They say don’t judge a book by the cover, but according to my experience in the beauty and grooming world, the rule doesn’t necessarily apply. A client can easily doubt your expertise by just your look or dressing. Some hairdressers also judge their clients the same way. I personally run my barbershop business, but most clients, especially the new ones would still go ahead and ask for the owner of the shop or the one in charge, hence the reason for penning this article.
This particular evening, while I was busy working on a client, I was having small talk with another regular, middle-aged client, who would stop by every evening after work. He is one example of men who don’t like going back to the house early to avoid mazoeano with mama watoto. He would come in, loosen his tie and sit comfortably like a boss.
So we were having a conversation as he went through a newspaper that he came in with when a young man walked in. He greeted everyone and then sat down quietly. He was a bit uneasy and from his demeanor, I could tell he wanted to inquire about something, but he wasn’t confident enough.
We just continued with our conversation. After a few minutes, the young man moved closer to this other client who by then, had put aside the newspaper and had his face glued to the phone. He excused himself and they started talking.
I couldn’t get them clearly, because of the music playing in the background, but I assumed he wanted to shave his hair, but he was in a hurry. I thought he was requesting the other client to let him skip the line.
“Just talk to him, he’ll help you,” the other client said while pointing at me and I could see the guy nodding in agreement. The other client then picked up his newspaper, bid me goodbye and left.
The young man stayed behind for a few minutes just looking at me without saying anything and then walked out.
The following day, the other client passed by as usual and asked whether I helped the young man from the day before. “He didn’t tell me anything. What was he looking for,” I asked. “The guy thought I was the owner of this kinyozi and was asking for a job. I told him to talk you,” he replied. “He just looked at me sarcastically and left,“ I said chuckling.
So it happened that the young guy was looking for a job, but couldn’t talk to me because he wasn’t expecting someone like me to own a kinyozi.
By then I was looking for an assistant and I could have considered him, but he missed the opportunity simply because he judged the book by the cover instead of going through its pages to get the contents.