Wow. What a week!
On Tuesday we were featured in an article by Annie Scott on Gadling.com, the most popular travel blog in the world. The post brought us a lot of attention, several new members, and we couldn’t be more grateful for the coverage.
Being featured on Gadling was also an incredible learning experience. There were some pretty strong opinions in the comments and while we know not to amplify the “lizard brain” as Seth Godin calls it, we still feel like we found quite a few valuable insights amidst some of the noise. Here’s some of what we learned.
We need to tell a better story
Where’s My Tip is new. New to us, and new to the world. Who knows how much we will have evolved in 6 months, a year, or two years, but we need to tell a better story about who, what, and where we are at this point in time.
One thing that really stood out in the comments were the people saying that this was a terrible way to tip waiters, waitresses and bartenders. WE AGREE. We never intended for Where’s My Tip to be used in tipping these folks. Leave the tip for these restaurant and bar service people on the credit card you pay your tab with. We tell our members this, but it probably needs to be more clear on our website.
Something else we stress to our members is to tip with cash if you’ve got it. Nothing says “thank you for your service” quite like cold hard cash. We think everyone agrees on this point, but from the outside looking in, it may seem like Where’s My Tip aims to be a total replacement for cash.
A few commenters also thought that Where’s My Tip would lead to people handing out tip cards and not paying tips. As explained in our Terms of Service, all members must maintain an extremely high ratio of tip requests to tips paid. If at any time we feel like a member is handing out tip cards as a way to avoid paying a tip, we will terminate their membership.
To better explain some of the nuances of Where’s My Tip and clear up any confusion, we’re working on an FAQ page that covers some of these common misconceptions.
Not everyone uses PayPal
Some people don’t have PayPal accounts, or just have a general dislike of PayPal for whatever reason. We think its the easiest way to receive and send money online right now, but we don’t want that to be a sticking point that keeps hard working people from asking for tips.
So, we’re working on a couple alternate options for paying out tips, including a direct deposit option into one’s bank account, as well as the option to receive tips by check. We’ll post here once these options are available.
Add guidelines for tip requests
A few comments mentioned that it might be uncomfortable for service people to suggest the amount of tip they wish to receive. We’ll be adding guidelines that people requesting tips can use to base their suggested tip amount on within the next couple days.
We’re looking forward to seeing other blogs, websites and magazines covering Where’s My Tip and we look forward to all the discussions, feedback, and improvements to our service that these articles and stories will surely bring.
