The ‘no tip’ policy failed for all the obvious reasons.
It’s about stake in the game and a sense of control.
For the employee, sweat equity has always been part of the restaurant game. A server’s share takes the form of providing outstanding service when they get higher check averages, higher tips and repeat business . Without tips, it becomes a management challenge to motivate, monitor and reward servers, who at their best, are independent personalities thinking like independent business reps. The energy and effort into managing them aren’t worth as much as the motivation of higher tips.
For customers, tips are their way of expressing on a sliding scale their satisfaction. Also, it’s a connection to the server, who, after all, is the one bringing you the food you’re about to consume (for better or worse.)
Was it worth trying, as an experiment? It’s always good to try things, I suppose. But I would contend that tips have long been part of the restaurant business for a reason. A quick inquiry into those reasons would have told just about anyone, it was not going to work as intended.
Here’s an article related to the subject from Restaurant Business. http://bit.ly/2gl7huP
Zebell & Partners Market Development 