Tip At a Salon or Not to Tip

In the service industry there is a new trend of not expecting tips. What? Yup, not expecting tips. Some may say I don’t ‘expect’ tips, but in some way we do. It is part of our income. If someone is a low tipper you may reflect on the service, you provided or you are personally. It some instances yes, your service does reflect your service, but not you necessarily. Let’s discuss both options and why the trend is moving in that direction. 

Be Open To Tips

Being open to tips is a way asking your clients if they were happy with the service they receive. Are you really taking the tipping into a way of receiving feedback and being open to reflecting change on your service? This comes down to your soft skills and hard skills. Your soft skills are your intangible service. This is your body language, the client’s perception, or their overall experience you provide. Your tangible or hard skills is the actual service you offer. It may be skin, hair, lashes, or nails. It is all about your technical skills. Both have a high level of importance with the bigger picture when offering services. Your soft skills are what most clients will come back for, not your technical skills. Paying close attention to the overall connection and experience the guest has will impact your tips more. 

A Good Tip

A good tip is 20%, an exceptional tip is 25% and a mediocre tip is 15%. If you charge $50 for a service with an exceptional tip you will receive an additional $12.50. Part of knowing this information is being able to look at your tips and take into consideration the service you are providing your clients. I say this with caution because I don’t want you or anyone to hyper focused on this and doubt themselves or the service they are performing. It is simply a tool or a way for you to reflect on the service you are providing and being open to feedback and change for that matter. There are a lot of opinions about tipping. Some may look at tipping the way I described above.

Why Tip?

There are also going to be those that think they just paid you for the service, why do they have to pay more than you charge? During the pandemic when the service industry was reopening a lot of customers would pay a little extra of a tip knowing you as a service provider was out of work with out pay. That thought process is starting to level out and some may not be receiving as much in tips as you did in the past 2 years. Some customers now may not be giving as much of a tip could even be due to increase of everything going up around us. They don’t want to stop receiving services from you, but they could think the tip is just an added bonus. They may give you less, not because of the service you provided, but just cutting back all together. You can even reflect with other service providers in your salon or that you know. See what others are seeing around you. Whatever the reason may be could be what started the trend of not expecting tips from customers. 

Not Expecting Tips?

Setting your prices so you do not accept tips. You want to set your prices where you do not need to receive a tip to make the income and revenue you need to be successful. Going back to analyzing what you would receive for an exceptional $50 service would be $12.50. Would if you just added the $12.50 to the service? Now you would charge your customer $62.50 for that particular service and turn the tipping off on your Point-of-Sale system? Mind blown, right? I am sure it goes back to the original thought of not expecting tips, but they are nice. However, if someone does not tip you well, you notice. This can help create consistency with your pay and you are not going to make more or less than you expect. You can create a clear expectation with your customers. 

By only charging what you expect and not being open to taking tips should not hinder your process of the customer experience. You need to be open to feedback in a different way about the service you are providing. You can do this by asking coworkers what they observe from your body language or even excitement level you create with your guests. You can also ask some of your loyal guests about how you can create a better experience for them? When you ask, expect an answer. You may not like what some tell you but being open is all about your growth. You don’t ever want to get stuck and be complacent with your soft skills and your hard skills. Most talk about taking continuing education class to increase the level of your hard skills. Does anyone ever talk about increasing your soft skills? It is harder to find a class on your personality and body language vs a class for your technical skills. 

Get New Ideas

There are amazing podcasts out there that will help you get ideas and ways to increase your clients experience, which is a direct connectional to your soft skills. Those intangible things are what increases your overall guests experience. It starts with the interaction over the phone, email, or text. Texting and emailing are the hardest way of communicating without sounding impersonal. There are so many things that impact the overall experience that can impact the perception of your customer. Being open to all touch points you have with your clients. Accepting tips or not accepting tips is the question. This is a newer trend. You may be happy with how you are doing it right now but being aware of the options sets you apart and providing you the tools to be successful. You have complete control of your business. Don’t wait for it to happen to you; make it happen for you!