Haha it was ironic that someone mentioned Applebees earlier because I'm currently a server at one. Coming from a server's point of view, I usually average 15% of all my net sales. Of course many of you believe that this is low, but it is mainly due to the fact that the place I work at isn't in a big city. When I served at another tourist city, it was common to leave with 25-30% of my net sales.
Some people, no matter how good you cater to their needs, just leave crappy tips regardless. It gets sort of discouraging, but I don't dwell on it. Some servers, however, complain about it and as a result the rest of their night is full of bad tippers. Don't think for a second that you caused that girl to deliver less-than-adequate service to the rest of her customers -- if anything, she was happy and you improved her service. Sometimes I wonder is people realize that I only make 2.13$ an hour
and I have to tip out 15% of my tips to the bartender/hosts. I still make good money because if this wasn't the best paying job while I'm going to college then I wouldn't do it
.