Why does my hair salon miss so many phone calls?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
A hair salon misses calls because the people who could answer are busy with clients. A stylist with foils or scissors in hand can't pick up, and a small salon has nobody whose only job is the phone. The calls also bunch up at lunch, after work and on Saturdays, the same hours the chairs are fullest.
When does a salon miss the most calls?
A salon misses the most calls at the hours it is busiest. Clients phone on their lunch break, on the way home, and on Saturday morning. Those are the hours every chair is taken and the dryers are running.
The rest arrive after closing. Someone decides at nine at night that they want a cut before the weekend. The salon is dark, so they keep looking until something lets them book.
What does the caller do when nobody answers?
A regular leaves a message or texts their stylist. A new client does neither. They have no loyalty yet, the next salon is a tap away, and they wanted an appointment, not a conversation with a voicemail box.
You never see this loss. There is no cancelled appointment to notice, only a missed call in a log nobody has time to read. To size it, count missed calls for a week, then multiply: missed calls, times how many would have booked, times what a new client is worth.
What are the ways to cover the phone?
There are five ways, and each has a cost. Choose by how many calls you miss and when you miss them, not by what the salon down the road does.
- A front desk hire: the best experience in opening hours, a wage, and no cover at night.
- Stylists answering between clients: free, and it interrupts the client in the chair.
- An answering service: a person picks up and takes a message, and the booking still waits for you.
- Online booking alone: good for regulars, no help to a caller with a question.
- An AI receptionist: answers at any hour and books the time, and it is not a person.
How does Margin cover a salon's missed calls?
Margin sets up Mia, an AI receptionist, to answer in the salon's name: every call, or only the ones the team can't pick up. She answers questions, finds an open time and books it, and never puts a caller on hold. If someone asks for a person, she tells the team and steps aside.
A caller who hangs up is texted back within a minute, once phone carriers have approved the salon's texting number. That approval takes days to a couple of weeks. Bookings land on the portal calendar and the team is told.
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
How do I find out how many calls my salon misses?
Ask your phone provider for the call log, or read the missed calls on the salon handset for one full week. Mark each one: lunch, evening, Saturday or after closing. A hair salon's missed calls tend to cluster, and the cluster tells you what to cover.
Should stylists answer the phone during an appointment?
It's a trade-off. A stylist who stops mid-colour to take a call saves that booking and takes attention from the client who is paying. Salons that do it keep the calls very short, which doesn't suit a new client with questions.
Do salon clients still call instead of booking online?
Yes. Regulars often book online, and people still phone a salon when they have a question, want a particular stylist's advice, need to move an appointment today, or simply prefer to talk.