The Effects of Service Quality on Customers’ Tipping Behavior

In recent years, customer tipping behaviors have become one of the most debated issues in the context of tourist behaviors and social norms. And the numerous studies have begun to focus on searching the main determiners of tipping. Although some determiners of tipping such as diner habits, stereotypes, service atmosphere, server’s actions, and bill size intensively are being searched, service quality as a determiner of tipping is still one of the most researched topics among others. However, the number of studies conducted on this subject is very limited in Turkey, especially in Antalya. Thus, this study firstly aims to fulfill this gap and also aims to determine whether service quality positively impact the customer’s tipping behaviors. Data were gathered by using the questionnaire technique from 437 restaurant customers in Antalya. SERVPERF which is one the most used scale to measure service quality was used in this study and customers’ tipping behavior was measured with TIPBEH scale. The results confirm that service quality should be concerned as an important determiner of tipping. Within this context, this study reveals that reliability, empathy, tangibles and assurance dimensions of service quality have positive impact on the tipping behaviors.