Customers may not be comfortable with payment solutions automatically prompting them to leave a default tip of 20 percent, 30 percent or more when they pay at restaurants and bars after interacting with a server. Now as payment solutions with built-in tip prompts continue to proliferate, they are showing up in new retail verticals and even at self-checkout kiosks.
“Emotional blackmail” is how a traveler visiting a gift shop at Newark Liberty International Airport described how he felt when he was prompted to include a 10 percent or 20 percent tip on a single $6 bottle of water, according to a Business Insider article (quoting original reporting by The Wall Street Journal).
