What a disappointing experience! After reading the reviews here and on their site, I made an appointment for both of my children, so they could have a fun, salon experience. I wanted to reward my children with the fun, almost glamorous experience they advertise on their website. Their aunt and uncle have a cool salon back home and they had been asking for a similar experience, so I decided to pay a bit more for a haircut, just so that they would have it.
This is NOT a fun place! They have the right idea: movies, fun chairs (a little on this later), video games, free little thingies like tattoos & hair clips. But it takes more than that. First of all, although my appointment was confirmed a couple of hours earlier and I emphasized that I wanted both kids top have their haircut at the same time, one of their hairstylist had just started working on a client when we got there. I felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode... I thought that's what appointments are for....
The waiting wasn't glamorous either. To be able to watch her movie, my daughter was asked to stand in front of a t.v. until her stylist was ready. Seriously?? My son's stylist insisted that my seven year old daughter was to tall for the cool chairs they show on the website, so she made sure she never sat on them (although one of the other stylists seemed to think that it would be fine).
My son's stylist never engaged us... at all! You know how there's people have fun with kids and ask them about school, sports, anything! This person showed absolutely no interest in them. I mean, isn't that part of the fun of going to a salon, especially a kids salon... feeling like a grown up, getting a bit of attention while you are at the chair? NOTHING. She was just not interested and didn't even fake it. The haircut was o.k.
When it was my daughter's turn, she got to sit in a plain old black salon chair. Yikes! My son gets to sit on a cool car and my daughter is stuck in a normal chair with the cushions to raise her up. Although Vinh (whom I asked for based on the reviews here on Yelp), was certainly more talkative, she basically talked about how I should buy their products. When she finally engaged my daughter, my daughter immediately responded, but it was time to dry her hair (I was surprised she didn't use a diffuser, since my daughter has curly hair), so I was the only one listening to what my daughter had to say. I felt so bad!
There were other people in the salon, but there was no engagement going on, everyone looked bored, even those who were obviously regulars looked bored.
Again, the franchise seems to have a good business model, but they need to hire the right people, people who love children. Also, I would suggest that they do not focus so strongly on cross selling on the first visit. If a business fails to earn my trust and my business by delivering on their brand promise, why would I want to invest even more money in it? read more