that is the best title to a blog that i have seen so far. it made me laugh after spending 10 hours working in an american chain resturant, where, i am surrounded by people, who want me to provide the best customer service i can. despite the fact that alot of people in the us, think it is okay to tip you 10 percent on a regular basis. thanks for making me laugh with that title and what you are supposed to do.

1． “Sanitizing stuff”, make customers feel clean and healthy to do their hair in the salon. Use one-off face washing paper if your salon does face washing service.
2． Specify different customer’s different needs. e.g. every barber should have his(or her) own strength(fast, prudential, creative stylish or extremely handsome… ha-ha) the little brothers and little sisters should recommend different barber to customers who don’t yet have their favorite barber according to their different needs, or maybe just write down a list of the barbers’ name and skills, then let customer chose. Few customers maybe prefer a little bit privacy, Mr.zheng could consider creating some sort of mean to separate them from the rest, such as a private room-2 customers serve capacity. No music, or DIY music, both washing and cutting in the same room…
3. Some other service, such as drinks. Prepare some simple, instant drinks, write down a list and charge for that, some customer maybe like it.
4. Encourage the stuff to improve themselves, develop some good hobby. As the founder and CEO of Alibaba-Ma Yun, once said: 世界上没有完美的个人,只有完美的团队- literally translate to “there is no perfect individual but perfect team.”

Great idea about the straight blades, but you (or me) probably have more cumulative facial hair then the entire city of Fuzhou, so this probably work out too well.

@Peter

Amen on the haircut timing…as for the music, we always have music playing, and it plays at a sensitive level (otherwise I probably would have committed suicide with a pair of barber scissors by now). They actually have some decent music as well. I’ve taken a liking to Zhou Jie Lun’s new disc, as well as an Wu Bai one they have. They also have a Compay Segundo disc! I have no idea where it came from, and nobody’s played it yet, but it was a nice surprise to find good Latin music in China.

@Andrew

Most of employees income is based on how much work they do (one hairwas = 2.5 RMB, etc.) so they already have that built-in incentive.

Has your boss thought of using bonuses related to profits to motivate his staff? That’s one way of encouraging good customer service, because the effort put in by staff converts into cash in hand if it increases customer throughput.

I know this will not fly in China…. yet, but you boss definitely would get better and more motivated staff if he gave them better benefits. For example reconsidered the need for so many people outside rush-hour. This would cost him nothing if planned correctly, and give the employees a chance to do other stuff than work. Wouldn’t harm putting a few posters in the dorm either

On the other hand this kind of speech may not motivate Mr. Zheng a lot, so I’m pretty sure it won’t be greeted that well with him.

One of the things that made me come back to the same shop here in Denmark, is a mix of both quality haircutting AND the fact that I like(d) my haircutter. She always asked genuinely interested questions, but always knew when to back off. So even on days when I never felt like talking I was not bothered too much. She always read my mood and never once annoyed me. What I want to say, is that it is important that the employee chats politely and ask questions. This way the customers will get a personal attachment to their shop. This is what makes them come back.

On a personal note, the woman that cut my hair made her own shop after some time, and when she moved then, I followed her in a heartbeat. That says something about the things I just wrote, eh?

Like you said in your post, you go into your barbershop in your home state, he trims for 15 minutes and you’re done. Who wants to stay two hours in a barbershop anyways? I’ve got better things to do.

I hope you can urge them to cut their cutting time down and listen to their customer’s needs.

How personal is the service at your shop? Most of the barbershops I have been to (barring Supercuts or some other chain) have been almost neighborhood affairs. Everyone there knew everyone else and if you were new you would know everyone soon enough. A few of my friends go to the chains just because they are not very talkative and only want a quick, quiet, clean cut. Which category does your salon/barbershop fall into? I think different types of customers frequent different places because they value different types of service.

Frequent customer is pretty much my only experience with barbershops so I can’t be of much help with actual recommendations, just food for thought.

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side note
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Does anyone know how to explain a fade in Chinese? I think my Chinese is up to struggling with an explanation, but I would love to know the proper way to ask for a fade (3.5 on the top, 1.5 on the sides).

Thanks in advance