In the three months since launching the JustShorTT tipping app, its makers estimate it has already saved users $161 million. The app calculates server tips at 19.56% – so slightly shy of the expected 20% that waiters and waitresses think they’re getting the whole thing.
“Even a semi-frequent restaurant-goer will save more than the cost of the app in the first five years alone,” says Sheila Weemis, Chief Idea Conciever at app developer PLUMP14.
Weemis says the company conducted extensive research before settling on 19.56 percent.
“We sent teams into restaurants from high end to greasy spoons, experimenting with different amounts and recording the servers’ reactions,” says Weemis. “We started out at 18 percent and got a lot of dirty looks from the waitstaff.”
The reactions became gradually less negative as the tip amount was increased – but even at 19.55 percent many servers still noticed and exhibited semi-hostile behavior.
“When we got to 19.56 and they thanked us like they would have at 20, so knew we’d hit pay dirt,” says Weemis.
JustShorTT makes it two winners in a row for PLUMP14.
In 2017 it launched the CandyCount app, where users aim their phones at store packages of M&Ms, Skittles or other candies and instantly receive a count of how many pieces are in the package, giving them the best bang for their candy bucks.
