Playbook, salon or spa
Shut Sunday and Monday, so nothing is read until Tuesday
The closing pattern in this trade catches people out. A message sent on Saturday evening, after the last client has gone, sits through two closed days before anybody sees it. Promising a reply in twenty four hours is then a promise that breaks itself, and the client who waits through it is the one who books somewhere else on Monday morning.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for out of hours holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Closing on a Sunday and a Monday in sequence is common here and unusual for a high street business, so the honest wait time is longer than anybody expects and has to be stated as a day rather than as a number of hours.
- The evening messages in this trade are mostly next appointment questions, prices and how long something takes, which are answerable from published material without anybody being in the building.
- One message must never sit in an inbox overnight: a client describing a burning scalp, a reaction or a burn after a colour done that day. That gets a number and a line about medical help, inside the reply itself.
- Somebody with an event on Saturday is working to a deadline the salon cannot see, so telling them when messages are read is worth more than a reassuring sentence about coming back to them soon.
How it arrives
- are you open now
- when will someone actually read this
- my scalp is burning after my colour today
- can i book in for tomorrow
- is anyone in on a monday
- i need my hair done before saturday who do i ring
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The closed days and when messages are next read | Which days the salon is shut and the morning somebody works through the inbox. Say the day by name rather than giving a number of hours, because a client counting hours across two closed days arrives at the wrong answer. |
|---|---|
| The urgent route, separated from everything else | The phone number, when it is answered, and what counts as a reason to use it out of hours. Keep this short enough to sit at the top of a fallback message rather than in a page somebody has to find. |
| The questions worth answering overnight | Prices as starting figures, how long each service takes, the patch test timing, the parking, the address. These are the evening messages, they are all published, and answering them is the whole reason the widget is on the site at night. |
| How to book when nobody is in | The booking route and whether it works at night, since a client who is ready to book at eleven on a Sunday should not be told to ring in the morning if there is another way. |
The reply
Nobody is in this evening, and the salon is closed tomorrow as well, so this message will be read on Tuesday morning [1]. I can still help with prices, how long a service takes, the patch test timing and where to park, and our booking page works at any hour [2]. If your scalp or skin is reacting after a treatment today, do not wait for Tuesday: ring the salon on the number on our contact page and seek medical advice if it is severe.
It names the day rather than a wait in hours, because two closed days in a row defeat any arithmetic the reader does themselves. It then lists what can still be done tonight, which is the difference between a closed sign and a useful reply. The reaction route is last and unmissable, phrased so nobody reads it as something to think about in the morning.
Where it stops
The trigger. Anything urgent overnight, anybody describing a reaction, and anybody with a date in the next few days that the salon has to confirm.
The salon is closed and I cannot reach anybody or check the diary. Leave me your name, an email and what you need and it will be read when the salon opens. If it cannot wait, the phone number is on our contact page, and if your skin is reacting please seek medical advice now.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never promise a reply by a particular hour, since the inbox is not read on the closed days.
- Never say somebody will be contacted first thing when first thing is two days away.
- Never handle a message about a reaction as an out of hours enquiry to be picked up later.
- Never say a booking has been made overnight, because nothing here writes to a diary at any hour.
Questions
- Is it not better to say we reply within twenty four hours?
- Not in a trade that closes two days in a row. That promise breaks on its own on a Saturday night, and the client who was told it is the one comparing salons on Monday. Naming Tuesday morning is a worse sentence and a much better outcome.
- Can it take a booking while we are closed?
- No. It cannot write to a diary at any hour. What it can do is answer the questions that were standing between the client and a booking, and point at your booking route, which does work overnight.
- How do we make sure a reaction message is not missed?
- Put the phone number and the line about medical advice in the out of hours fallback wording itself, so it appears in the reply rather than needing to be retrieved. And write it so it never appears alongside aftercare suggestions, which turn an urgent message into a conversation.
Keep reading
- Everything for a salon or spaPrices depend on hair length and condition, so a real quote needs a consultation. Patch tests and pregnancy questions need a person.
- Handling out of hours in generalThe difference between an emergency route and a message form, and why an honest wait time beats a promise you cannot keep.
- The patch test that has to happen before the appointmentA colour booking has a patch test deadline attached. Raising it during the enquiry saves the appointment that would be turned away.
- Moving an appointment, and what happens to the depositAn empty chair costs the stylist the slot. The notice term only holds if the client was told first, so tell everyone who asks.
- Why nobody can price a correction without seeing the hairWhat is already on the hair decides the work, and nobody can see it in a message. Offer a consultation and photographs instead of a number.
Try it on your own material
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