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What Your Barber Knows About Marketing

Author: Jeffrey Mayer   |   December 6th, 2009

Sometimes you need to look at your business from a different direction and perspective. To see where you are going with it.

* Where have you positioned yourself in the marketplace?
* How can you increase revenues and profits?
* What can be done to cut costs?
* How do you find new customers?

The Wall Street Journal, in a recent special report, told the fascinating story of Kuniyoshi Konishi, who started a chain of barbershops – QB House – in Japan in 1996.

Mr. Konishi saw opportunity within a problem: He got tired of paying 3,000 to 5000 yen ($25 to $50) for a haircut that took an hour.

He thought to himself: “Would it be possible to create a no-frills barbershop where the customer could get a haircut in ten minutes at a cost of 1000 yen? (About $10.) If so, could it be systematized so it could be done on a large scale?”

He looked at the situation and tried to eliminate all the tasks that kept a barber from cutting hair.

Today QB House has:

* 200 outlets.
* 3.5 million customer visits in 2002.
* Revenue of $16 million (1.92 billion yen).

QB House is now opening barbershops in Singapore, and Mr. Konishi is looking to grow his business to 1000 barbershops throughout Asia.

This is the business model he created:

1. No Cash Register.
QB House’s barbers don’t accept cash. In place of a cash register, each barbershop is equipped with a ticket-vending machine.

The customer puts his money – only a 1000 yen bill is accepted – into the vending machine, and is given a ticket that he hands to the barber. (The barbers no longer waste time making change.)

This did two things to increase productivity and reduce overhead costs:

A. Eliminated the time-consuming task of collecting money in payment for a haircut.

B. Eliminated the need to make change. Since only 1000 yen bills are accepted – the customer must have exact change –  the cost of bookkeeping and accounting at the end of each day has been dramatically reduced.

2. No Reservations.
QB House does not take reservations. None of their shops have telephones. This eliminated the need to hire a person to sit at the front desk to schedule appointments.

It also eliminated the interruptions of incoming calls for each of the barbers.

3. Using Electronic Sensors
Customers are informed of a barber’s availability – and waiting time – by lights that are displayed outside the shop as they walk or drive by.

* Green means no waiting.
* Yellow indicates a wait of about five minutes.
* Red tells a customer that there may be a 15 minute wait.

QB House created this system by placing electronic sensors under each seat in the waiting area and in each barber’s chair. The system keeps track of the number of customers in the shop and how long each customer has been sitting in a chair. The waiting times are displayed outside the store.

4. No Shampooing.
Most Japanese barbers shampoo their customer’s hair after a haircut, to remove loose hairs. This isn’t possible if your goal is to complete the cut in ten minutes.

Instead of shampooing a customer’s hair, QB House’s barbers use a special vacuum cleaner – they pull a hose down from the ceiling – to tidy up their customers. Mr. Konishi named the vacuum cleaner “The Air Wash” system.

5. Serving The Next Customer.
When a customer’s haircut has been completed, he gets up from the chair, the next customer sits down, hands the ticket to the barber, who begins another ten minute haircut.

QB House’s barbers are able to serve six customers per hour – generating 6000 yen per hour – as opposed to the 3000 to 5000 yen per hour generated by a traditional Japanese barbershop that is only cutting one customer’s hair.

6. Monitoring Traffic Volume.
QB’s management monitors the information that is transmitted from each store over the Internet – in real time – and studies the reports for volume trends.

When sales volume for a particular store is much higher than average, the company often opens another store nearby.

What Are Your Processes And Procedures?
What are the processes and procedures you follow?

Kuniyoshi Konishi looked at each step in the process of cutting hair and eliminated many of the wasted steps. He dramatically reduced the time it takes for Japanese men to get their hair cut, and passed the savings onto them.

What is it that you do every day that takes up your – or your customer’s – time, that adds cost to your business? That eats up your profits?

How can you do things

* Quicker?
* Better?
* Less expensively?

What is your strategy for reducing costs, improving the quality of your product or service, and increasing profits.

Challenge yourself. Look for ways to make everything you do simpler.

It’s easy to do complex. Everybody does that.

Simple is hard. Remember the KISS Principal:

Keep It Simple… Sweetheart.

Jeffrey

Reprinted with permission from “Jeffrey Mayer’s SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter. (Copyright, 2003 – 2005, Jeffrey J. Mayer, SucceedingInBusiness.com.) To subscribe to Jeff’s free newsletter, visit www.SucceedingInBusiness.com

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