With the approaching one-year anniversary of launching the StingyTipper Service Rating system and blog site, ST thought it was time to celebrate and dined out twice around the Thanksgiving holiday, once for lunch and once for dinner, both times at local St. Louis establishments (no chains’ service reviewed here).
For ST’s spouse’s birthday, the Field House Pub and Grill (on north Theresa just off the SLU campus) was selected for the celebration, prior to attending the Paul Simon concert at the Fox Theatre. The service (provided by, ST would surmise, a young working co-ed from SLU) was very good--friendly, efficient, conscientious. Though StingyTipper may have felt a tinge of guilt (or nostalgia?) in determining the gratuity for a “struggling college student” and thereby probably left more than necessary ($23.00 on a $115.00 bill—20%), at least the service experience was quite positive. The Salutation dimension was nothing special, but all other service domains (Equity, Responsiveness, Value, Informed, Comfort and Experience) were rated a two or three. Some examples of the quality service rendered included extra attention to the needs of the table because of the birthday celebration, expeditious service in response to our need to get to the theatre on time, proactively providing set-ups for serving the cake we had brought into the restaurant for dessert, and the provision of warm (but not overly obtrusive!) birthday well-wishes from the serving staff. Although the S.E.R.V.I.C.E. rating system numbers didn’t add up to 20 to justify a 20% gratuity, it was close enough and the self-imposed “guilt factor” pushed ST over the limit.
On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, StingyTipper enjoyed lunch with extended family members at Lafayette Fire Company #1, a unique spot in Lafayette Square with a fireman theme and décor. StingyTipper had a very similar service experience here as at the Field House: friendly, courteous, responsive, timely. The difference though was in how the gratuity was being handled. At both dining venues, there was a party of six to be served. At the Field House, the tip was not automatically added to the bill, while at the Fire Company, a 20% gratuity was tacked onto the food/drink subtotal. So it gets one to thinking: Who worked harder at delivering quality service, the one who had to earn it or the one who got to just collect it? From ST’s perspective, though the waiter at Lafayette Fire Company #1 was fine (although probably not 20% fine!), the waitress at the Field House Pub and Grill was hungrier for a good tip and thereby rendered higher quality service. This is quite a dilemma: what do you do when the restaurant policy is to automatically calculate the gratuity at a fixed amount but you are not satisfied with the service experience? Since you’ve been stripped of your “power” to send a message about service quality through tipping, how do you get that authority back? Two things…..either you can make a deliberate point not to go back to that establishment or you can write the owner or manager of the restaurant about your belief that the fixed gratuity amount did not match your service expectations.
Scoring Key
Field House Scoring
1 = Unsatisfactory 2 = Satisfactory 3 = Commendable
Field House Scoring
S.E.R.V.I.C.E. SCORE
Salutation = 1.5
Equity = 2
Responsiveness = 3
Value = 3
Informed = 3
Comfort = 3
Experience = 3
Total Score: 18 = 18.5% "Earned"
Lafayette Fire Company
Lafayette Fire Company
S.E.R.V.I.C.E. SCORE
Salutation = doesn't matter
Equity = doesn't matter
Responsiveness = doesn't matter
Value = doesn't matter
Value = doesn't matter
Informed = doesn't matter
Comfort = doesn't matter
Experience = doesn't matter
Total Score: 20 = 20% "Accepted"
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