Digital Tipping App
In early 2022 my company began investigating a new market that we had not explored before. Thanks to COVID, hotel occupancy dropped sharply, and after the world began to reopen, our hotel clients faced difficulties in finding and retaining housekeeping talent.
Our research showed that one reason for this was the decline in the use of cash, which made tipping much more difficult for hotel guests to do. It was up to us to deliver a solution that would solve this.
Project Summary
Our hotel clients were facing increasing pressure to provide tools to help employees account for lost tip revenue as a result of fewer hotel guests carrying cash.
This, in turn, was causing staff retention issues for our hotels, as the staff in certain departments depended on the tips.
In an increasingly cashless society, how can we empower hotel guests to leave tips for their housekeepers?
My Contributions
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Design Team Lead
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Visual designer
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High-fidelity interactive prototypes
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User research
The Challenge
Tipping housekeeping staff needed to be quick and simple. We couldn't expect hotel guests to download an app to tip hotel staff. We couldn't expect them to spend time learning or troubleshooting a complicated process. We knew the process needed to be easy or the staff wouldn't get their tips.
User Research
My team conducted extensive research in preparation for this project.
Some key findings:
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Most hotel guests want to be able to leave tips for housekeeping staff
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100% use a smartphone
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Leaving tips at checkout does not allow the guest to ensure the tip goes to the right person
Solution
The solution we decided on was a 3-screen process. We wanted to keep the process of tipping as quick and simple as possible. We prioritized mobile-first payment options like Apple Pay and Google Pay so that mobile users would not have to configure a new payment method.
We made the buttons large and easy to read, and we tried to choose labels and wording that minimized the amount of reading that a user would have to do to understand the process.
The first page was a multi-step process, and would automatically move to the next step as soon as the user had entered the necessary information.
Select tip recipient
We provided only the options that the implementing hotel actually supported. And we ordered them by how often they received tips from guests. We kept the targets large so users would be less likely to misread or mis-click. We kept the labels short for easy scanning. We put the options all out in front of the user so they wouldn't have to engage in a multi-step process to select the correct department. And we pre-selected the department so users could entirely skip this step if their desired tip target was selected.
Select your tip amount
We provided a large readout so users would not miss their tip amount. We provided sensible options for users to pre-select. And we chose three options to help bracket the desired tip amount (the middle one) and drive users towards it.
We also wanted the custom amount to be simple and quick to input, so we had large buttons for that. And we dedicated the entire screen to the tip entry so users would be able to focus on the task and not mis-click due to fat-fingering or small touch targets.
Pay
Payment is intended to be quick and painless, and we auto-detect and prioritize mobile-first payment methods based on the user's platform. The most likely method is pre-selected to minimize the number of clicks and decisions the user has to make.
We also explained the discrepancy between the selected amount and any taxes or fees that the hotel guest has to pay on top of their selected amount. We negotiated with the providers but for legal reasons we couldn't take the tax and fees out of the user-selected amount, and had to charge on top of their chosen amount. We wanted to message about this so that they would not be surprised on the payment summary screen.
Transaction Summary
Finally, we present a transaction summary, and also allow the hotel property to collect feedback and comments that can be forwarded to the tipped employee, or their department heads. This is intended as a feedback loop to reward well-performing employees, as an intangible reward for good service.