How do I answer calls as a solo lash artist when I'm with a client?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
A solo lash artist can't answer calls with a client on the bed, so the answer is to make sure every caller gets a reply without you: a text back within a minute, a booking link, or an AI receptionist that takes the call. Returning calls between clients works for regulars and loses new clients who are contacting several studios.
Why is the phone harder for a solo lash studio?
It is harder because your hands and eyes are committed for the whole appointment. A full set means a long stretch of close work with tweezers and adhesive. You can't glance at a phone, let alone hold a conversation, and there is nobody else in the room to do it.
The same goes for any one-person business in this trade: a booth renter mid-colour, a nail tech with wet gel, a barber working alone. The work is the reason clients come, and the work is why the phone goes unanswered.
What works for a one-person studio?
What works is anything that answers for you and finishes the job, because every call you have to return later eats the gap between clients.
- A voicemail greeting that says you are with a client and will reply by text.
- A text sent to each missed caller, with your booking link and an offer to answer questions.
- Fixed times in the day for replies, kept to, so clients learn when to expect you.
- A page of answers for first-timers: how long a set takes, how to prepare, when to book fills.
- An AI receptionist on the phone, so the caller is booked while you work.
Is a call-back between clients good enough?
For regulars, yes. They want a fill with you and nobody else, and they will wait. For a new client it often isn't. Someone looking for lashes before an event messages a few studios and books the one that answers. By the time you finish a set, that decision is made.
How does Margin cover the phone for a solo studio?
Margin sets up Mia to answer the studio's calls in its name while the artist works. She answers the questions she has been given answers to, books an open time, and passes on anything that needs you as a short list of people to call back, with the conversation attached.
Bookings land on the portal calendar and you are told. The portal opens on your phone, so you can read what came in between clients. Text-back to missed callers begins once phone carriers approve your texting number, which takes days to a couple of weeks.
What Margin sets up for this.
- Mia, the AI receptionist, on every call
- Missed calls texted back within a minute
- Booking onto your calendar
- Your portal: every call, text and booking
What a business needs is decided on its audit. It is a one-time setup fee and a monthly fee, with exact numbers on the audit.
How Margin works for salonsSee the portal with a sample business
Related questions
Should a solo lash artist give out a personal mobile number?
It works early on and gets harder as the studio grows. A separate business number lets a solo lash artist set a greeting, keep client messages apart from personal ones, and hand the line to cover later without changing what clients dial.
How fast should a lash studio reply to a new enquiry?
As quickly as it can. A new lash client is often choosing between studios with an event date in mind. A reply that arrives while they are still looking has a better chance than one that arrives at the end of the day.
Do booth renters need their own phone cover?
A booth renter is a one-person business inside a salon, so the same problem applies. The salon's desk may not book for renters. A renter needs their own way to answer enquiries while their hands are busy.