Politics and Etiquette of Barbering
June 10, 2008
Barbershops all across America have so many things in common and one of the major things is they must have good etiquette. When working with your co-barbers, you must establish a line of respect, and of course friendship. Many things can affect the energy and mood inside of a barbershop, including: barbers who do not clean up after themselves; disrespect amongst the barbers and clients, people hanging out inside the barbershop doing nothing at all.
It is never a good idea to make your business a hangout spot, unless there are positive results coming from the people being in your barbershop for a long period of time. Clients love the relaxation of being in a barbershop and getting their hair cut. When there are lots of people just hanging out, the client tends to get uncomfortable. If someone wants to hang out at your shop, make sure they are doing something to make your business better. For example, the person can hand out flyers or sweep the shop when it gets dirty.
It is never good to cut-throat a client for money or for any reason at all. Clients should never be brought into any negative issue inside of the shop between barbers. Sometimes barbers manipulate clients into getting haircuts when it is the client’s right to choose the person they want to perform the service for them. When a client walks through the door, they should be greeted by other clients in the front, and not necessarily a barber. If the client is a walk-in, then they should be told to “have a seat and the next available barber will be with them.”
Some barbers try to set clients up for themselves, while they are in the process of doing a haircut. That is wrong and it will cause problems in the babershop amongst the other barbers. Let the walk-in make the choice. If a client does ask for a particular barber, other barbers should not interfere by trying to cut that client’s hair. We as barbers should never put money over the good relationships between the other barbers in the shop.
Understanding all the proper etiquette inside the barbershop will come in time, but make sure you know how to apply some of this important knowledge when dealing with any kind of situation. For example, if it is slow day in the barbershop and very few clients have come by, you can always give discounts away to increase business.
Also understanding clients and how to deal with them if you mess up their hair is very important. One of the things I do when I am cutting hair and cannot get the cut the way the client prefers is, I try to have a good conversation throughout the haircut. Making him laugh, showing him that you are interested in his comments and who he is as a person, will make him less likely to get angry and make problems.
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