Smart Tip Suggestions for Salons

Studies show digital tip suggestion screens can increase average gratuity by 15-30% compared to manual tipping. When clients see pre-calculated tip amounts like 18%, 20%, and 25% alongside the corresponding dollar values, they consistently tip more generously. The touch-friendly interface makes selection easy, and the suggested amounts anchor clients toward higher tip levels.

Salon owners can set custom preset percentages (e.g., 18%, 20%, 25%, or any values you choose) and the system automatically calculates the corresponding dollar amounts based on the service total. You can also allow a custom tip entry option and a skip button for no-tip transactions. The presets can be adjusted anytime from the settings dashboard.

Every tip is attributed to the technician who performed the service. Tilavon generates per-technician tip reports showing daily, weekly, and monthly totals with cash vs card separation. Tip trend analytics help identify patterns by time of day, day of week, and service type. This data is included in payout summaries and payroll exports.

When a client receives services from multiple technicians, Tilavon displays each technician's portion of the total and allows separate tip amounts for each. For group appointments, the tip screen handles multi-technician tipping smoothly. Tips can also be pooled according to configurable rules set by the salon owner.

Tilavon's smart tip suggestions display context-aware tip amounts on the client-facing checkout screen based on the service value. Pre-calculated options make it easy for clients to choose a tip amount without awkwardness, which typically increases both tip frequency and average tip amount.

Nail technicians can view their accumulated tips in real time through the Tilavon employee app. They can see individual tips per service, daily and weekly totals, and how tips are distributed when tip pooling is in effect.

Most salon point-of-sale software accepts a tip at checkout, so the more useful question is what it does with the tip afterwards. Look for four things: adjustable suggested amounts, an automatic split when two technicians work on one client, cash tips recorded alongside card tips, and tips that flow into a payroll export without rekeying. Tilavon does all four, and the settings are yours to change rather than something support has to configure for you.

There is no universal answer, but the presets matter more than the exact numbers. Clients anchor on what they are shown, so a salon offering 18, 20 and 25 per cent will generally see different results from one offering 10, 15 and 20. On lower-priced services, flat amounts usually read better than percentages. The practical approach is to pick a set, leave it alone for a month, and compare your average tip before and after.

The two common methods are an even split and a split weighted by the value of each service. Weighted is usually fairer when one service is much larger than the other. What matters most is that the rule is agreed in advance and applied by the system every time, rather than decided at the counter by whoever is closing the ticket.

They should. A tip screen on a card terminal only captures card tips, which leaves cash to be reconstructed later from memory. Tilavon lets cash tips be entered against the technician at checkout, so both kinds land in the same earnings total and the end-of-week payout does not depend on anyone remembering.