Doctor Archive
Thread: Tips to getting tipped
I personally don't feel the need to rush to heal someone, if they ask me then I will turn around, /diagnose, then tell them my fee. If they don't like the fee well they can go find another doctor as I have 0 need to heal them.
As far as the "healing before being asked" bit goes, I think I might differ on your opinion. I'm a master doctor and proudly wear my master doctor tag over my head. The other day, I was standing at the bazaar and someone came running up with a medical droid and healed teh few wounds that I had. What sort of message does that send? Did this guy really think I couldn't do it myself? He must have seen that I was a master doctor. So, then, why did he do it? Well, to me, the answer was obvious: experience. So, if I know that he just got what he wanted for healing me, why would I feel the need to tip him? (Granted, I did tip him, but that's beside the point.)
I've come to this conclusion - don't heal for free. Sure, I'll heal some good friends for free from time to time because they do favors for me, as well. But don't walk around handing out your services for free.
I'm not saying that you should be stingy about healing or make people wait forever for you to do anything. Here's what I do. If I find myself in a medical center (or anywhere else, I suppose) and notice that someone has some wounds that could use a little TLC, I send them a tell, "Would you like me to patch up those wounds for you?" If they say yes, I reply with my fee (which is usually around 1 credit per point of wounds). At that point, they can accept my service or pass - it's their call.
The thing we, as doctors, need to realize is that we have the ability to sell something. We are not REQUIRED to heal anyone. Just because we don't give our customers something tangible like a gun doesn't mean that we do not provide value to our customers. How useful would that fighter with the awesome gun be if they have 1 point left in his/her health bar?
I am just medic 3 1 2 4 and I always get lots of tips. I yesterday I even got a tip of 4000 credits. Almost everybody tips me. I have no idea what I am doing different, but I don't think that it is that hard to get a tip.
Greetz Xona.
I will hit master doc today (I'm about 25K exp from wound treatment speed 4 and already have the other lines done and the appren exp for master doc) and after I get there I will see no need to heal for free. The other dayI sat in the bestine med center for 5 hours to grind med exp and got maybe 5k in tips the whole time. Actually 5k is probably a generous number but for the sake of argument I'll use it. Now that equals out to be 1k per hour for my services. I could go run 1 mission on dant in less then 10 mins and get 7K. So lets do the math...
Heal people for 1 k an hour
Run missions on dant for 42K (60 mins/10 mins=6 missions per hour X7k)an hour.
Now generally I'm a nice guy and I heal someone if they really need it but as a doc I think we get shafted when it comes to income. Magically
Tipping is such a touchy subject. If I am in a Hospital I am there for one reason to finish out my med exp so thats what I am there for. If I get tipped it a bonus if not oh well. Personally I am almost a master doc and made most of my money from harvesters of advanced resources that we use. So usually anything AI get tipped is usually enough to pay for shuttle costs around. But a simple thank you is all i really need so if you hang out in medic bays thinking of getting rich try again seek a secondary profession to help you because unfortunately you cant rely on peoples genorisity to support you.
Master Surgeon
Sniper
Itte
I'm not trying to by cynical, but I will present to you a few possible counterpoints:
1. Don't ASK for a tip - How would you feel if a waitor came up to you before you ordered your food and asked you to tip him? You would resent it, wouldn't you?
I do believe that the Waitor will present you with a bill everytime. It is up to you to tip him over and above this level. And I have long since gotten over the resentment of the bill, as I am receiving a service from them that I requested and the tip if for service that I appreciate.
This covers my fundamental problem with the mindset for non-Entertainers and Medics. They seem to think that xp is the sole reward and that money isn't a requirement, it's an option. At last count, all of the hides a Scout harvests are sold for money. At last check, many of the kills from the combat professions goes towards missions for money, or loot for money. And that weapon the weaponsmith just sold to you, he got xp for it. Why they think they're not obligated to pay for our healing services is beyond me.
2. Be cheerful - People are much more likely to tip someone who is happy to heal them, then someone who's obviously grouchy about it.
Absolutely correct, as long as they pay their bill first. Let them provide you a tip over and above that if they appreciate the conversation.
As a story, I often end up travelling on house calls to provide buffs, or fulfill custom orders, or provide guidance, and I can often receive more money than I stated it would require. That is a tip. Just because it's called a /tip, doesn't mean that is its only function. I use it to provide buffs, and I certainly don't expect them to pay me for them at my own discretion.
I know plenty of extremely cheeful and outgoing Entertainers who are so broke they can't afford travel tickets without running missions.
3. If you know someone usually doesn't tip, DON'T HEAL THEM! - if you can't remember the past, you are condemned to repeat it.
A wise choice, if you let the players decide on your funding.
4. If you know someone is new to the game, don't give them service as it is likely they don't have much money - self-explanatory.
Quite a good suggestion here. There is a lot to be done by teaching players how things should work early on. Many players were spoiled early on because we didn't have an economy and nobody knew how things worked. Now, we can advise them to always keep a minimum stock of money for healing purposes (to pay Entertainers and Medics) or methods for them to generate money (such as local delivery missions or selling hides they collect).
5. If someone forgets to tip you, don't start flaming them! - They might have just forgotten that one time or about to remember and come back. But if you flame them, they aren't going to tip you. Period.
If you choose to heal them with voluntary payment, you should follow #3 and remind them that that was their last free healing.
6. Heal people BEFORE they ask you for healing - If you heal someone you see has a LOT of wounds, they are going to feel the need to recomensate you for that because they didn't ask for it. (Note: this has ALWAYS worked for me)
I think this is what contributes to the current player mentality. As other posters have mentioned, this type of activity leads to many potential customers to think that you're not seeking payment. Kind of a, 'I didn't ask you for it, so don't expect a tip'. Plus, they may have asked a separate medic/doctor to heal them and would rather you not deprive the other doctor of money and/or experience. And I can say from firsthand experience in my medical center days that healing without asking provided as many tips as waiting for them to ask for healing, namely slim to none.
Many Doctors and medics are poor because they don't ask for payment for services rendered. We, unlike entertainers, are not at the mercy of the customer to pay us for our services. We can very easily decide not to heal someone, for whatever reasons. The argument continues to float that people cannot ask for payment because there is always a medic waiting to heal for free. This type of circular argument will continue to lead to poor medics and Doctors until they can reach the level of service offerings that they do feel comfortable asking for payment for, namely Stim-Bs and Enhances. However, if you think about all of the potential money you all threw away because you didn't charge at all on the way up from medic. We even have an advantage over our friends the crafters (like armor and weaponsmiths) because most of their artisan level materials aren't valuable (like CDEFs and Bone Armor). However, our healing services are valuable from day one and only continue to improve. But instead, we act like weaponsmiths who hand out Laser Carbines to anyone who comes into the Bank and then wait to receive 10k tips. I assure you they would not be the millionaires they are today if they did that.
I hear a lot of complaints from other doctors about not getting tipped. However, I have never had a problem with it. I follow these simple steps and I always get tipped anywhere between 500-3k credits every time. Try it for yourselves!
1. Don't ASK for a tip - How would you feel if a waitor came up to you before you ordered your food and asked you to tip him? You would resent it, wouldn't you?
2. Be cheerful - People are much more likely to tip someone who is happy to heal them, then someone who's obviously grouchy about it.
3. If you know someone usually doesn't tip, DON'T HEAL THEM! - if you can't remember the past, you are condemned to repeat it.
4. If you know someone is new to the game, don't give them service as it is likely they don't have much money - self-explanatory.
5. If someone forgets to tip you, don't start flaming them! - They might have just forgotten that one time or about to remember and come back. But if you flame them, they aren't going to tip you. Period.
6. Heal people BEFORE they ask you for healing - If you heal someone you see has a LOT of wounds, they are going to feel the need to recomensate you for that because they didn't ask for it. (Note: this has ALWAYS worked for me)
Addition to #4, don't just tell them you're not going to heal them because they are new. Refer them to a neaarby medical center.
Addition to #6, even IF they don't tip you, healing someone and not getting tipped feels MUCH better than getting asked to heal someone, healing them, and then not getting tipped.
I'm mostly in 'private practice' now. The bulk of my medical work is buffing & healingmyself and PA mates.
Zerona wrote:
Many Doctors and medics are poor because they don't ask for payment for services rendered. We, unlike entertainers, are not at the mercy of the customer to pay us for our services. We can very easily decide not to heal someone, for whatever reasons. The argument continues to float that people cannot ask for payment because there is always a medic waiting to heal for free.
On those rare occaisions when it's not a friend, I don't work for a 'tip', I work for a fee and I'm paid my fee upfront. If its agreeable fine and if not that's fine as well. I could care less if there is always a medic waiting to work for free, I don't work for free.
Haldaar is right on on the proper way to approach tips. Doctors aren't waiters, street urchins washing windows, or shoeshine boys. We are an elite profession offering a valued service, not beggars.
bump for /diagnose, /tell [patient] it will cost [X] up front, /carryonaccordingtoresponse
SithlordAcid wrote:
6. Heal people BEFORE they ask you for healing - If you heal someone you see has a LOT of wounds, they are going to feel the need to recomensate you for that because they didn't ask for it. (Note: this has ALWAYS worked for me)
Two days ago I felt generous and went to the medical centre to heal (I'm a master doctor, so I get no XP for it). Everything went well, everyone got healed fast, and I got various tips until one guy came in with about 2500 wounds across various stats (black HAM plus sub-stats).
He said "can i get some healing?". I healed him up for 2500 points, he got up, and he ran off without a word. I waited about 10 mins for a tip, and nothing came.
So I sent him a tell "you do NOT get healed by a master doctor for 2500 wound points and run off without saying thanks or tipping". He said "huh? sorry i'm in a hurry".Still no tip, no thanks, so I sent him another tell andhe replied "i said sorry"then put me on ignore.
I was furious. It ended my generosity. I announced in the hospital that I would no longer heal there because Tierel (that was his name) had made it impossible to continue. I said if you don't get healed, blame Tierel. I ran to the cantina and announced the same, explained what Tierel had done, and asked people to send him tells.
I have notvisited a medical centersince.