Restaurant servers who copy their customers' behavior get double the tips of servers who don't do this. And the No. 1 way to mirror the customer--and get a big payoff for doing it--is to repeat back the order.

That's the word from Dutch psychologists from the University of Nijmegen. Lead study author Rick van Baaren told Nature News Service, "Mimicry creates bonds between people. It induces a sense of 'we-ness'. You know that what you're doing is okay, and you become more generous."


http://channels.netscape.com/ns/home...ipmore/tipmore

Ummmm, give great service?!!

Nope. Best scam I've seen is one where an 18% gratuity had been added to our bill of a few hundred $$ and the credit card receipt was printed as:

sub-total $328

tip...........

total.........

Of course the $328 already had included a $50 tip.



------------------
View from seat 24E

I've seen exactly the same sort of thing on room service biils numerous times.



[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 09-22-2003).]

That is more puzzling in a foreign country where the tip is included in the bill, but the waiter will tell you it isn't!

Hear! Hear!

I thoroughly detest the bill being presented with the final box accusingly blank. I just sign and keep my copy so that if anyone decided to award themselves something extra I can challenge it.

Even worse on one occasion was the bill presented in Charlston SC on which the server wrote "15% service not included".

We returned the credit card slip rounding the amount up to the nearest dollar (a might 2 cents as I recall) with the correction "15% service not provided". Needless to say we did not return. I have to say that the food was awful, and the waiter had all the charm of a cheese grater.

The story did not quite end there. We had been dining prior to this at an excellent restaurant that was called Magnolia (I think) where the food and service were excellent. Providing 20% was indeed easy in such a delightful establishment. We told the person who was looking after us of our adventure, and he asked to see the bill. He took it away and came back laughing. The owner of the restaurant was in the bar and went incandescent.

I gather that such rudeness to foreign visitors wasnot part of the restaurant's policy, and was I might add totally at odds with the way we were treated in a part of the USA that I have came to love very much.

Studies in the past (don't ask for cite right now) have shown that the longer customers sit at their table, the bigger tip they leave.

So, a clever waiter will try to "forget" about you after you are satiated. But I hate that - give me my freaking bill without me having to flag you down, as you are running around the restaurant. I hate sitting too long after I've finished my meal.

Yes, great service is a must. The service ends after I leave the restaurant, not after I pay my bill. I am a creature of habit and will often return to the same restaurants unless service/food is horrible. If a waiter/waitress stops service me after they get the bill, I will remember and will refuse their service in the future. I make a point of doing this in a non-confrontational manner as I might not know what I might find in my meal. If service is that bad in the first place, I never go back. I am a great tipper for great service.

A clever waiter would try not to forget because a forgetful waiter makes for angry customers. Angry customers tip accordingly.

If a waiter works hard in order to elicit a greater tip, I see nothing wrong with that. If you work harder to make my meal more enjoyable, I'll tip more. That to me is a win/win deal.

The week before Christmas I stayed at the Fourpoints in Greensburg, PA. Arrived late, just 20 minutes before room service stopped. The kitchen got me my burger and wine pronto.

When the waiter brought it to the room he had me check the wine and then declined an additional tip. He said I needed to just relax and enjoy my stay.

This would NEVER happen in eastern PA, only in the lesser-sophisicated western PA. A similar thing happened to me in the nice Marriott in Altoona last year. Gotta love it.

MisterNice

This might be a good time to issue a reminder:
if the service is truly bad, no gratuity is required.

Yes, it is commonplace that a 15% gratuity is added by the customer to US restaurant and bar tabs. But if the service is truly poor, make the appropriate sign by refusing a tip.

Get the order correct the first time, keep the drinks filled and smile.