The phone rang while every stylist had a client in the chair, so it rang out. A late cancellation on a Saturday left a chair empty for ninety minutes. And the client who did not rebook at the desk was usually next seen six months later, or at the salon round the corner. The owner wanted the phone answered, the gaps filled and every client asked to rebook before they were missed.
Three things kept going wrong, and each cost the business time, money or a customer.
Three agents built on the salon's booking system, using each stylist's own availability and each client's history, with anything about pricing disputes or complaints going to the owner.
The booking system held every client, service and stylist calendar, so there was nothing to migrate. The owner and the stylists spent an hour on how the salon talks to clients, and one rule they were firm on: the agent never quotes a colour price without a consultation. The reception agent took its first calls with the owner listening in on day two; by day five she had stopped listening. The follow-up agent started with clients whose stylist had approved the message.
The phone is answered every time, and stylists finish the cut in front of them. Late cancellations are refilled from the waitlist, so a Saturday chair is empty for minutes rather than an afternoon. Clients are rebooked before they drift, and the salon has watched its regulars come back on a six-week rhythm rather than a six-month one. Chairs run at 92% booked.
'I used to apologise to the client in my chair and answer the phone with foils in my hand. Now I don't, and the diary's fuller than it was.'
Owner and senior stylist
Weekend bookings came by phone while the front desk was checking guests in, and gift-voucher enquiries piled up before Christmas. Rooms sat empty after late cancellations because nobody had time to work the waitlist.
Classes showed as full while the waitlist sat untouched and two bikes stood empty. Membership enquiries arrived at 10pm and were answered at 10am, by which time the prospect had joined somewhere else. Members who stopped coming were noticed when their payment failed. The studio wanted every class full, every enquiry answered and lapsed members noticed early.
A free 45-minute call. Tell us where the time goes; we'll tell you honestly whether an agent would help and what it would save.
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