David R. Barber Shop

Introduction

David R. Barber Shop provides a traditional barbershop experience in the Palms neighborhood. The business is very much invested in providing a great experience for families and has received rave reviews on the treatment of the customers. With its already established name, David R. Barber Shop has strong potential for outpacing its competition and further cementing the brand as the number 1 location to get a haircut in the Palms area.

The purpose of this project was to better understand the potential customer base for a barbershop near the 90034 zip code. By understanding the customer base, we can provide several business recommendations to help the business grow in the current area. With the information gained, several design guidelines are also provided that are based on the same research. The primary purpose is to find ways to improve the overall experience of customers to help with outreach and customer retention.

A Business UX analysis allows for a thorough examination of the company’s current standing. It opens up the possibility of improving upon the experience to better represent the ultimate goals of the business. This process allows customers to be happier while also helping the company grow quickly and efficiently based on market research.

The Process

Getting a haircut is a rather universal act that is generally a basic need for most people. Despite a lot of people being able to cut their own hair, going to a barber still has the benefit of having more professional service and more knowledge. The difference between a good haircut and a great one is something that is still very much coveted in society.

While doing an in-person study can often yield better results, due to the highly general nature of the business, it would become too time consuming and may not truly represent the massive amount of people in the nearby area. With simple data, we can extrapolate quite a lot of the wants and needs of the general population in the region through research on popular social media.

Because of the general interest, a web study makes the most amount of sense. The research was done by first understanding the demographics of the people nearby in the 90034 zip code. This was done by looking at data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Wolfram|Alpha Knowledgebase. The data was analyzed to find critical factors that can help with the business user experience.

The next part of the research process was to find competitors nearby and better understand what differentiates them. Websites such as Yelp can provide quick aggregate data on users’ problems which can help to further differentiate David R. Barbershop from the rest.

The Research

Target Demographic

The 90034 zip code is home to 57,000 people, with the area being predominantly White and Asian. This area also has a very strong Hispanic population, with nearly 26% reported to be of Hispanic origin. This area is also 1.55 times the national average for college diploma holders, making the area very well-educated and generally affluent, with an average household income of $75,000. Only about 9.8% is below the poverty line, which is about 30% less than the national average.

General Thoughts on Haircutting

Research for general thoughts was done by searching through several forums and popular social media sites. General advice on the internet is to get groomed every 2 or 3 weeks. Most people mentioned that they get recurring appointments for cheaper, which effectively puts them on a subscription service while making it seem like a good value.

Pricing varies between different areas, but $30 was the most common amount that barbers charged for a standard haircut. Opportunities for better cuts or a shave were additional add-ons that were sold for around $5. While this hefty price tag is standard, it caused many people to shy away from making more repeat appointments.

Some less common but well-received thoughts were regarding a membership option. Similar to a subscription-type system, a membership fee would include the ability to get a touch-up appointment at any time for the same cost. This kind of membership rides off people who are generally not going to use the service quite as much and can require several months for profitability. However, this kind of model is quickly becoming very popular and provides high recurring income with the possibility of upselling other services.

Reviews

While the barbershop is rated at a good four stars on Yelp, some of the first page reviews are troubling and will undoubtedly lead to an increase in people leaving for the competition. While poor reviews are always expected, David R. Barbershop has an outstanding number of one star reviews in comparison to other nearby places.

Ignoring the reports of a bad cut, we have a lot of reports of unprofessionalism in the staff which led to a very uncomfortable experience. Several people mention that the staff can be rude and not give the customer enough attention. A vast majority of these complaints seem to be centered around the staff talking amongst themselves and sometimes even talking about the customers.

If we do take into account the number of people complaining about a bad haircut, we see an alarming number of people who mention that the staff did not follow directions very well. Some people mentioned that most other haircutting establishments offered the customers a handheld mirror to better describe what they wanted.

Business UX Recommendations

Branding Change

What’s clear right now is that the entire brand of David R. Barber Shop is focused on David as the sole medium by which the brand can continue. A strong brand image is something that is able to go beyond the physical business itself and is able to bury the idea of the business into people’s minds.

A good brand image is based on a few simple things:

• Your core audience

• Your business goals

• The persona of the business

• The messages that you want to convey

In the case of David R. Barber Shop, the overall business appears to do best with people who feel a family-like experience, both for their own family but also with how they are treated by the barbers themselves.

The importance of a logo is that it should not only convey the brand image that you want, but it should also be memorable enough that people will associate haircuts with it.

For the design, we recommend a minimalist look for the sake of modernity. The most common way of representing this is to use a black background which creates a significant amount of contrast with the rest of the image while also providing a great dramatic effect. This also gives the establishment a more premium feel which may direct customers who are worried about receiving the best haircut possible for the price.

The main content should be primarily white and created with simple lines to convey a modern approach while also retaining color in small areas in order to give it a more comfortable feel. This color is what will give customers that sense of family back from professionalism. Additionally, a cartoon-style character could be added on one side to further cement “David” as the brand identity.

We have created two different possible brand identities. While minimalism was key, color was added back to give the logo a more comfortable feel. The barber pole was kept very minimal, but the added color gives it a fresh look. The last part of the business name is in a beige color so that it adds extra comfort to the otherwise heavy contrasting nature.

Business Environment

While the business has an overall good reputation in the community, it’s clear from the research that the number 1 factor that people seem to be missing is the feeling of family and safety. This is especially important since many families are inclined to come to the barber shop because they feel safe.

While creating a safe and familial atmosphere is very difficult, one of the best ways of implementing this is to get better at conversation. This skill is very difficult to master, especially when there are so many people arriving at once.

The best recommendation is to have each barber start a basic conversation with the customer by asking for interests. From there, the barber should speak to the other barbers to get them into the same conversation. In the end, everyone should talk, creating a very safe space. Most of all, laughter can create powerful familial feelings, which can further help get return customers.

Finding topics to discuss can be difficult, so it’s best to create a list of things that the barbers could talk about and include current events such as sporting events. Try to avoid more heavy topics and avoid talking amongst yourselves in Spanish, as this can immediately break the illusion of family with customers.

Events

In addition to better conversation, we believe that creating some very memorable events can be of great value to customers. These events will require high short-term costs but will result in long-term customer benefits, including getting new customers through word of mouth.

For any business, word of mouth is the best possible way of acquiring new customers. Special events can provide a simple and easy way of getting word-of-mouth advertising while also promoting return customers.

For a hair-cutting business, simplicity in the events is vital. Anything more than a simple event can cause things to become too complicated for the customer and create confusion. Furthermore, the establishment is primarily a place to get a haircut, which means that we are forced to plan with this constraint in mind.

Move to Online

While an online presence is key to growing in the modern world, we recommend investing only a small amount of money into this endeavor due to the limited scope of the customer base.

Having a good website is vital to the long-term growth of the business, but for the time being, a simple website with basic information is good enough and will allow for a better business listing on Google Maps and Yelp.

We recommend using Google Sites, which is free, easy to use, and allows you to connect a custom domain name.

In the future, we recommend moving to Squarespace, which can allow you to not only process payments online but also set up appointments entirely online, which takes away much of the hassle.

The eventual move to Squarespace would also allow for creating memberships and other subscription services. However, the expenses associated with Squarespace can become relatively high, so we recommend research and consultation before moving forward with this.

The website design should be straightforward and be there primarily for marketing purposes in the beginning.

Next Steps

David R. Barbershop has an excellent location and a great community of people surrounding it. Taking advantage of the vast amount of potential customers is a simple matter of adapting the business around the type of customers that are living in the nearby area.

These recommendations are not final and are only guidelines for how to evolve the business. The next step would be to do further design iterations on the logo to finalize what the brand’s image should be. From there, building a brand becomes a simple process of marketing. The logo’s biggest importance is in being memorable for others, allowing for quick recognition.

The website design is very rudimentary and is there as a quick guideline for how it should look. While the website isn’t vital for a barber shop, it can provide a lot of new avenues of expansion that just aren’t available without it. Most people look for a website on a business listing for information about the service. A lack of a website can push new customers toward other, more modernized businesses.

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