time you were prompted to tip at a self-service kiosk? It was absurd, wasn’t it?
The emergence of self-service kiosks is a prime example of how tipping culture has evolved, often to the point of feeling excessive or unnecessary. These machines, which require no human interaction, have become increasingly common in various industries, from fast food to retail. While the law typically requires tips to go directly to employees, the presence of tip screens on self-service kiosks raises questions about who is actually benefitting from these gratuities. It’s possible that businesses are exploiting this loophole to increase their profits, rather than passing the tips onto employees.
From airports to bakeries, coffee shops to fast-food places with drive-through service, self-service kiosks are popping up everywhere, and with them, the expectation to tip. Yet, are we certain that this sudden expansion of self-service kiosk payment screens with preset tip amounts are really going to the employee or just as another revenue source for the business?
Through the pandemic consumers were more generous toward tipping. As a result, companies may have taken it as a cue that consumers were fine with it to prompt using self-service kiosks as a viable excuse for another creative way to increase profits.
Tipping is important when it goes to a real employee that is underpaid and personally served you. Depending on the quality of the service should be a deciding factor on what the tipped amount that usually ranges from 15% to 20% and higher should be–not what the company is deciding for you. However, when companies already preset that tip and expect a calculated amount through a self-service kiosk without any human involved, then it is corporate greed in my opinion of raising prices because they can.
No wonder tipping fatigue is so prevalent now and growing. Businesses should take it as a wake-up call that consumers are onto the games they play.
