Time To Pet Talks Tips
In January, we released our always popular By The Numbers blog post for 2023. We were blown away by all of the numbers we saw (like over $403,000,000 in revenue for Time To Pet customers or 43,000,000+ cute pet pictures sent to pet parents), but one number that really had us shocked was the data on tips. In 2023, pet care businesses using Time To Pet received nearly $16 million in tips. You saw that right. Pet parents added just under $16 million in tips to their payments last year.
Every couple of years, we compile some of the most exciting data on tips for our blog. 2023 was a fantastic year for pet care pros, so we thought it was the perfect time to update this info!
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To better understand this data, it's helpful to understand the different types of payments in Time To Pet. There are three main ways that payments can be processed.
- Customers can make cash or check payments on invoices, and the invoice is marked as manually paid by an Admin or Office Manager.
- Clients can make credit card/ACH payments directly to their invoices--this can be done in the Client App and on the Client Portal.
- Payments can be processed directly by an Admin as long as the customer has given the Admin authorization to do so. For Admin-initiated payments, tips aren't always included since the Admin is the one processing the payment. We have excluded info on these types of payments from this data.
That leaves us with two types of payments for this blog: cash/check payments and credit card/ACH payments made by a pet parent client.
Let's compare cash/check invoices to credit card/ACH invoices in 2017, 2019, and 2023
Cash/Check Invoices
In 2017, the average amount for an invoice paid via cash/check was $121.91. The average number of cash/check invoices that included a tip was 5.5%, and the average tip amount was $20.67.
In 2019, the average amount for an invoice paid via cash/check was $132.86. The average number of cash/check invoices that included a tip was 5.66%, and the average tip amount was $17.11.
In 2023, the average amount for an invoice paid via cash/check increased to $158.48. The average number of cash/check invoices that included a tip also increased to 7.26%, and the average tip amount was $22.63.
Credit Card/ACH Invoices Paid By Pet Parent Clients Through the App or Portal
In 2017, the average amount for an invoice paid via credit card/ACH was $116.82 (slightly less than cash/check invoices). However, the average number of invoices that included a tip was 32.74% (almost 6x as much as cash/check payments). The average tip amount was $18.16.
In 2019, the average amount for an invoice paid via credit card/ACH was $144.15. The average number of invoices that included a tip was 42.49% (7.5x more likely than cash/check invoices). The average tip size was $20.33.
In 2023, the average amount for an invoice paid via credit card/ACH climbed to $170.48 (a significant increase over cash/check payments and credit card/ACH payments in 2019). The average number of invoices that included a tip jumped to 54.79% (still 7.5x more likely than cash/check payments for 2023). The average tip size increased to $23.25. Here is a table for the 2023 data:
To better visualize this data, let's look at 100 "typical" invoices paid by cash/check and 100 "typical" invoices paid by credit card/ACH.
In 2017, of the 100 "typical" invoices paid by cash/check, only 5.5 of those would have received a tip compared to 32.74 invoices that would have received a tip for invoices paid by credit card/ACH. That correlates to $113.69 in tips paid by cash/check vs. $594.56 in credit card/ACH tips for these 100 invoices.
In 2019, for these 100 "typical" invoices, the amount in tips received for cash/check payments would have been $96.89, compared to $863.54 in tips received for credit cards/ACH payments. That's a big difference!
In 2023, the numbers grew even more. Tips added to 100 "typical" invoices paid by cash or check would have added up to $164.29. For the same invoices paid via credit card/ACH, the amount of tips would have been $1,274.13. Wow!
Wrap up
Let's break all of this data down into its simplest form. For every $100 paid by cash/check in 2017, you could expect $0.93 in tips. For every $100 in payments made by credit card or ACH using the Client App or the Client Portal in 2017, $5.09 was left as a tip.
In 2019, for a typical $100 payment, the cash payment can expect a $0.73 tip, while a credit card/ACH payment would expect a $5.99 tip.
In 2023, that typical $100 payment would generate $1.04 in tips if paid by cash/check. If paid by credit card or ACH, it would expect to generate $7.47 in tips!
Tips add up! They mean more revenue for your business, can be a great way to motivate staff, and help offset any credit card fees. Hopefully, you found this data as exciting as we did! If you still have questions or hesitations about accepting credit cards, take a look at this blog post on the subject.
