Have you ever been to Haidilao before? If you have not been to or even heard about Haidilao, Haidilao is one of the Sichuan style Hotpot restaurant chains and it was established in 1994 by Zhang Yong and his wife, Shu Ping. Haidilao has opened its branches in several countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Singapore. In November 2019, Haidilao opened its first restaurant in Indonesia at Gandaria City Mall. Right from the start, the new Haidilao restaurant had people queueing for hours before they could taste its hotpot as well as experienced its famous service. What Haidilao gives to their customers? How did Haidilao become so popular?
One thing that I learned from Haidilao is how the “customers are kings” approach is successfully applied in Haidilao. The “customers are kings” is a popular business phrase to ensure that the business delivers the right proposition to the customers, and the customers have the right to assess the quality of the delivery by the business owners (Pinner 2019). When Zhang Yong first opened Haidilao, he realised that offering a delicious hotpot will not be enough to attract customers (Wang 2018). Rather than using traditional methods through advertisement, he decided to add more value for the customer by giving exceptional services, such as free manicures, free snacks, and peel service. Liu and Jie (2019) described this approach as fulfilling customers’ psychological needs, meaning that through the service, customers will feel like they are in their home. This approach is proven to be successful as many people are satisfied with the service and the food. Based on research by Qian (2014), 82% of 170 respondents are satisfied with Haidilao.
Haidilao also uses the waiting approach to attract customers. In this case, customers have to wait for hours before they have the chance to taste the product. Before Haidilao, this approach has been used by many hyped restaurants and cafes, such as The Alley and Xing Fu Tang. Furthermore, this approach is also used by many well-known products, such as Apple and Xiaomi. David Meister, a former Harvard Business School Professor (1985) described this as a ‘waiting effect’, and he reasoned that people are willing to wait for hours because of the value of the service, meaning that the higher value of the service, customers are likely to wait longer.
Haidilao believes that customers’ satisfaction comes from happy employees. Haidilao always tries to fulfill employees’ welfare as the employees play an important role in succeeding Haidilao. As an owner, Zhang Yong (2018 cited in Ambler 2018) stated that he treated his staff as part of his family and he is responsible for guiding his employees to be confident in showing their skills in the workplace. Thus, employees will feel safe and supportive in developing their skills. In addition, Liu and Jie (2018) added that satisfying the psychological needs of employees can make employees become loyal and have a space to improve their creativity.
In conclusion, Haidilao uses very unique approaches to attract customers. Haidilao tries to satisfy customers’ needs through its exceptional service while fulfilling its employees’ happiness through benefits and training.
(Photo Source: Trip Advisor Hai Di Lao Hotpot London)
