Why Do Local Tailors Fail To Go Big?
Thinking of all the potential topics on which I could write an article, I somehow recalled the agony of my female relatives when they get their suits back from the tailors. To everyone’s surprise, this isn’t a one off thing, each and every time when the suits come back to their respective clients there is hue and cry of what has the tailor done to the beautiful piece of cloth. The problems usually are something like:
- Wrong sizes
- Inappropriate neck design/depth
- Completely a different design than what was initially conveyed
- Fitting issues
- Leaving no margins for alteration or cutting the cloth in a manner which leaves no left-over cloth pieces for any further alteration
- Even after committing to amend their mistake and still don’t put in effort to finish the job in detail
If there is still a way which isn’t enlisted here can be credited to the genius of the tailor, for which he must’ve procrastinated for ages and then Voila!!
So, as I still had my thinking hat on from my last article, I tried to find that where does the problem arise from and then think of the possible answer to the question, why does this happen? And once we answer these, probably we will establish the basis of the answer to the question asked in the title of this article i.e. Why do local tailors fail to go big?
In order to answer these questions we will have to first understand the dynamics of the tailor’s shop/outlet. Generally, there is one experienced tailor, who is the owner of the shop/business, lets call him, “Master Saab”. Then comes the 2nd In Command (2IC), a junior tailor, who’s experienced enough to work on his own but still needs directions when dealing with a new task. And then finally there is an apprentice who knows the basics but has to look for constant guidance from the 2IC or the Master Saab himself. And they all refer to their immediate senior as “Ustaad Ji”.
Master Saab’s role is to meet/greet clients, note down the client’s wishes for their dresses (only to ruin them eventually), cut the cloth in the decided pattern and finally hand it over to mostly experienced junior tailor or the young apprentice who stitches the cuttings to make the dress.
Once the client conveys every little detail regarding the dress to which Master Saab nodes and conforms that he has understood. The problem starts after the client has left the shop and Master Saab rolls the cloth, along with that size tag and puts it away in the plastic bag.
I think the answer to the question: Why does this happen?
- When Master Saab doesn’t actively listen to the client’s needs
- Lack of attention in the design discussions with the client because of the pressure to complete other tasks
- When every single client asks Master Saab to stitch their dress on too most priority (applying unnecessary pressure)
- Master Saab over promises and under delivers
Which in return leads to why fail to go big even with a good demand in the market for customized stitching:
- Doesn’t effectively communicate each and every detail asked by the client to the 2IC or apprentice
- An even poorer after sale service.
The above mentioned two points determine business’s fate of expanding successfully or staying stagnant at its current position or even worst losing major chunk of clients and becoming out of business.
That’s my take on the matter, please let me know what do you think about our local tailors not going big.
