Opinion: Do I need to leave a tip if I’m ordering via QR code or app?

It’s a modern quandary. Should we be giving tips when ordering food via QR codes or through a delivery app? ELIZABETH MCDONALD reveals the answer.

ELIZABETH MCDONALD

3 min read

January 19, 2024 - 4:00AM

Food

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Would you like to leave 5%, 10%, 15% or other?

Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns were a very hard time for the hospitality industry, the repercussions of which can still be felt. Staff shortages, restaurant closures, and severely limited trade for a largely casual workforce meant lost shifts, lost income, and lost tips.

In Australia, tipping has historically been far less common than our State Side friends, and every comment section on an article about tipping will inevitably reveal a “well, we pay a living wage here.” But during the height of the pandemic, even the most adamant keyboard warrior recognised that the hospitality industry was suffering and that tipping had become more important than ever.

Minimising contact with others was also more important than ever, with paypass and QR codes edging into ‘the new normal’ in order to avoid catching or spreading the virus.

Staff shortages, restaurant closures, and severely limited trade for a largely casual workforce meant lost shifts, lost income, and lost tips during Covid.

We adapted, we downloaded apps, we accidentally filled our camera rolls with pictures of black and white squiggles.

We were also asked to tip an app. On top of a service fee. And a delivery fee.

I was grabbing a post-work drink with some friends this week, and so as not to miss out on the pivotal part of the story (fine, gossip) I opted for the QR code on the table to order a round rather than going up to the bar. I was prompted to agree to a service fee to use the app. Ugh, fine. Then I placed my order. Fine. Then I was prompted to tip, ugh fine! I usually drop some coins into the jar anyway.

Ignoring that the app glitched and my order got lost (no, I couldn’t get a refund on the app fee) I also scratched my head at what I was tipping for.

We tip for good service. Heck, we tip for totally average service. But what is the purpose of tipping through a QR code? By the time it goes through the third party, the manager, payroll, and then to the waiters and bar staff, is it not so diluted that it may as well not be there at all?

Would you tip when ordering through an app?

If we break down the typical reasons why we tip, we consider things like proficient service, fun interactions, a meal that totally blew us away, and all those other indefinable little touches that make our experience at a bar or restaurant great.

It seems that with the QR code, the flow is all off. We order, we pay, we tip. Only then do we receive our goods and services.

We don’t pre-tip in a restaurant. We can choose to tip after we order on food delivery apps and the service has been rendered. We can make the choice to tip based on an informed decision. For instance, I’m not tipping the delivery driver who left my food at my neighbour’s house. I am going to tip the delivery driver who travelled through the rain, and came to my door.

That’s the flow that makes sense.

What I can’t make sense of, however, is being asked to pre-tip on an order that I’m placing myself, am often collecting myself, and for which I haven’t interacted with a single member of staff.

We can choose to tip after we order on food delivery apps and the service has been rendered. We can make the choice to tip based on an informed decision.

Tipping is the recognition of the human element. When you’re dealing with technology that is distinctly un-human, it’s easy to form a disconnect between your screen and what ends up on the table in front of you.

Especially in a culture and an economy that isn’t required to compensate or subsidies a hospitality worker’s wages, as it does in the US.

I suppose the thing to consider is that the industry is still, to a certain extent, finding its feet again. We are spending and going out less and if we do, we should see tipping as an opportunity to give back to the industry at large.

For more food, travel and lifestyle news, go to delicious.com.au

Originally published as Opinion: Do I need to leave a tip if I’m ordering via QR code or app?