Zeller Tipping Trends: What, Where and When Australians are Tipping

“If the tips are higher, the staff is happy”

Staffing issues are rife across business in all industries. Is time spent placing ads, interviewing candidates and training new staff a sunk cost you can afford? Keeping staff happy by giving them the tools to collect tips is one way to protect your business — and it costs you nothing.

Beyond the ability to collect tips, an EFTPOS terminal that can subtly prompt customers to leave a tip could even grow the amount and size of tips received. It’s likely a subtle tipping prompt will help you capture those customers on the fence about tipping; 57% of diners say that an automatic prompt during the EFTPOS payment flow makes them more likely to leave a tip. 

Luca Balbo, Zeller merchant and owner of Park Street Pasta & Wine, says his staff are earning 30% more tips since switching to Zeller. The in-built tipping prompts are having a big impact on the team.

“If you’re a waitress and now, on top of your salary, you get a couple of hundred dollars in tips, obviously it’s pushing you to perform better,” says Luca. “If the tips are higher, the staff is happy.”

Australian tipping trends in 2022

A growing number of Australians want to leave a tip, whether for purchases or services received. Zeller data shows the average Australian tip in 2022 is $16, or 7% of the total purchase amount. If your business doesn’t have a way of collecting those tips from customers, your staff are missing out. 

Knowing who the most generous tippers are, which industries receive the highest tips, and when customers are most likely to tip, can help make business decisions — such as whether to extend your opening hours or close on a specific day of the week. We’ve crunched the numbers to get you that information. 

Which businesses receive the most tips?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those in the hospitality industry receive the highest number of tips. After all, the traditionally American standard of tipping after a meal has been creeping into Australian hospitality for a number of years. Yet new Zeller data shows consumers leave more generous tips for businesses in the charities and memberships, retail, beauty and travel industries.

For merchants in these industries, not prompting for tips could be costing their staff the chance to make an extra couple of hundred dollars. Simply toggling on tipping functionality on your EFTPOS terminal would solve this problem.

When are customers most generous?

The time and day of the week has a substantial impact on the size of tip a customer is likely to leave. 

In the hospitality industry, for example, Monday is the worst day for tips. The average tip at the start of the week is just $13. After a busy weekend, customers' wallets have likely taken a hit and renewed commitments to a weekly budget are often made. However, by Tuesday, the average hospitality tip value peaks at $17.

In terms of volume, more diners leave a tip on Friday and Saturday — the busiest trading days for hospitality businesses. Late-night diners are the most generous with their tips; the value of tips after 10pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings is more than double the average daily amount. These late-night diners tip between $37 and $46. 

For those merchants considering whether to extend opening hours, it’s useful to know that staff are likely to want to work these late-night shifts — when diners are most generous. 

Who are the biggest tippers? 

Queenslanders are Australia’s most frequent tippers. Those in the Sunshine State are more than twice as likely to leave a tip than those in New South Wales. However, it’s the staff in Tasmania that are making the most from customer tips; the average tip in Tasmania is $23.

If you run a business in Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria or Queensland, where the average tip is over $17, your staff could be making a substantial amount of additional income simply by enabling them to accept tips.

How to prompt for tips with Zeller

A subtle on-screen prompt is the simplest way of collecting tips, while also increasing the likelihood that a customer will leave one. 

Zeller Terminal can prompt each customer to leave a percentage-based or custom tip during the payment flow, without interrupting the transaction. Simply toggle on tipping from Zeller Dashboard or Zeller Terminal. Then, Zeller Dashboard will show you the value of tips accepted through the terminal — ready for you to easily distribute.

Tips are usually a reflection of a great customer experience. It’s important to make it as simple and easy as possible for customers to leave a tip; the fewer hurdles to tip, the more likely your customer is to leave one. Zeller’s tipping functionality is seamless and intuitive, maximising your opportunity to grow tips.