Some Barbershop Thoughts on Customer Service

One of my favorite places in the world is the barbershop. While that wasn’t always the case during my teenage years, as a kid, I loved my barber. Bill was a great guy. He had enough common sense when I turned 10 to listen to what I asked for a haircut and what my mother told him to do. And for the most part we were both happy with the results, although my mother had an abnormal obsession with me not having bangs, but that’s beside the point. It also didn’t hurt that he had one of those old fashioned coke machines and I got a dime to get a bottle of soda after I got a haircut. Of course, this was back in the days when the family service station still ruled the countryside. And the fast-paced supermarkets and the corporate gas and supermarket monoliths hadn’t moved too far from the cities.

Over time, my childhood barber cut back on his hours. It had had a long and successful career and was something of a one-seater shop in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town. Eventually, I went off to school and when I came back, he had completely withdrawn. I had to go find someone else to cut my hair.

Since I had a few extra bucks in my pocket, I tried out some of the fancy lounges. They sure had these wonderful cloaks and candles and all these other fancy amenities. All of whom were nice, all of whom added revenue and margins to their businesses, but that wasn’t why I showed up there in the first place. Like many clients around the world, he knew what he wanted. I would listen to new ideas, but at the end of the day I had a pretty good idea of ​​what my problem was. In this case, my hair was getting long and shaggy and I have about three wicked strands just on the front of my head. Because of that, I’m the type of person who knows how he wants to cut his hair. I am not looking for a new style and color. I don’t care if I’m trendy or cool. I knew what I wanted, tried to communicate it clearly, and it never translated into a repeatable result. They would be too concerned with the art of their profession. It wasn’t like he had a bad haircut; I just didn’t get what I wanted. After a few years in places like this, I went the chain haircut mall route.

There are places to cut hair with chains everywhere. They cost much less than luxury salons. Instead of fluffy capes, there are plastic chairs in the waiting room. The list of additional services was limited, but then again, all I wanted was a nice haircut done my way. Unfortunately, despite being easy to find, plentiful, and well-priced, the quality of his work was hit or miss. As a customer, not knowing what result to expect is just frustrating and not good customer service. I could never have the same person twice in a row. There was no consistency. The poor children who cut hair there were new. New isn’t exactly bad. But even though they had a license to hang on the wall, most had just finished school in the past few years. There’s nothing wrong with being new, we’ve all been that at one time or another. Like many people just out of school, they had the basic idea of ​​what to do but lacked the experience of how to refine things. There was no mentor there to help them along the way. No one truly skilled, who could offer experienced insight and perspective.

Eventually, I ended up in a small old barbershop with 3 men cutting hair. Two old and the “new”. In this case, the new guy was one of the other guy’s sons and had been cutting hair for 22 years. He was sure that he was no longer in the field. And by my childhood barbershop standards, it was huge. After all, there were three barber chairs. Even the new guy was experienced and over time it had become his thing. Not that his original mentors hadn’t yet told him what he was doing wrong. Over time, he had developed his own perspective and was the one he waited for time and time again.
So what does all this have to do with business and sales? Everything, if you look at it well. Was the $60.00 haircut six times better than the $10.00 haircut? Not! The price alone didn’t make it any better, because it wasn’t what I wanted. If any of the people along the way had given me what I wanted and not what they thought I needed, I would still be paying a premium for their service. I probably would have also bought the other high-margin stuff from time to time along the way. Were $10.00 haircuts from the mall the same as $10.00 haircuts from the barbershop? Not! Although the price was the same, the customer experience and quality varied greatly.

Instead, I found someone who listened and did what I asked. Even if you ask what your customers want, are you really listening to what they say? Or are you hearing him from your perspective and not meeting his needs? Chances are, there are a lot of corporate buyers and business owners saying what they want and if you would just listen to them and really work to meet their needs and solve their problems, then there are more businesses out there than you ever imagined. . It’s not about fancy questions or flashy sales moves. It’s about asking a few questions, understanding the person you’re talking to and their real needs. Only after you take all of that in, can you apply your knowledge, experience, and perspective to create a good outcome for them.

So when I moved to 5 states a few years ago and had to give up my hairdresser yet again, I did things differently. I walked past the half-dozen start-up chains, past the ornate and glamorous odes to beauty that were all the rage, to find a simple little shop in the center of town with three old chairs and three hairdressers. In the past it suited my needs and this one did too. Your customers are no different. Sure, along the way there will always be the temptation to try something different, but most people won’t unless what they have isn’t really what they want and need.

At the barbershop, I was the only man under 50 in the place the first few times, but that didn’t matter because they cut my hair well and gave me the same predictable result time and time again. Ultimately, as more new people moved into my town, the average age of clients went down, so now they have people like me who will hopefully still need haircuts long after the younger barber retire. They recently raised the price from $11.00 to $13.00, but as far as I’m concerned it could have gone up to $20 and I wouldn’t have batted. They are providing the same great service and predictable quality every time I’m there. In fact, I have sent at least six guys who are now regular customers. Even if you’re not obviously in sales, there’s nothing like referrals.

And if you’re not listening, you’d better start before they find someone else who will.