Going away from tipping isn’t as fringe as it was 10-20 years ago. In general, customers will tip reasonably the same amount regardless of the level of service - unless the service is exception or dismal. These extremes make up a very small percentage of the total number of experiences. Things that affect tips more? Hand written notes on the receipts, bubbly attitude, and I hate to say this one - borderline flirting with male customers (laughing at their jokes, casual hand on the arm/shoulder, being overly complimentary, etc). I want to stress that I don’t find this appropriate, but it has been shown to drive up tips. This is one of the many criticisms of the practice - that it can be about misogynistic interactions between guests and staff. People like tipping because it gives them a sense of very tangible feedback on how they felt the service went. The problem is that it is used by many restaurants as an excuse to not pay a living wage.

There are so many service related professions that do not work on tips and they are able to maintain a high standard. Certainly not all of them. But in those companies where there is no tipping and I don’t get good service, I don’t go back.

Source: I opened a restaurant in 2016 and ran it until 2020 when COVID killed it. I strongly considered going to a no tipping model at that time, but it would not have been received well by my market. There were no other restaurants in the area that did it and I was overruled by my partners.