Cashless Tipping in the UAE: The Agenda Dubai Eye 103.8 and EasyTip

Want to listen to this in full? Click here 

Transcript of the radio interview with Georgia Tolley and EasyTip CEO Evgeniy Chuikov:

Georgia Tolley: Where I'm sitting here at the Zoho stand in Hall 7. the corridors are full of people, the volume of noise is gradually rising. I think you're going to be able to hear that in the background.  But there really is an amazing buzz about Gitex Global this year. And like every year, to be honest, I'm surrounded by tech experts. You've got some of the world's leading founders, investors, and corporate innovators. So we really are set to grab fascinating speakers at all stages of this show. You can hear, I'm almost sort of feeling slightly over-excited. You can almost hear that my voice is going already, which is quite impressive considering we're only one hour in. Now, I'm going to take a look now at a practical tech story that I really wanted to bring to you for some weeks, actually. I've been really keen to cover this topic because it speaks to, I think, nearly everyone's life experience here in Dubai. I'm always keen to tip. Like, it's not something you do a great deal in the UK, but I've learned how to do it here in Dubai.

I've learned how to do it in the UAE. And I think there is almost a responsibility to sort of help people who are earning less than you, ultimately, who are doing the sort of hot jobs, I'd say. You know, the ones, you know, the valets, the people who are in the car parks, the guys who are cleaning your cars. Anyone who's doing a job that, frankly, you and I probably wouldn't want to do. Those are the people who I like to tip. But the problem is at the moment is that I really very rarely carry any cash. Like I used to be able to keep fives and tens in the car or in my wallet and I think okay those are my tipping numbers, those are my tipping notes. But now I basically go out without a wallet, I just take my phone. And so it happened to me again last night and every time it happens, I kick myself, but I don't have some money in the car. So I went to a really nice restaurant, went to Bersola last night, and I, you know, I valeted the car, because it's at a hotel, and I just, I didn't have anything to give the guy at the end of the evening. And I, you know, I sort of over-apologized, and he looked at me like I was mad. But I just felt really awkward about it, and I decided right then and there that my resolution is, I'm actually going to go and take a 200 dirham note into the bank, and I'm going to ask them for fives and tens because I don't want it to happen again. But what would be even better is if there was a tech answer. And so I was really, really, really interested to discover this company. It's called EasyTip and they are basically trying to bring the habit of tipping back now that we live in a near cashless society. It's a cashless tipping program and the guy in charge of it is Evgeniy Chuikov and he joins me now on the line. Evgeniy, how are you?
Evgeniy Chuikov: Hi Georgia, good, thank you very much. Good morning.

Georgia Tolley: Tell me how your system works, like how would it work if I wanted to tip the valet guy from last night for example?

Evgeniy Chuikov: Well, it's interesting because in your introduction you talked about this frustration of not being able to leave a tip. That's actually the motivation of my motivation and some of the other team members for setting up this platform in the first place. It's to reduce the difficulty of leaving a tip, make it more discreet and simpler. So what the customers of different venues can do, they can simply scan a QR code that they see in that business. They don't need any apps, just open your mobile phone and your camera. You land on a tipping page that belongs to that tip recipient or maybe a team of people that service them. And you can choose the amount that you'd like to leave. The whole process takes about three or four seconds. You can pay by card or Apple pay or Google wallet, you know, various ways of payment and the benefits are very simple, so tips go directly to the tip recipient and they go to them very fast so they get more transparency on their income. They get their money faster and they are able to do all sorts of things with them, save, spend and so on and so forth. So we enable them with these financial elements.

Georgia Tolley: How do workers sign up to the system? Have you been finding that individuals have been doing it or that companies have been doing it on behalf of their staff?

Evgeniy Chuikov: No, it's more the companies. I think the platform, EasyTip, allows businesses to reduce the level of admin surrounding tipping, and reduce some of the costs associated with managing all these tips. And so we find that it's the businesses that approach us in the first place. That's the first point. The second point I think is that for businesses, this is becoming a motivational tactic. I think, you know, particularly post COVID hospitality and services industries have found it difficult to recruit and attract some of the best staff back into the industry. And platforms such as EasyTip, I think helps them do that because A) we increase that level of income, B) we reduce costs and also I think we make it fairer for the entire team.

Georgia Tolley: You must have done lots of research on this before you started your company. You know, what type of impact did tips have on workers’ incomes? You know, how big a percentage is it?

Evgeniy Chuikov: Well, actually I think you were right that a lot of the hospitality and service workers are on very modest basic salaries. And so tips actually amount to a very large part of their income on a monthly basis. It varies from different industries, but it can be 30, 40, even 60% of people's income and you know they save this money for all sorts of reasons as well not just to go out and immediately spend them but a lot of these workers actually save money for things like education, rental, buying new properties, maybe visiting distant relatives that they've not seen a long time ago. So actually, you know, there's a big social impact and you know, there is this social mission that EasyTip kind of fulfils and tries to help with.

Georgia Tolley: So if I go on the sort of employees or the person I want to tip, so say it was the valet guy last night and say I, so I wanted to tip him, I went on his- I scanned the QR page, QR code, and it went to his page, so to speak. What would I see there?

Evgeniy Chuikov: Well, you would see that person's name. You would see the place where he works. You would also see maybe a sentence from that person saying what he's collecting tips for, because there is a way of personalising that page and reaching out and establishing that bridge with your customers and then you'll see several values that you may want to leave as a tip basically. But the page can be personalised in that way.

Georgia Tolley: That's really interesting because I think that's really important, that bridge between the people who maybe you don't sort of, who serve you, but you don't necessarily get to know. For example, I could be very grateful to the person who's waited at my table, but if I'm having a business meeting, I don't have the time to get to know that person. Whereas your page would give me the ability to sort of personalise my appreciation after the occasion.

Evgeniy Chuikov: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, it goes back to the point of transparency. Not only do we make tips more transparent for the service or hospitality worker, but I think tipping as a process for the customer, it also becomes more transparent because I for one have always had frustration with respect to where does my tip go? Does it actually go to this person or does it go to someone else? When will they receive them and so on and so forth. So I think by using EasyTip  the customer who leaves a tip has this kind of guarantee that oh I know where my tip goes.

Georgia Tolley: And how do the workers get the money out because I mean that's a- you really touch on a pin- a really pinpoint on the issue there if I give 10 or 15 percent at a restaurant I have to admit I really I just don't really believe that that guy who really put in the effort to serve our really amazing meal, I don't really believe that he gets that money directly. And I think I would be more likely to tip if I knew that that guy got it.

Evgeniy Chuikov: Well I think different businesses distribute tips differently, number one. So I think in a restaurant setting for instance, your experience that you just had after your dinner, the responsibility for that is probably shared in many ways - the front-of-house, the waiter, maybe the barman was also kind of included in that. The kitchen staff who were cooking the meal. So in restaurants, quite often, it's shared and distributed amongst the entire team. In other businesses, they're more individual. But the platform allows both setups, both scenarios. And I think, if you were in the restaurant, you would scan the QR code and you would see that you're tipping the entire team, basically.
Georgia Tolley: Okay. So I've got about 30 seconds left with you. EasyTip, is it- are you getting lots of people downloading it and lots of people adopting the system because I need it like yesterday.

Evgeniy Chuikov: Yeah, absolutely. We're seeing incredible traction. We were launched a couple of years ago in the UK, but last year we launched in the UAE. UAE is a tremendous market for us. We're seeing massive growth opportunities here. And I think one other aspect to just quickly mention is that what's unique about EasyTip is our distribution element, that we can actually distribute directly to each waiter and each stylist. And for that reason, we're now having many conversations with other platforms that can maybe collect tips, but can't actually distribute them quickly and fairly.

Georgia Tolley: So once you've got it, you can then go and spend it straight away.

Evgeniy Chuikov: Absolutely, right. It is because a lot of them, as I said, want to save and have that more responsible approach to their income and I think Easy Tip allows that.

Georgia Tolley: Amazing to chat to you, thank you so much, really interesting that finally people are introducing cashless tipping platforms. I have to say there is a really strong need for them here in the UAE. Evgeniy Chuikov, thank you very much indeed for your time. CEO and co-founder at Easy Tip. Thank you very much indeed.