Tippy

TL;DR

• By partnering with Branch, Tippy can pay stylists their tips right after each service, reducing the wait time to receive earnings by over 96 percent. 
• Embedding Branch’s card solution allowed salons to push tip payouts to stylists 24/7— they no longer have to navigate ACH windows or other administrative hassle, and stylists receive tips immediately. 
• David Tashjian, CEO and President of Tippy, credits Branch as contributing to their ability to scale and expand, delivering an important benefit for stylists and the salons who want to retain them. 

Background

Tippy is a digital tipping platform purpose-built for the service industry, originally developed by salon owners to modernize the tip experience for professionals and businesses. Focused on simplifying and optimizing the way tips are collected and distributed, Tippy provides tools like customer-facing tipping screens, SMS integrations, and QR codes to help businesses increase gratuities and eliminate the inefficiencies of cash-based systems.

Since launching in 2019, they’ve seen incredible growth and expansion, becoming an essential solution for salons, spas, and other service-related businesses. We spoke with David Tashjian, Tippy’s President and Co-Founder, about why Tippy chose to partner with Branch as they scaled, and the impact that partnership has had on their growth.

From Slow ACH to Immediate Tip Payouts

At the heart of Tippy’s mission has always been a commitment to improving the lives of service professionals—such as hair stylists and beauty professionals—by creating a better tipping experience. To deliver on that mission, Tashjian knew they would have to find a way to send tip payouts right away after each shift; but it took a little trial and error to get there.  

At first, Tippy was sending tip payouts using ACH, which meant that tips arrived in workers’ accounts the next business day. These cutoff windows weren’t conducive to the needs of today’s service professionals; if a stylist was tipped out on a Friday, it meant waiting until Monday to receive their money—and Tashjian and co-founder Terry McKim wanted to provide something better.

Tippy also had to pay fees for every ACH payment, which meant that as their business grew, so too would their expenses. Tashjian and his team knew that if they wanted to scale the business to its full potential—and provide a positive tip payout experience for stylists—they’d need to embed a card solution that could save them money while also providing faster pay to stylists. 

They tried a competitor’s paycard next, but it turned out to be more hassle than it was worth. 

“[Our previous card] had all sorts of fees," says Tashjian. "It made us realize that fast tip payouts were crucial, but not at the expense of unnecessary fees and a poor experience for the stylists. We wanted a way to get the best of both worlds: instant pay, and a card that was beneficial for our stylists. And that’s what led us to Branch.”

When Tashjian was introduced to Branch, he was immediately impressed with the level of involvement and care from everyone involved, all the way up through the C-suite. 

“When I met with Atif and Ahmed, they could not have been more down to earth or more deeply involved,” says Tashjian, referring to Branch’s CEO and Chief Product Officer. 

After a few conversations, Tippy and Branch solidified their partnership. With Branch, Tippy would no longer have to work around ACH windows or succumb to the unnecessary fees of traditional paycards. Instead, they would now be able to provide stylists with immediate access to their tips, free of charge.

Accelerating Stylist Tip Payouts by Embedding a Modern Card Solution 

The Branch platform uses modern APIs, which allowed Tippy to embed a card solution right into their product. The result: Fast, flexible tip payouts to stylists. 

“With Branch, we’ve been able to build something where we can give stylists their tips instantly: 24/7, 7 days a week, which is amazing,” says Tashjian. 

Tips are now pushed directly to workers’ Branch accounts, where they can either save their money or spend with their physical Branch Cards. They can also transfer their money whenever they want, which is something Tashjian appreciates. 

“Stylists can get the best of both worlds; if they want it in another account, they can just transfer it over,” he says. “It enables people to [feel comfortable] trying it; and once they try it, they realize how easy it is to use.”

As a bonus, Branch comes with features that help stylists keep more of their hard-earned money, which aligns with Tippy’s mission of supporting service professionals. 

“You were the only card we could find that has free ATM options nationwide, cashback rewards, and provides plenty of fee-free options for the worker,” says Tashjian. “All of those features help us brand and sell what we do, because our entire product is built around benefitting the stylists.”

How Branch Enables Tippy to Transform the Stylist Experience

Customized for the unique needs of businesses and their workers, Tippy already offered convenient customer facing tipping screens, SMS, and QR code UIs designed to simplify tip acquisition and maximize tip results. And by embedding Branch, Tippy was able to make the tip payout experience just as seamless.

Being able to send stylists their tips right after each service reduced the wait time for getting paid by over 96 percent. 

“Now that everything is integrated, the speed of transaction for our guests is amazing,” says Tina Lanoue, owner of Hair Loft Salon & Spa in Salina, Kansas. “They can tip without confusion with one swipe of the card. [Tippy] has provided increased income for our service professionals, too [... and] makes check out so easy and our close outs at the end of the day are also faster and easier.”

“Stylists see the cumulation of income coming in,” Lanoue says. “They are able to use it for budgeting and see their annual income go up.”

Driving Growth by Saving Money and Improving the Tip Payout Process

Tippy’s growth has accelerated in the past few years; they are now nearing 3,000 locations across the nation and are in some of the biggest businesses in the salon and spa industry. They’ve also surpassed a billion dollars in tips. Tashjian is quick to point out how partnering with Branch has helped make this possible.

“Partnering with Branch really accelerated our growth,” says Tashjian. “It saved us a significant amount of money and allowed us to provide an even better product to our people. It’s been the best of both worlds,” he says.

Tashjian also speaks to how well Branch integrates with Tippy, allowing for smooth data transfers back and forth, which, in turn, help more employees readily accept the solution.

“The ease of the integration between our two technologies has been a significant factor in the adoption rate,” he says. “It’s one thing if you make someone go download two totally different apps that are complicated and hard to use. Branch has enabled us to have a pretty soft pass between our two apps and every year it gets better and better. That really has made us shine in the marketplace.”

The ease of use has allowed Tippy to continue to drive business growth and expand their reach, not having to be weighed down with cumbersome processes, unnecessary fees, or payment delays. 

“The ease of sending money is incredible,” he says. “It took a heavy lift off of us and allowed us to focus more on other things for our customers.”

When we asked him what he’d recommend to other companies considering a partnership to help them pay people faster, he had this to say: “Focus on who is the best option for the service professionals. If you do, you’re going to be able to scale a lot quicker. Branch has been, bar none, light years ahead of everybody else in terms of what they offer our service professionals.”

Above all, Tashjian and his team appreciate how Branch has enabled them to offer more to their service professionals while helping them scale—and doing so from a place of genuine partnership. 

“There’s no other card out there that can offer these valuable benefits,” says Tashjian. “And there’s no other company that we can deal with that really treats us like family. Branch changed our lives and really helped make Tippy what it is today—I would never want to go anywhere else.”