Tip4Change: a cashless way to show your gratitude
Megan
6 May, 2021At a time where you can tap to pay with your smartphone or scan a QR code to settle your bill, carrying a wallet filled with cash has become almost unnecessary. These new payment methods have made our lives more convenient, but when the time comes to tip service workers, the quick scramble we do to find spare change can be awkward and uncomfortable.
Thankfully, Tip4Change has come up with an innovative solution for those who want to tip, but never have cash on them. The company developed a cashless way to show gratitude to service workers like petrol attendants, caddies, and car guards.
Registered tippees carry a lanyard with a QR code issued by Tip4Change, which tippers can scan with their SnapScan app to tip. It’s a quick and easy way to thank them for the services rendered. “We believe that anyone reliant on tips should have the tools to receive them,” says Co-founder and CEO, Jesse Singer. “With this in mind, we do our best to provide support to any service worker that needs a way to receive cashless tips.”
We caught up with Jesse to learn more about Tip4Change and why the app has become necessary.
How did Tip4Change come about?
The idea for Tip4Change was sparked when my co-founder, Jason Frank, was unable to tip a petrol attendant who’d just filled up his car with petrol. The attendant advised him that they were prohibited from adding tip amounts to card payments and Jason didn’t have any cash on him at the time. When he realised that this was the new norm and a significant segment of the working class were losing vital revenue from tips, he decided this was a problem he needed to put his mind to.
When you were designing the process of how Tip4Change would work, what were the most important aspects you had to keep in mind?
Our platform needed to be designed in a way that ensured even the most technologically challenged will find the user experience intuitive and easy to use, driving hassle-free uptake and ongoing usage. We had to consider that not all tippees have smartphones or bank accounts and find a way to make it easy for those tippees to interact with the platform. We also wanted to make it as simple as possible to tip. That is why we give tippers the ability to use apps like SnapScan that are already on their phone, or if they don’t have an app they can use our web-app (tip.live) – meaning there is nothing new to download.
Read more: More than QR codes: how to pay with your SnapScan app
What has been your biggest learning in running Tip4Change?
We learnt quickly to interact with tippees on the ground and to learn as much as possible from them and their experience. This has shaped the platform and we are constantly building new features to help make their lives easier. Customers are already accustomed to making payments with QR codes and find it easy to tip.
Why did you decide to include SnapScan as part of your operation?
SnapScan is the most widely adopted payment app in South Africa – they’re a market leader. SnapScan has a great customer interface and makes tipping simple for our tippers. It also doesn’t hurt that the QR codes are compatible with Masterpass, giving all the peripheral banking apps the ability to use the platform through one QR code. We currently cover about 17 apps in total.
One of your brand pillars is trust. How do you gain the trust of the tippees?
All of our brand pillars interlink and support each other. We operate from a fundamental belief that all people reliant on tips should have the tools to receive them. We aim to provide that tool whilst being transparent about our fees, ensuring the platform is intuitive and easy to use, that we create a technical and personal connection on the ground between tippers and tippees to ultimately have an impact and improve lives.
Read more: How to build rapport through active listening
What has the response been like so far?
Customer demand for cashless tipping is high, and we’ve had nothing but positive responses from them. Once tippees have interacted with the platform and see the benefits, they sing its praises.
You can find registered tippees at 14 locations across the country. Look out for those wearing the Tip4Change lanyard and show your gratitude using your SnapScan app.
If you’d like to share your business’ SnapScan story with us, please get in touch at stories@snapscan.co.za.
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