Comedian and Chinese restaurant CEO Kim Hak-rae has revealed his unique business philosophy for reading customer psychology.
On May 12, a video titled “Comedian Kim Hak-rae Episode 6” was released on the YouTube channel “Song Seung-hwan’s Wonderful Life.”
During the episode, Kim Hak-rae spoke candidly about the customer service secrets he mastered while running his restaurant.
Kim Hak-rae explained, “Chinese food is something where you can just have a bowl of Jajangmyeon when you’re short on cash, but you order a course meal when you have money. That’s why I gave my staff a lot of ‘luxury education’.”
“You have to take their bags at the counter and treat them well.”
Kim Hak-rae added, “When you carefully take a luxury bag at the counter and return it with care, the customer’s mood improves instantly.”
He laughed, saying, “In that state, they’ll ask, ‘Which course meal is good?’ If they order just four 90,000 won courses, that’s 360,000 won right there.”
He emphasized, “You should never say ‘Four bowls of Jajangmyeon, please’ to those customers. You have to respond elegantly for them to spend elegantly.”
Kim Hak-rae also opened up about his past business failures and debts.
He recalled, “There was a time when I paid tens of millions of won in bank interest because of gambling. After spending many years paying off all my debts, I realized that just being debt-free is happiness.”
He also mentioned his huge success with a frozen Tangsuyuk business. Kim Hak-rae said, “I started a frozen food business to try nationwide delivery, and the Tangsuyuk became a huge hit.”
However, he added, “Even if sales are high, the profit margin in the food business isn’t as high as you’d think. These days, everyone in the business is struggling because the economy is so bad.”
