Quote Originally Posted by koolmoe
As a rule, tip well at places you frequent regularly. I worked as a server in high school, and I can tell you that we remembered our regulars and how well they tipped and adjusted our service accordingly.
QFT

Quote Originally Posted by euphoricism
A) The waiters do LOTS in the way of getting your food to your fast. If theyd rather just sit in the backroom and talk to their waitress buddies for an extra 10 minutes than deliver your food, theyre likely to do that without a tip incentive.

B) The waiter waiting an extra 5 minutes to take the food from point A to point B certainly does effect the quality of the food. It makes it cold.

C) If you ask for a refill on your soda, or extra salad dressing or something like that, and theyre not expecting a tip just an hourly wage, they'll get it when convenient to them, not when you want it.

C) Dont accuse people of not thinking, it makes you look like a dickhead.
Again, QFT.

Also, for the % of entrees thing ... When I was serving in a restaurant, I actually DID give more attention to tables with bigger bills than tables with smaller bills. If I'm really busy and I have a choice between getting refills for the table with the $50 bill and the table with the $10 bill, obviously I will choose the large bill because generally speaking, there's a $7.50 tip at stake there as opposed to $1.50 at the other ... Obviously this is read dependent (for lack of better terms on a poker forum lol), but it was definitely true when I served.

I think the tipping system is great. When I think back to when I was serving, I know that some days, the ONLY reason I provided really good service was because I needed the increased tips. Sometimes you go to work and you feel like complete shit and don't want to go the extra mile because you just don't freaking feel like it. Thing is, when you're earning your own tips (like I did when I was working ... and like most servers around here do), you HAVE to go that extra mile or else you know you're not gonna make enough money.

As an employer, I wish I could think of a system that would motivate my employees the way the tipping system does. Even though I'm a hard working person in general, nothing could have motivated me more when I was working as a waitress than tips did.