How Waiters Get Us to Tip More

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."

The study: In an American-style restaurant in the south of Holland, the researchers told half the servers to repeat their customers' orders, while the other half were instructed to say something positive, such as, "Coming right up!"

The results: The copycat servers' average tip was double that of the servers who just said something nice.

Van Baaren says this social experiment is the first to show that mimicry has concrete benefits; however, he is the first to admit that businesspeople know intuitively the importance of polite copying. "A good salesperson knows from experience that people like to hear and see themselves," he told Nature News Service. Even business training manuals often advise mirroring the customer.

Other ways servers can get bigger tips:

• Smile a lot
• Greet and even touch the customers
• Crouching down beside the customers while taking orders
• Giving candy with the bill