Service? No Service? Good Service?

USA! USA! USA!

One of the most significant innovation from the land of the free is none other than the drive-through point of sales. How wonderful would no service be! Indeed! Here, the drive-through concept has been taken to a whole new level. Quick and hassle free hair cut in 10 minutes for US$3 only!!!

Actually, I think this started in Japan. You know how their vending machine culture is like….

So here’s how this works.

You walk up to this coin machine, dropped the right amount of cash into it and it gives you a ticket. You wait outside the booth until it’s your turn. When it’s your turn, you go in, sit down, tell the stylist some quick instruction and in 10 minutes, you are all done. The stylists will se a vacuum cleaner to suck your hair clean. No water needed, no hassle and you are on your way in 10 quick minutes. It’s not a neighbourhood barber shop where the retired spend their entire morning either getting their beard shaved or just sitting around laughing at buddies getting their beards shaved. It’s also not your fancy $300 hair salon that not only takes care of your hair, but your nails and your poodle’s nails. It’s also not a place where you sit by your BFFs to gossip about the neighbour’s bitchy wife or mistresses. This is the McDonald’s of the hair styling industry. It’s high tech, efficient and effective. It’s AWESOME for people like me who can’t be bothered to waste money on cutting hair, which will eventually grow back asking for more attention, and time wasted on hair washing or telling the stylist how my shitty day went.

Lot's of business!!!

So this brings me to my hair cutting experience around the world, since this is all about traveling. When I was in Singapore as a student, the school had strict rules for hair style, like no ear-touching hair, hair can’t touch the eye brows etc. Getting a hair cut is more like a chore but a necessity. Otherwise, I would be served with detention. A typical hair cut would cost about $7~$12, and I always try to seek out the cheapo ones, usually not the most guaranteed ones as well.

Then when I was in Detroit, it just felt more secured to go to an Asian stylist even though all I want is to trim like the way it already is. $15 it was, then plus tips. It’s was another “as long as my hair length doesn’t bother me” type of deal. Very low expectations, but necessary when my hair gets in the way of my eye sight when I am trying to pump through 20 marker renderings in the middle of the night.

When I moved to Atlanta, I was very lucky to find many Asian salons. Many of which are operated by Vietnamese immigrants, which is pretty nice because they have fancy deco to rival the ones in Asia, young and well trained Asian stylists, and of course attractive Asian girls cutting your hair. Most importantly (what can be more important than young attractive hair stylists?????), it’s also $15 after all these extra perks!!!

Then to South Florida, where everything is expensive and where I have the most to complain about. It was hard to find a decent stylist. Remember, all I want is trim! All of a sudden, I was paying $25 plus tips for bad hair cuts.

So, what’s really a good customer experience? Service? No service? Of course, it depends on your intention of going to a salon. For me, I can deal with a robot.