NoNameProf

This is actually an interesting problem for most people in most situations. A tip is left at the end of the meal in the restaurant, but in almost all cases, the patrons will never see the same waiter/waitress again, even they do some time later, the waiter/waitress may not remember the patron. this leads to two issues:

the first issues is that waiter/waitress does not know the type of patron (are they the kind of people who tip minimum even with best service?), so they form an opinion at the beginning based on their previous experience with OTHER people. they do not provide good service for those who they believe will not tip well, but this then becomes a self-fulfilled prophesy, as patrons will indeed not tip well given the service is not outstanding even if they are generous otherwise. the end result is the formation of stereotype patrons.

the second issue is that patrons do not benefit personally by being generous. beyond fulfilling an unstated social contract (good service needs to be tipped well), what it does is to help to break the stereotype, but as long as there are a few people fits a given stereotype choose to free-ride, all goodwill be wasted.

one solution to this is to organize some type of club of patrons, anybody who belongs to this club will tip a certain way, and this will be enforced by feedback by wait staff served them at any restaurants. Upon enter a restaurant, these club members will identify themselves, thus remove the information uncertainty. At the end of the day, they will receive better service and waitstaff will receive better tip.