06.21.07
Competition Around the Block
Last week I went with my friend Mary to get her hair cut and help her translate. The barber shop she wanted to go to was a new one located just a block away from Mr. Zheng’s barber shop where I had worked for a month. From my first step inside I could tell that this new barber shop was far ahead of ours in terms of ambiance. The walls were decorated in a modern black, red, and white motif, and there were live plants placed around the shop’s perimeter, adding to the modern look and feel. The hair wash beds and barber chairs were of higher quality than those in our shop and appropriately matched the walls and decorations. But what stuck out more than anything was a row of brand new computers with LCD monitors set off to the side of the store. Sitting in front of the computers were customers gleefully enjoying a game of counterstrike or chatting on QQ as they had their hair washed.
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| Mary enjoys a pre-cut massage as she checks her e-mail. |
For me, this is the perfect answer for a problem I have long had with Chinese haircuts and hair washes…they take too damn long. Put me in front of a computer with Internet, and suddenly sitting in a barber shop for an hour becomes a lot more appealing.
But what was the most striking of all was the price. A hair wash was 15 RMB, (as opposed to 12 RMB at my shop), but the price of a hair cut was exactly the same, 30 RMB. Had I been a regular customer, and not had any allegiance to my former employer, it is likely I would never go back to Mr. Zheng’s shop again. The new shop was clearly a better atmosphere, and with the added bonus of computers there would be no turning back.
This should spark some concern for Mr. Zheng as his shop is already competing with four other barber shops on the block. As China transitions to a market economy, competition has been rapidly transforming the way Chinese businesses operate. In some sectors, this change has been slow, but in the hairstyling industry, the competition has been vicious, with the result being high standards of service and tight margins for improvement.
I remember one conversation I had with Cheng Qing in which he told me, “There are three factors which will determine the success of a barber shop. First is the ability and technique of the barber, this is 30%. Then there is the service: How friendly are the little brothers and sisters? Is the barber pleasant to be around? etc. This is another 30%. Finally there is the environment in the store. This is accounts for 40%.” If Cheng Qing’s words are accurate, then Mr. Zheng will have a difficult time competing with this new store, regardless of how talented his barbers are.
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| Young customers battle through levels of Counterstrike as their scalps are massaged by little brothers. |
Unlike many other sectors of the Chinese service industry, most hair salons (in Fuzhou at least) provide excellent service. In my time working in the barber shop, I never once saw an employee take any action towards a customer which I would consider rude by either Western or Chinese standards. This is absolutely not the case with Chinese hotels and especially restaurants where staff are often negligent at best.
When Mr. Zheng asked me to give a speech about service standards in American barbershops and how our shop could improve based on the American model, I was at a loss for content. If I had been working in a restaurant, I could have easily spoken for hours: come back to tables to check on customers, don’t hustle customers when they are ordering food, memorize the contents of every dish on the menu, smile once or twice a day, et cetera. While this may not be the case in cheaper barber shops, I can honestly say that the service in our shop (which is considered mid-level) is equal if not better than what you would get in the United States.
With competition having already driven up service standards, and the negligible difference in barber’s abilities (I still do not even believe the 30 RMB barbers are any better than the 10 RMB barbers) the only option left is to innovate. Without any innovation of their own such as in-store computers, I see a bleak future for shops like Mr. Zheng’s.
canrun
said,
June 21, 2007 at 8:37 pm
“I see a bleak future for shops like Mr. Zheng’s.”
Ahh…Harmonious Socialism at its finest…
francis
said,
June 21, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I should say it is a good thing, and we, as costumers, welcome this kind of competition. It is the general public who get the biggest benefit from it. That’s how our society develops. What I want to point out is that the barber shop you described doesn’t seem so common in our area,maybe they only exist in big cities. For the vast majority, just a hair wash, cut and perm.
Justin Ray
said,
June 21, 2007 at 11:32 pm
I’ve never had access to a computer terminal at the barber’s in Arkansas. The closest I can come to that is getting to watch random sports on a television set…and I don’t particularly enjoy sports. Best of luck to you and Mr. Zheng, though. I never like seeing traditional, established businesses be undercut by the newest gimmicks. What ever happened to chatting with the barber for 15 minutes?
Shiiiiba
said,
June 22, 2007 at 3:07 am
I heard about these types of shops, but i have never been in one. I’d rather spend like 30 mins watching videos on youtube than chat with the barber.
Austin
said,
June 22, 2007 at 1:02 pm
It is my first time to know about the baber shops with computer terminal.
Wow, it is really a creative idea. and what surprise me most is that the price is not high.eg,hair wash costs only 15RMB, just the same in Wuhan where i am living.
i can see the competition in the hairstyling industry is fierce.
Zuwen
said,
June 22, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Hi Ben,
Love your blog. My family is first generation Chinese American and we moved from Fuzhou, so I do thoroughly enjoy reading about your adventures there. I was sharing this little tidbit regarding the computers in bathrooms with my father and his response was, “Oh yeah, some places in China, they even have Internet access in the bathrooms now.”
T.
said,
June 22, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Huh, to think I only choose my barber because 1. He speaks Cantonese (unlike all the Shanghainese places around here) and 2. It’s across the street from my building.
I haven’t seen the computers. Y’all in Fuzhou are ahead of us in Shanghai.*
*In barbershop technology.
michael
said,
June 22, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Oh man, that Sinocidal spoof of you is just too hilarious. By the way, I found out that a teacher here in Korla, Ted O’Brien, is a former colleague of yours. Small world, eh?
yuping
said,
June 22, 2007 at 4:54 pm
hi
you’re an excellent barber
Benjamin Ross
said,
June 22, 2007 at 6:38 pm
@Michael
Ted spent a year teaching with me at the university in Fuqing and taught me how to play tennis. We were the only 2 Westerners in town, except for a delegation of engineers from Pittsburgh who only left their hotel to go to McDonald’s. Quite random you guys ran into each other out in Xinjiang.
Mylea Mei
said,
June 22, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I hope the barber shops in my hometown have Internet access. I enjoy good service as well as barber’s ability and technique when I am in a barber shop. However, the price is not so high and I think most of people can afford it. When people’s living standard is improving, they do pursue better quality in life.
zuraffo
said,
June 23, 2007 at 3:17 am
Whatever happened to a good nap during a hair cut?
Jet So
said,
June 26, 2007 at 7:06 am
“I see a bleak future for shops like Mr. Zheng’s.”
As Warren Buffett would quip: I would rather buy a good business with mediocre management than a bad business with great management.
China Law Blog
said,
June 29, 2007 at 9:09 am
Why can’t Mr. Zheng add computers? Also, I am not buying into your percentages because they completely ignore price, which has to be a factor.
Benjamin Ross
said,
June 29, 2007 at 9:24 am
@ China Law Blog
I asked Mr. Zheng about the computers and he sort of gave an angry shrug and blew off my question. In other words, I would imagine adding computers probably isn’t in his budget, and he senses that he may have a real problem competing with these new guys. As for price, I would disagree about it being a factor. Virtually all barbershops in Fuzhou have the same prices. Mid-range salons like ours in the downtown are 30 RMB for a haircut. If you go outside the second ring road, most are 10 RMB. The fancy, upscale places are 50. There generally isn’t too much tinkering with the prices. I think there are unwritten rules where all the owners know if they start lowering their prices, the other stores will just lower them as well. Ultimately this kind of price war will hurt all of the store owners, so they all seem to shy away from it. I see this kind of mentality in most businesses in Fuzhou, not just hair salons.