On Monday evening I rushed into a negative-one star salon to have a hair cut. My guy wasn’t in…and I still let some amateur play with my complicated curly hair!
End result? Disaster! I had told him to reduce on the sides…He never leveled the sides. On the left he came up halfway the side of my head, and on the right, he went way up twice the height of the way he’d gone on the left.
I was enraged, infuriated! I could see it plainly…There was little light in the salon, and the guy was squinting in struggle to balance the levels.
He told me to stand up. And he shaved while I was erect. My anger was steaming through my ears. I left vowing never to set foot in that stell!
I went to school with hats & caps for the next few days, reluctant to return for a fix! My hair was fed up of the heat beneath the skull umbrellas, and so I headed out to the 5 star expensive salon I had visited months ago.
A fresh wind of air conditioning welcomed me in. The sterilizers here were like new LG fridges. All was sparkling. There wasn’t shed hair allover the tiles. It was neat. The kind of place for me.
I explained myself to one of the women in whose eyes I found favor. ‘I have 5k only.’ (Since I had already spent at a the first place) She said it’s okay. (The standard is 10k.) I sat. The chair itself was massaging me. There was a cool TV in the corner above, and the barber fixed the mess of the former butcher who’d played with my head.
His hands smelled like fresh flowers I had never smelt. He was gentle. He knew what he was doing. He used over 5 machines on my crown. Then he washed my hair (not by jerrycans) but by shampoo & gels & God knows what else.
My eyes were closed the entire time. He dried my hair, then caressed my face with a hot towel. Wow! That feeling… After that he curled my hair the way I want it, as he rubbed over 3 types of hair food (after shave, olive oil, etc) in it.
Bottom line was I had already been wooed and not just bamboozled but I was lured to find the extra 5k to pay the full price. I was satisfied. I saw the full worth of my money. The business spoke for itself.
These were my conclusions that any business ought to incorporate;
1. Great Hygiene at the workplace.
2. Great customer care. Handle a customer with great delicacy, like they are the only thing you can see at that time, like they are the only thing that exists in the world with you.
3. Great excellence at what you do. Keep evolving your product, or talent, or service until it is the best around. My business began years ago in high school. I never abandon it. I kept making cards such as birthday, and success. The cards I made in 2012 are not the same as today’s. They are classier!
4. Great relationship between the service provider and the customer. Converse beyond just ‘you’re welcome’.
5. Great products! Let the product or service you provide be capable of selling itself without you having to explain any extra words. The service I received at today’s salon made me decide to keep going there & recommending others to that same place.
6. Great contrasts. My business sells cards worth 10k 20k etc. Whenever I feel I’m paying such prices for a product, and that it seems an exaggerated fee, I look again and say, but your products are the same fee. In so doing I understand my fellow entrepreneur’s worth. If I can’t afford it, I walk away.
I experienced most of these at the salon, and I look forward to inculcate those that are missing, but also I look forward to being the best at what I do. Pick a leaf for that, your global business.
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