How legendary Chinese chain restaurant makes it to the top?

How would you define good customer service in a restaurant? Flexibility, promptness, attentiveness, smiling faces, and making experiences personal?

One Chinese hotpot shop is taking these to the extreme. Until you actually step into one of its chain restaurants and become a customer, you can never imagine how they are redefining service in catering the industry. Stories of the surprising services offered at the restaurant are told online by many customers.

Just a few examples.

Ladies who are in a queue for a vacant table can enjoy a free manicure whist waiting.

• If you are eating alone, a big fluffy teddy bear will be seated across you from the table to keep you company.
• If it is too warm inside and your long hair is getting in the way, waiters will bring you rubber bands.
• If you happen to want a fruit that is not on the menu today, they can get it for you from a nearby shop and give it to you for free.
• If you are a pregnant lady, they bring you cushion for extra back support.
• If you feel unwell, they can get you medicine.

Once a female customer even reported having a special gift prepared on her behalf for her future parents-in-law as they were meeting for the first time in the restaurant. Although the customer did not mention the nature of her meeting to anyone in the restaurant, a very observant waitress worked it out from the tint of embarrassment in their interactions and took the initiative to help her make a better impression.

Then there are the complimentary drinks and snacks, card and board games, hot face towels, bib covers, protective cell phone bags offered prior to dining; “noodle masters” who prepare handmade noodles by twirling them in front of you in an elaborate display coupled with music; simple toy gifts for children; and sanitary products for the ladies in the toilets.

All of this makes Haidilao a sensation in China. Founded in 1994, the company now has 20,000 employees in 1,597 chain restaurants in China, Singapore, the United States, South Korea, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia. In 2020, its net profit was 309.3 million RMB (about 49 million US dollars)

Its founder Zhang Yong is a legend himself.

As a young man, he only received basic schooling and did not show any interest or talent in business. At the age of 18, he became a welder in a tractor factor. Soon he was bored of the job and set up his first hotpot shop in China’s central province of Sichuan. He only had three co-founders, his wife and a couple he knew from school. His restaurant was a small booth with four tables.

Zhang Yong did not know how to prepare hotpot either. Holding a recipe book in one hand and trying to following the instructions with another, he began a journey that would change the lives of many.

Hotpot is a very popular meal across China. It involves friends and family sitting around a big pot of flavourful boiling broth and cooking food items by dipping them into the broth. The market of hotpot is a highly saturated and competitive one. Almost on every big or small street in China you can find at lest one hotpot restaurant.

It is not easy to stand out among your competitors. All customers ask for are fresh meat and vegetables, a good broth and enough choices of sauces. No sophisticated cooking techniques are required.

In managing his first shop, Zhang Yong discovered that services could be the key to popularity. “If you can help customers babysit, carry their bags, or polish their shoes, they are more likely to come back,” Zhang said in an interview.

Following this line of thinking, Zhang’s restaurant soon became famous in his home city. Then came the second restaurant, the third and the nationwide chain. On its website homepage, the company promises to “uphold the idea of ‘putting customers first and providing them with the best services’, and change traditional, standardised and single services into personalised services through innovation”.

Zhang Yong treats his employees with the same attention as he treats his customers. He recruits his waiters and waitresses by the word of mouth. One brings in another from his or her social network of friends, schoolmates, acquaintances from hometowns, relatives and family members.

Zhang says the catering industry is all about making your customers happy; and only happy employees can make customers happy. Working with people you know and like is a good staring point.

The company also offers very attractive pay incentives and welfare packages. Outstanding employees may even receive free apartments, parental subsidies, children’s educational allowances and other benefits.

More enticing is the upward mobility. Zhang never forgets his own humble beginnings. He is determined to help as many as possible to succeed. He says, “Everyone has a dream. Most of my employees come from small towns. They have limited education But they, too, want a promising future. They want to live a decent and comfortable life like the city dwellers. I want them to know Haidilao is there to help them. As long as they are willing to put in the work, everything is possible.”

Zhang has created a layered structure for performance evaluation and a good system for promotion. Anyone who does well in his or her position can aspire to move up to the next level. Haidilao only promotes its people from within and there are no outsiders in its senior management. Many of its store managers and regional managers come from the bottom ranks.

The company commits to “changing destiny through hard work and creating a fair and equal working environment for the staff” and “implementing a humanised and people-oriented management model”. As a result, Haidilao enjoys high levels of employee loyalty.  Its rate of frontline staff turnover (10 percent) is far below that of its competitors. Many say working in the company is like being in a family.

Zhang’s employee-centric approach empowers his team to do their best for the customers, for themselves, and for their families left behind in the poor villages. They are motivated and united by the belief that Zhang keeps enunciating, “The core philosophy of Haidilao is you can change your life using your own hands.”