A restaurant in Taizhou, Zhejiang province recently attracted attention after launching a special campaign to improve its service. The restaurant requires waitstaff to stick a plastic bag containing banknotes to their uniforms, and customers can take the money away from servers if the service does not meet their standards.

According to Zhu Xiaojian, the owner of the restaurant, customers always used to complain about service no matter what he tried. Fortunately, a game broadcast on a reality TV show last year gave him a new idea. He slipped 20-yuan notes into plastic bags and stuck them to the shoulders of each server in his restaurant.

"Part of what the customers are paying for is service," Zhu explained, adding that money should therefore be returned to the diners if the service does not meet their expectations.

In addition to a partial refund for customers, the system also punishes waitstaff whose customers are unhappy. If a waiter's cash bag is ripped off once, the sum will be covered by the restaurant. However, waiters whose customers are routinely dissatisfied lose part of their salaries, and must pay the 20-yuan penalty themselves.

The system has attracted many customers who are curious about its effect on customer service. Patrons take photos of the tags on the shoulders of the waitstaff and post them on social media, which in turn promotes the restaurant even more.

The system has now been in place for about a year, and only one waiter's cash bag has been ripped off in that time. However, in that instance it was not because of dissatisfaction with service; rather, the customer only wanted to glimpse the waiter's reaction.

Overall, Zhu believes service has been greatly improved thanks to the unique system, and the number of customer complaints has plummeted.