OPEN THREAD conversation-starter: Do tip jar "contests" bring in more cash?

I know that these contests are hardly a new concept, but they've just started popping up in Evanston stores. The downtown Starbucks had a Barbra Steisand vs. Judy Garland contest today, while a south side store had an Innocent vs. Guilty competition. (Everybody knew what it referred to, so no explanation was offered.) Do these "contests" motivate tipping? Customers -- are you more likely to throw change in the jar if you have the opportunity to "vote" on something? (Please ..let's not have this turn into an anti-tipping thread. Been there/done that!) Discuss tip jar voting -- or anything else Starbucks-related in the OPEN THREAD.

Comments

[BobBarker]

Gotta love election years. ;)

[Jim Romenesko]

Have you tried a PALIN vs. BACHMANN contest? Catfight!

[Crema]

Has anyone heard about Playbook? We are doing "readiness assessments for it right now but have no clue what it is. Aparently some stores in Chicago are in test with it and they are able to keep their peak lines down to 8-9 ppl in line when it was regularly 25 or more in line each morning. And sales are +20%.

[ABDULA]

On the REAL... I provide legendary service to every last one of you chumps, not for the tips, but for the pure pleasure of blowing your mind to the SBUX experience...Tips are B$ here so thats not why I rock every day...ONE UP ON Y"ALL GULPING HARD U KNOW :)

[Sheik]

"been there/done that" --LOL!

[Sheik]

They should do "Annoying Cell Phone Customer" vs "Annoying Dig-Exact-Change-From-Bottom-Of-Purse Customer"

[Jeff Tom]

I can get the complaints re: the cell phone talker. But someone wanting to pay exact change? You are complaining about that? Get over yourself, food-service worker.

How about "Will the 'barista' drop my Americano shots in water" vs "will the 'barista' drop my Americano shots on ice"?

[ABDULA]

just make the drink, provide the hospitality or take ur @$* home, I know people from Chile that could fill 3 of your spots.

[KD]

@Jeff Tom.....why are you always so condescending? What makes you better than any one else? How do you put your pants on in the morning? I'm betting it's one leg at a time. Get over yourself already. You're starting to bore us.

[Northwest]

Yes, Playbook is a consoladation of operating material and practices into one. I.E. CML, DDR, Deployment maps, QASA top tens etc. Less to carry, less to focus on=more effeciency.

[ShiftByTheBook]

In case anybody is curious, corporate tip handling policy requires the money to be stored in *unlabeled* clear plexi-cubes.

Detailed information (for partners) can be found in the cash handling resource manual.

[frapatte]

Jeff Tom, who complained about people paying exact change? The complaint is people who hold up the line and all the other customers' time (while you can see them get visibly angry) by lifting their mega-purse onto the counter and re-organizing it for 5 minutes so they can find those 12 cents. Get over yourself, forum nerd.

[Pat]

Customer here. I tip regardless, but it's more fun if I can vote on something. Though sometimes I don't want to vote for either choice. ;-)
My most-frequented store has recently gone back to just one unlabeled tip jar, so maybe they had a visit from higher-ups.

[duh]

Yep. Against rules. Cheap way for a bad store to up their tips

[M]

Hahahahaha... Forum nerd. And I like the tip jars. They are fun.

[Sheik]

In the store I go to, the cubes themselves are NOT labeled... There are labels IN FRONT OF the two plexi cubes.. Nice way to find a loophole around the rule considering they aren't actually labeled...

[Sheik]

RE: "Get over yourself, food service worker"

OK... *now* who's being mature...

[Mark]

Do not tip in fast food joints, do not tip at coffe stores. Do not appreciate Starbucks influcing tip jars at every counter and register.

I only tip taxis, barbers, pizza dudes, and waiters in sit-down restaurants.

[spence]

Mark, that's fine. Buy why come to this site to tell us. Most people that choose not to be generous tend to keep those qualities on the hush hush.

[Starbuckers, Inc.]

"Influcing?"

[Streakn_it]

Hey just a question for the other Shifts out there - do you guys get to take your 10s or not able / choose not to take them due to work conditions?

[Baron Von Tentacleese]

Yes, tip jar contests work quite effectively; but not if you're lazy. You have to go the extra mile:

First, determine which option is more popular. When dealing with sports teams, this is usually a no-brainer.

Then, whenever the customers aren't looking, take money from the more popular option and put it into the less popular one. Also, do tips drops frequently, but only drop the more popular jar. You have to be subtle though; give the less popular option a very slight lead so as to be believable.

All that's left is to wait for a customer to come in, then look woefully at Popular Jar, and lament (to another partner or as a Shakespearean "aside") that it is losing the contest, and you're not sure why.

Follow these tips during football season, and you will soon find your tip income tripled.

[NOPASSION]

Abdula, good job doing your job and doing what you get paid to do. You talk big but your job isn't that special. You mention you provide legendary service but you turn around and call your customers chumps. Doesn't sound to legendary to me. It's your arrogant attitude that is the problem. Do I have to remind you its a fast food job?

[Mark]

Hey, look what I found: www.fanofcoffee.com

500 dollar starbucks giftcard:D

[Crema]

@Northwest--so how do the Repeatable Routines and scheduling fit in to the whole Playbook thing? We've been told we must be 100% compliant on all routines in order for us to be able to handle the launch of Playbook.

[spence]

@streakin_it: For the first several months that I was a shift, i hardly ever took breaks. I just didn't have the time. The better I became as a shift, the easier the job became and now I almost always take breaks. BUT, I bust my butt when I'm not breaking.

[ABDULA]

@NOPASSION

No you don't have to remind me, remind yourself and all your yuppie friends who come to this B$ fast food place and expect hospitality beyond the minimum wage mark...I provide it cause i enjoy it, no attitude or arrogance, but I see it for what it REALLY is...So you can wake up now

[ABDULA]

@Mark

You sure your not getting decalf...perfect example of a j*#k0oF customer that we have to slave over...exactly

[BamaBarista]

The problem with no refills on trentas? The just say yes policy, trust me corporate would rather us refill them than deal with complaints. Plus, as someone else has already said, brewed tea and coffee are ridiculously cheap. The only time I'm even bothered by the no ice/water crowd is if there are several in a row and I have to make another customer wait because I'm brewing tea.

[BamaBarista]

sorry ignore last comment, meant for another topic (that's why you shouldn't post when sleep deprived)

[NOPASSION]

@ ABDULA
Simmer down a bit. Me and my yuppie friends? So you are assuming because I go to Starbucks I'm a yuppie? Really? I thought all you wanted to do is provide legendary service and help me enjoy the SBUX experience? Calling the customers chumps behind their backs and yuppies isn't to legendary. A friendly reminder, the customer is why Starbucks is in business. Sure their are inconsiderate customers out there but they're are also inconsiderate starbucks workers out there too. It goes both ways. Just like in any food establishment. Stick with what you're doing Abdula provide that legendary service and push the SBUX experience on us but calling us all chumps is a little low.

[morningbecomes]

@streakin_it: I take most of breaks, depending on what shift I am working, but I rarely actually "break" the whole break.


If I am working an 8-hour opening shift, I usually only take my first ten and my half. I consider doing the deposit, driving to the bank, waiting for the tellers to do the deposit, and then dropping all those am tills a bit of a break. But, if I need a break, i'll take it!


When I work an 8-hour closing shift, I'll just take the first ten and the half. I feel like closing out all those tills, counting the safe, and doing all the IMS stuff is a nice break in comparison to all the hard work my baristas are pulling out front.


Also, I often take my breaks in the back room (always get distracted by customers if I take it in the cafe) so I end up answering questions, etc.

[waltie]

It's fine if a shift works through his or her breaks (pointless and a sign of inefficiency, but fine) so long as he or she doesn't tell everybody about it and complain about how he or she didn't get a break.

Nobody likes a whiner, and everybody hates a martyr. Just takes your breaks. The store can survive ten minutes without you.

[TZ]

Does anyone live in Europe and has tasted the Bali Blend? I would love love to try it but I am unable to find a way to purchase it internationally.

[Argentius]

Former shift here -- I did not really get to take my 10's. Each shift I probably spent a total of 5 to 10 minutes leaning against the wall in the back with a drink to recover.

The only shifts I saw who took breaks, were the ones who smoked.

This was a mega-busy store, though, we're talking $6-8k days.

[Bill]

Well, the concept of a TIP (regardless of where it is deposited) is To Insure Prompt Service. I didn't receive any service at a local starbucks in Las Vegas, Nevada (took my order, and after 15 minutes, it became clear that the person who took the order must have clean forgotten the order, cause I didn't get it within another 45 minutes).

I know this is not indicative of Starbucks as a rule, but come on staffers, pay attention to your customers at least.

I did want to see exactly how much longer past the 15 minutes it would take, and to tell you the truth, it's pretty sad when you see 50-80 more people get their drinks in the store and via the drive-thru, and not get mine.

All I know is that the $1 I put in the TIP box and the $5.13 I paid for the Venti drink was pretty sad...

[waltie]

"after 15 minutes, it became clear that the person who took the order must have clean forgotten the order, cause I didn't get it within another 45 minutes)."

You waited an hour before asking about your drink? Had I been the person behind the bar, I probably would have thought you were trying to run some scam. I'm sorry, but if you wait that long to correct a mistake that was probably innocent on the part of the baristas, then you lost out on the chance to get it corrected.

Service is never perfect 100% of the time, and drinks get mis marked or forget to be called. If you haven't gotten your drink in, say, two minutes, feel free to ask about it, since we'll be happy to make sure you get what you ordered and paid for.

After that first fifteen minutes, you should have realized that somebody slipped up and your drink wasn't going to get made. So you waited another 45 minutes just to see what would happen? I'm tempted to say that you're either a liar or a crazy person, but I'll be generous and assume there's some third option that is slipping my mind at the moment.

[Bill]

Actually, there were a couple of elderly gentlemen who witnessed the incident as well. They saw exactly what I saw, and this morning I received an e-mail stating that a mistake was made, and the fault was not mine...I was actually killing time between appointments, but it's nice to know that at least some companies can and will own up to a mistake, even one like this.

I'll give Starbucks another try...in reality, a receipt board or monitor should be available to track orders which have been paid for but not delivered (sort of like what you see in most fast food restaurants today). In those cases, you'll get your order, but it like anything you might get a different item than what you asked for (which is why everyone should check their order before leaving the restaurant).

[waltie]

I never said this "incident" didn't take place nor did I imply that it was your fault. I was simply pointing out that waiting an hour before asking where your drink is strikes me as odd behavior, as though you relished the opportunity to have something go wrong.

Here's the thing about Starbucks: We make mistakes, but we can't own the problem and fix things unless you tells us when we slip up. Your drink slipped through the cracks? Let me know and I'll make it immediately.

[inkedmuse]

@shiftbytherules:
exactly my initial thought. I think regulars who usually tip would have fun with them, even if it didn't increase our tips, i would still do it. cuz, well, why not? but i'm supurised to see stores doing this when it is against thr rules, unless it is a licensed store, where there are no rules/standards anyway?

@streakin it:
sometimes shifts sacrifice breaks, and that's part of being an SS. my day is structured completely by who I work with. some people rock at their job, and those days are great. Some people are complete morons and can't be around sharp objects, those days I don't get a lunch. BUT, at least I'm barking at the moron, and not the moron barking at me.