Before COVID-19, our team was working on a way to make service tipping fast, easy, secure. We never had cash to leave a tip. The only thing we carried? Our trusted mobile phone.
Our mission: We’re moving toward a cashless society. How can we help those who depend on cash-based income recover the lost opportunity for earnings? How could we empower those of us who wanted to express the appreciation?
So we created a cashless tipping app and our solution: TipGenie.io
How did our cashless tipping app work?
Each person, department, group, event, or organization would have a single, customized QR code, that when scanned, instantly sends a tip, securely processed and paid out by Stripe.
Purposely built for the service industry, we made it possible for the sender to send a tip, with a message of support. Even better: No one would have to download another mobile app.
We continued to make it easier. No one would have to exchange personal details or emails. Unlike Venmo and PayPal, a sender could use ApplePay.
A sender could also choose to send the tip anonymously. The receiver would receive a notification - a ping - whenever a tip was sent.
And then.
COVID-19 turned our world upside down: Store clerks became essential employees, delivery drivers turned into front-line workers. Hotels went dark and empty. General managers made heart-wrenching decisions to lay off employees whose first and last job was their hotel.
So, while we wait for our industry to recover, we want to give out our patent-pending QR codes to anyone who would like a way to collect digital donations and tips, from anyone, at any time, from a safe physical and social distance. All they need to do is to point their camera at the QR code and our cashless tipping app does the rest.
A QR code is essentially a virtual tip jar that you can carry around. You can print it on a flyer, email or text it, share it as a photo, post it on social media, include it on your business card, create a virtual background with it when you Zoom.
Who do we hope will sign up for a free digital tip jar?
Artists
Airport workers
Bartenders
Cafes
Caterers
Concert managers
Delivery drivers
Event organizers
Grocers
Hair Stylists
Hotels
Janitors
Restaurants
Service Workers
Schools
Valets
Volunteers
Those who could use it.
Now we’re reminding everyone that tipping is about expressing appreciation. Now, more than ever.
