Customer Sustainability Awareness in the Service Sector: An Explorative Study Built on a Survey at a Hair Salon in Germany PDF Free Download
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Research Article
© 2025 Ludin et al.
This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons
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Received: 6 December 2024 / Accepted: 26 February 2025 / Published: 02 March 2025
Customer Sustainability Awareness in the Service Sector:
An Explorative Study Built on a Survey at a Hair Salon in Germany
Daniela Ludin
1
Franziska Merkle
2
Aileen Plieninger
2
Erika Mueller
3
Wanja Wellbrock
1
1
Prof. Dr. Faculty of Economics,
Heilbronn University,
Max-Planck-Str. 39, 74081 Heilbronn, Germany
2
Faculty of Management and Sales,
Heilbronn University,
Max-Planck-Str. 39, 74081 Heilbronn, Germany
3
Sustainability Department,
Heilbronn University,
Max-Planck-Str. 39, 74081 Heilbronn, Germany
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36941/ajis-2025-0026
Abstract
The awareness of sustainability has increased in the last years. Sustainability is for most consumers related
to aspects of private life. When having shopping preferences, they consider sustainability aspects of
ingredients, production and packaging of consumer goods. However, sustainability can also play a role in the
service sector. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyse how customers evaluate sustainability in
relation to services. It examines sustainability awareness among customers of a German hair salon. Based on
a literature review the awareness of sustainability of customers in the service sector, especially in SMEs as
hair salons, is analysed. In order to gain new insights into the significance of sustainability when visiting a
hair salon, a quantitative explorative survey of customers of a German hair salon, which is known for its
sustainability orientation, is conducted. The study is able to show that the major part of the customers of
this hair salon are al-ready strongly sensitized to the issue of sustainability. Findings shed also light on the
fact that there are differences in sustainability awareness of customers with respect to purchase decisions
and service utilization. It is clearly important for more people to pay attention to sustainability in
purchasing; whereas the survey participants seem to be less sensitized to sustainability in the area of services
or the hairdresser's visit. The study contributes to better understand the awareness of sustainability in the
service sector and it derives practical recommendations for the service sector; with a focus on SMEs as hair
salons. A lack of sustainability knowledge and communication skills may impact marketing and customer
awareness on sustainability communication and sustainable practices in the hairdressing sector. Providing
relevant skills could be an essential task for salon owners, trade unions and education institutions. This
shows the need to integrate sustainability aspects in the training of hairdressers.
Keywords: hair salons, awareness of sustainability, customer needs, service sector, SMEs
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1. Introduction
The awareness of sustainability has increased in the last years. Sustainability is for most consumers
related to aspects of private life. When having shopping preferences, they consider sustainability
aspects of ingredients, production and packaging of consumer goods. Its various related aspects are
reflected within current scientific debates with regard to certain sectors as e. g. the food sector
(Takacs and Borrion, 2020; Oliveira et al., 2016) or aspects of logistics (Ozbekler and Ozturkoglu,
2020; Evangelista et al., 2018) or service customer orientation (Lee et al., 2021). However,
sustainability can also play a role in the service sector.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyse how customers evaluate sustainability in
relation to services. It examines sustainability awareness among customers of a German hair salon.
Empirical data from customers is collected through a web-based explorative survey. The study
contributes to a better understanding of the awareness of sustainability in the service sector and it
derives practical recommendations for the service sector; with a focus on SMEs as hair salons.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Focus and Method of the Literature Review
The literature review classifies this study into the state of research. It encompasses the indexing and
processing of the findings documented in literature (Snyder 2019). A systematic literature review is
used to analyse the sustainability awareness of customers in the service sector. A special focus is set
on SMEs as hair salons. The literature review is limited to publications from the last eight years (2016
to 2023). The following key words were used to identify relevant papers: “awareness of sustainability”,
“service sector”, “body-related services” and “hair salons” (Eco 2015). In addition to the accuracy of fit,
the citability of the sources was also taken into account. Thus, only publications from journals with a
double-blind review procedure were studied here.
In addition to the literature analysis, secondary data analysis was used. The secondary data
analysis here enables the re-evaluation of data to answer new questions based on existing data (Glass
1976; Diekmann 2023). For this study statistics of the hairdressing sector were analysed (Statista
2020a, Statista 2020b).
2.2 Service sector, Sustainability, SMEs & Hair Salons
Services are changing dramatically with new trends in automation, digitization, human capital and
decision-support technologies (Schepers and Borgh, 2020). The sustainability of the value chain can
be directly and indirectly influenced by technological development, as progress affects the strategy as
well as the entire company (Felsberger and Reiner, 2020). Innovations are increasing the demand and
consumption of natural resources worldwide. Financial benefits are to be gained through the concept
of sustainability management. With global warming, the shift in thinking towards sustainability is
becoming increasingly important. Companies play an important role in this as they take
environmental and social responsibility and can influence society (Abdullah et al., 2018). Many
companies are grappling with the issue of balancing environmental concerns and growth and see a
challenge in extracting natural resources with consideration for future generations and the triple-
bottom-line approach (Kumar et al., 2017; Monsalve et al., 2016). By introducing sustainable
innovations, small or family businesses try to adapt to ever-changing environmental and social
conditions and markets. They respond to crises by adapting new sustainability strategies and
innovations. Sustainability practices vary depending on the sector of the company, for example,
investments in health and safety, as well as donations, depend on the profit margin of the respective
sector (Curado and Mota, 2021). SMEs play a crucial role in making the transition to a more
sustainable economy. By building or contributing to a large share of a countries´ economy, their
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participation in pro-environmental behaviour, when it comes to reducing resource-intensive
practices and consumption can have a large impact. In the case of the hairdressing sector, pro-
environmental behaviour might focus on reducing water, energy and use of chemical products. The
uptake of pro-environmental behaviour, sustainable behaviour, is also influenced by various factors,
e.g. civil or legislative regulatory pressure, social ties and conventions or accepted norms, orientation
at peers or intrinsic motivations such as the owners’ personal values, on both the personal level and
business practice level (Baden and Prasad, 2016). The sustainability of products plays an important
role for consumers. There are associations between environmental knowledge, environmental
awareness and “green” purchasing behaviour. Environmental knowledge in terms of more sustainable
products is an important part of protecting natural resources from depletion and showing consumers
that they should care more for the environment (Dhir et al., 2021). According to the study of Baden
and Prasad, the occupation of hairdressers is predestined for taking “on the role of both teachers, in
terms of showing and advising clients on aspects of hair care such as styling, and also as salespeople
by recommending and selling hair-care products” (cf. Baden and Prasad, 2016, p. 339). As hairdressers
engage in general conversations with various people, part of the conversation resolves around talking
about or giving advice about people´s everyday haircare routines that often involve resource-
intensive behaviours. Amongst other things, Baden and Prasad stated that hairdressers could serve
“both as a positive role model to their customers and a source of information for more sustainable
hair-care practices” (cf. Baden and Prasad, 2016, p. 346).
Worldwide the hairdressing sector is represented by more than 3.5 million salons and the
hairdressing sector mainly consists of SMEs. It is based on a business-to business-consumer (B2B2C)
model that includes manufactures, hairdressers and consumers. Annual numbers of visits in hair
salons amount to over 800 million, resulting in six billion visits to hair salons, which demonstrates
the market potential of this sector (López-Jáuregui et al., 2019). The number of hairdressers employed
in Germany remained with 130.000 relatively constant in the last ten years; it exists a total of around
80.000 hair salons throughout Germany. With less than 10 employees and a turnover of less than 2
million euros per year, hairdressing salons in Germany are also classified as micro-enterprises or
small enterprises, depending on the number of employees and turnover. There is an average of
around 1.6 employees per salon who are subject to social security contribution (Statista, 2020b).
Therefore “body-related services” form a distinguished subsector of the diverse service sector.
Services that are related to the body include healthcare, hospitality, airlines, clothing retail and
hairdressing (Schepers, Borgh, 2020). Hairdressing in particular is a high contact, continuous and
personal service. The tasks of a hairdresser include planning, shaping and designing hairstyles, as well
as caring for and cleaning hair and scalp (Statista, 2020c). Most often, a single employee, not a team,
attends to the customer (Sok et al., 2018). The relationship between employee behaviour and
customer performance evaluation is greater in body-related services than in less body-related
services. Clients who are in continuous interaction with frontline staff, which is particularly the case
with body-related services, experience similar emotions during the encounter (phenomenon of
“shared frontline experience”). The management of a company can utilize this phenomenon as a
concept of shared experiences because stimuli that affect employees affect customers to the same
extent and vice versa (Zablah et al., 2017, p. 85). According to research findings, interactions, e. g.
loyalty to service workers, trust and commitment as well as pricing, services and communication
(web page and in-store communication) are main drivers to establish a solid customer-employee
relationship and as a result customer loyalty in hairdressing SMEs (López-Jáuregui et al., 2019).
Customers' judgement of a company's service quality is influenced by the perceived service climate. A
good service climate is created through outstanding customer care, the right organizational practices
and procedures. A service climate that is positively perceived by the customer has a beneficial effect
on both staff behaviour and customer interactions (Jung, Yoo, Arnold, 2017).
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2.3 Research Gap and Research Questions
While some branches belonging to the “body-related” services have been intensely studied with
regard to sustainability aspects, such as e. g. hospitality (Han, 2021; Kim et al., 2017; Prud’homme and
Raymond, 2013) or health (Barrett et al., 2011; Reid et al., 2008; Corbin et al., 2021) hairdressers have
been rarely focused on. Research on hair dressing salons is therefore scare and mostly focuses on
health aspects of the profession (Symanzik et al., 2021; Wolff, 2022), but also on marketing aspects or
strategies e. g. related to customer loyalty (López-Jáuregui et al., 2019) as well as social background
aspects of employees (Badillo, 2016; Adewumi-Gunn et al., 2018). However, current scientific studies
investigating the connection between hairdressers and sustainability focus only on hair salons as
multipliers for sustainability awareness (Baden and Prasad, 2016) or the integration of sustainability
in the education of hairdressers (Baden and Whitehorn, 2020).
Based on the discussion before, the following five research questions (RQ1, RQ2, RQ3, RQ4 and
RQ5) were developed to highlight the existing research gap:
RQ1: How do hair salon customers evaluate sustainability aspects in their different consumption
areas?
RQ2: How do hair salon customers evaluate the importance of sustainability in relation to
offered services?
RQ3: How do hair salon customers evaluate sustainability aspects in services offered by hair
salons?
RQ4: How important is the topic of sustainability to hair salon customers when choosing a hair
salon?
RQ5: Do hair salon customers have the willingness to pay more for the hairdresser's visit if
attention was paid to sustainability? And if yes, why? And if no, why not?
3. Methods
The literature review supports the definition of key variables for the empirical study and helps to
develop explanatory approaches. Based on the literature review a survey is used to answer the five
research questions (RQ1, RQ2, RQ3, RQ4 and RQ5). To gain new insights into the significance of
sustainability connected to the service of hair salons, a quantitative highly structured explorative
survey was conducted among the customers of a German hair salon. The selected hair salon was
chosen due to his strong connection to sustainability. The hair salon is family owned and was
founded in 2003. The salon already pays a lot of attention to sustainability and was awarded a few
years ago for its social responsibility. The sustainability orientation of the salon is well communicated
both in the store, and on social media as well as the website. For this reason, the survey was
conducted there, as it can be assumed that its customers are already sensitized to the topic of
sustainability.
A QR code lead the customers to a written, partially standardized online questionnaire
(Wagner-Schelewski and Hering 2019). An information text as well as the QR code were printed on
handouts that had been displayed at the counter and on the mirrors in the salon. By that, customers
could answer the questions during the service and did not have to take extra time after their visit to
the hairdresser. Furthermore, a poster with this QR code had been designed and was placed in the
shop window of the salon to draw the customers' attention to the survey. The survey was designed as
a cross-sectional study, using mainly close-ended questions and some open-ended questions
(Callegaro et al., 2015). Data was collected in the period from 12.05.2021 to 27.05.2021. Analysis and
interpretation of the data was done by descriptive statistical procedures. In total, 38 customers
completed the survey. The relative low sample size is correlated to the limited availability of
participants within the target group. The sample is therefore subject to limitations, but still provides
valuable initial insights into the research questions. The participants are between 21 and over 70 years
old. The largest proportion of participants is between 51-60 years of age. Of the total number of
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respondents, a good third are men and about two-thirds are women.
4. Results
First the customers at the hair salon were asked “In which areas is sustainability important to you?”.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of how important the topic of sustainability is to respondents in their
private lives, when shopping and when using services.
Figure 1: Importance of sustainability
The analysis of the survey shows that 39% of the participants consider the topic of sustainability in
the “private matter” to be very important, 53% important and 8% less important. None of the
participants rated sustainability in the listed areas as unimportant. This shows that a large proportion
of hairdressing customers of this particular hair salon pays attention to sustainability. Sustainability
in purchasing is very important for 47% of the participants and important for the same number. Only
5% of respondents consider sustainability in purchasing to be less important. Sustainability in the use
of services is very important for 26% of participants and important for 55%. 18% of the respondent’s
state that sustainability in the use of services is less important to them. It becomes visible that less
attention is paid to sustainability when using services.
Figure 2 shows the answer to the question “How important is sustainability to you when you
visit the hairdresser?” and illustrates how important sustainability is to respondents when using
various products and applications that are offered in hair salons.
Figure 2: Importance of sustainability at a hairdresser visit
In connection with the use of shampoo and conditioners, sustainability plays a very important role
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for 39% of respondents and an important role for 37%. When using permanent wave products,
sustainability is unimportant for 47% of respondents, which may indicate that only a few customers
make use of such an application and therefore do not see any relevance for sustainability here. When
using eyelash and eyebrow tint, sustainability is unimportant/less important for 54% of the
participants. Whereas when using hair colour/hair dye for only 23 % sustainability is it less
unimportant/less important (23%). An explanation that hair colour/hair dye has to be for more hair
salons visitors “sustainable” than eye lash tint/eyebrow tint, could be that that hair salons visitors do
not connect the warnings regarding the carcinogenicity of hair colour/hair dye (Asif et al., 2022) with
lash tint/eyebrow tint (Balwierz et al., 2023). For the majority, water and electricity consumption is
important up to very important. 5% of respondents consider water consumption unimportant when
using the service, with only 3% considering electricity consumption unimportant. Four people stated
that other areas, e. g. health relevance, hygiene, waste separation, cleanliness and specialist staff are
very important to them. One respondent stated that a fair price for hair treatments is important to
him. It is noticeable that none of the respondents rated sustainability as unimportant in the three
areas of “private matter”, purchasing or use of services. This indicates a high level of sensitivity to this
issue in these areas. Compared to the private sector and purchasing, sustainability is most often rated
as less important in the use of services. This indicates a need to catch up in this area, which includes
hairdressing as a service. The awareness and importance of environmentally friendly concerns is still
not very established in this respect.
More than half of the participants (54%) see sustainability as a very important/important factor
when choosing a hairdresser (Figure 3). For 46% of the questioned people sustainability is less
important/unimportant when selecting a hairdresser. Why this percentage for unimportance of
sustainability when “selecting a hairdresser” (46%) is so much higher than when “using services in
general” (18%) (Figure 1) cannot be explained here. Further research should detect this.
Figure 3: Importance of sustainability when choosing a hair
When asked if the customer would be willing to pay more for the hairdresser's visit if attention was
paid to sustainability, 58% chose the answer option "Yes". Only 33% chose the option "No". Table
1/Table 2 shows the reasons why customers are willing/unwilling to pay a premium for sustainability.
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Table 1: Reasons for the willingness to pay a premium for sustainability
Also the progress in chemistry advances with higher costs.
For the sake of the environment.
An environmentally conscious hair salon leaves a trustworthy impression.
It would show me as a customer that this hair salon has dealt with the topic, which is a clear evaluation
criterion.
It is worth to me.
It is not done otherwise.
It suits me.
For the environment.
It gives me a good conscience.
I like to pay more if I know what for.
Every area of life is important.
If everyone acts sustainably in their sphere of influence, significantly improve overall.
We should pay more attention to sustainability and you don't pay attention or think about it in all areas
yourself.
Table 2: Reasons for the unwillingness to pay a premium for sustainability
The hairdresser is already very expensive.
It must be calculated in the price of the haircut.
I only wash and cut for sustainability reasons, in summer I also do without blow-drying.
I am a low earner.
My hairdresser himself pays attention to sustainability.
Sustainability doesn't have to be more expensive.
Saves in itself, does not have to be paid extra.
Not everyone has entered an explanation for their choice. Some customers attach great importance to
environmental awareness at the hair salon and that it strengthens their trust in the hair salon if
attention is paid to this issue. The trust leads to an increased willingness to pay more for the service.
In this regard, of the 18 participants who answered this question, 16 indicated they would be willing
to pay 10% more for the sustainable service offers. The answers of some respondents imply that
budget constraints have a negative impact on consumer behaviour and the willingness to pay more
for a sustainable visit to the hairdresser. For example, by noting that he or she is a low-income earner.
5. Conclusion
5.1 Discussion
The study is able to show that the major part of the customers of this hair salon are already strongly
sensitized to the issue of sustainability (RQ1). Findings shed also light on the fact that there are
differences in sustainability awareness of customers with respect to purchase decisions and service
utilization. It is clearly important for more people to pay attention to sustainability in purchasing
(RQ2); whereas the survey participants seem to be less sensitized to sustainability in the area of
services or the hairdresser's visit (RQ3). It is also clear that the available budget of a customer has a
negative impact on the willingness or possibility to pay more for sustainability and to pay attention to
it. Nevertheless, most respondents are willing to pay more for a sustainable visit to the hairdresser
(RQ5). This corresponds with findings of Baden and Prasad (2016) suggesting that the most successful
uptake of pro-environmental behaviour by salons and customers might happen, if a win-win-win-
situation can be created. According to Baden and Prasad this means that a synergy between “what
was good for the environment with what was good for hair and for the bills” becomes apparent for
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customer and service provider (cf. Baden and Prasad, 2016, p. 346). Another interesting finding is that
the unimportance of sustainability when “selecting a hairdresser” (46%) is much higher than when
“using services in general” (18%). It can only be speculated about the reasons why the participants in
the study voted the way they did. The answers in the survey do not provide information on this.
Possible explanations might be traced back to different behavioural factors, which can have a
moderating effect on the purchase or utilization of sustainable products or services (Kumar et al.,
2017). This so-called “attitude-behaviour-gap” can outweigh arguments, convictions or knowledge
levels (Baden and Prasad, 2016) and can observed in manifold decision-making processes respectively
purchase decisions (Baden and Prasad, 2016; Kumar et al., 2017). Firstly, one particular reason might
be that a visit to a hairdresser has a very emotional connotation for many customers and represents a
quite intimate interaction between service worker and customer. Not only because the hair dresser
touches the head and hair of a customer, which is an intimate interaction in itself, but also because
clients often discuss or talk about very personal things and problems, while getting a haircut or other
treatment (Gilius, Hendry, 2024). Secondly, a visit to a hairdresser is most probably driven by the fact
that people want to do something good for themselves, they want to look with a certain haircut or
hair colour. The personal wellbeing therefore might also outweigh sustainability aspects in this
special setting, even though sustainability is valued important in other decision-making processes or
service utilization. Building on that emotional bond to transfer sustainability knowledge needs to be
further explored (Baden and Prasad, 2016).
5.2 Limitations and Future Research
In this empirical explorative study, the importance of sustainability from the customer perspective
was analysed at a German hair salon. 38 customers were surveyed, so the results of this study only
give a qualitative, explorative insight. The study dealt with a limited subject area, but was able to
examine important aspects. Nevertheless, there is still a need for further research, because this study
only surveyed customers of one German hair salon, which already pays a great deal of attention to
sustainability. It would be interesting to conduct a nationwide survey in salons of different sizes and
orientations. Therefore, a more comprehensive cross-regional comparison of customers and hair
salons would be more informative. From a qualitative research perspective, it would also be
interesting to conduct a multiple case study among hair salons (Yin, 2018). The choice of hair salons
could e. g. compare salons that are already active in sustainability with salons that are not involved
yet. The focus could be either on the customer side or on the business owner side. Interviews with
salon owners would help to gain in-depth-insights (Yeo et al., 2014) e.g. about challenges that salon
owners have to deal with in order to implement sustainability into their business strategy and
marketing skills. Pursuing research in this field might contribute to the limited existing research
about sustainability aspects and hairdressers, furthermore it would allow for international
comparisons. It might also support or complement the attempts of initiatives to strengthen ties
between academia, practitioners and education such as mentioned by Baden and Whitehorn (2020).
Research about possible or necessary adaptations of existing vocational training and further
education due to e.g. growing sustainability, innovation and digitization requirements in the
hairdressing sector and other related service sectors might be relevant as well. Furthermore, it would
be interesting to investigate why the percentage for unimportance of sustainability when “selecting a
hairdresser” (46%) is so much higher than when “using services in general” (18%). As mentioned
above, within the framework of behavioural economics, trends or correlations between income level
or level of education and attitudes toward sustainability when visiting a hair salon could be
investigated. The topic could be examined not only from the customer perspective but also from the
entrepreneurial perspective of a hair salon, for example whether and how sustainability concepts are
explicitly implemented in hair salons (Baden and Prasad, 2016; Baden and Whitehorn, 2020). How is
the topic assessed by the hairdressing trade and communicated via websites, social media or by
employees in the salon? A survey of hairdressers and service providers could be useful for this
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purpose. Furthermore, there is a need for research regarding the products used in the salon. The
questions here are to what extent these are already produced or packaged in an environmentally
friendly way and how the procurement situation for sustainable hairdressing supplies looks like. And
as also mentioned above it should be investigated if hair salons visitors do not connect the warnings
regarding the carcinogenicity of hair colour/hair dye (Asif et al., 2022) with lash tint/eyebrow tint.
5.3 Social and practical implications
When it comes to choosing a hair salon, comparatively more people also state that the issue of
sustainability in this area is unimportant to them (RQ4). Accepting personal choices or preferences,
while at the same time trying to establish or change cultural norms and routines towards a more
sustainable lifestyle is a critical aspect. The use of role models or communicators as well as social ties
and network might be an appropriate tool besides more top-down approaches (e.g. legislation)
(Baden and Prasad, 2016). From a practical implications perspective, many hairdressers might not
perceive being an ambassador, diffusor or role model for pro-environmental behaviour as part of
their job or service respectively as part of their professional identity. In addition, a lack of
sustainability knowledge and communication skills may impact marketing and customer awareness
on sustainability communication and sustainable practices in the hairdressing sector. Providing
relevant skills could be an essential task for salon owners, trade unions and education institutions.
This shows the need to integrate sustainability aspects in the training of hairdressers.
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