My new employee is a little too enthusiastic. Help!

Dear Aunty,

I run a hair salon and we have just hired a very enthusiastic cutter. He is a big believer in putting on a fun face, so every client who walks in the door now gets greeted by a big school bell rung by our receptionist Chloe and we all have to yell welcome. When they leave Chloe has to ring the bell again and we all have to scream, “Have a good day!” He wanted us to yell “Have a good hair day” but after hours of argument (and that’s hours I will NEVER get back) we agreed to drop the hair bit, thank god.

The bell has had the opposite effect of fun. For a start, it frightens the bejeezers out of the clients as they walk into the salon. They jump and then look like they would like to run a mile when we want them relaxed and feeling ready to be pampered. And then when they are getting ready to leave they look worried because they know we are going to yell at them again.

I don’t think this is fun and I don’t think anyone else does either, but we are all going along with him as he is so enthusiastic and a bit of a sweetie and we don’t want to hurt his feelings.

Leon,
South Melbourne

Dear Leon,

Are you nuts? You don’t want to offend him? What about the crime he is committing on every customer that walks through your salon door? This isn’t some cheerful Japanese pub where you know you are in for a rowdy session of sake guzzling and spilling your guts and so you don’t mind a bit of geeing up. Not at all. The hair salon is a sacred place. One enters one’s hair salon a tired, sad and exhausted wreck. You should greet clients with a bed on wheels and a morphine drip. Not with a bloody school bell.

Fake culture is as bad, no it is worse, than no culture. What you want are employees who are empathetic and can read the customer – and let me tell you most clients enter a salon in quiet desperation, clutching a slither of hope that unlike the rest of their lives, they might spend the next hour having a pleasurable experience and leave feeling better than when they arrived. That ain’t going to happen when you deliver electric shocks to their ear drums while yelling sadistic slogans at the top of your voices.

Tomorrow when Sweetie is having a quiet moment, creep up behind him and ring the bell really loudly in his ear. Well alright, you don’t have to do that. Tell him that you just read a great story about how people that walk into a hair salon want ABSOLUTE QUIET. And that is going to be your new point of difference.

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

To read more Aunty B advice, click here.

Email your questions, problems and issues to auntyb@smartcompany.com.au right now!