An online booking bot for salons, clinics and service businesses
Half of a salon receptionist's job is answering calls, writing in a notebook and reminding people the day before. A bot does all of that without missed calls.
Why booking by bot beats calling
People can book at night, on the bus, or whenever it occurs to them. A significant share of bookings happens outside working hours — exactly the requests lost with phone-only booking.
The customer does not wait for a receptionist or guess at free times: available slots are visible immediately.
The working flow
Service, then specialist (or 'any available'), then date, then free time, then a summary: service, specialist, date, time, address, price. The summary screen removes most misunderstandings.
Slots must respect each service's duration and breaks. A 40-minute haircut and a two-hour colouring cannot occupy the same cell, or the schedule collapses within two weeks.
Reschedule and cancel buttons belong in the confirmation. If cancelling is hard, the customer simply does not show up and the slot burns.
Reminders against no-shows
The standard pattern is a reminder a day before and another 2–3 hours ahead, with 'confirm' and 'reschedule' buttons. No-shows drop noticeably, and freed slots can still be resold.
Never send more than two reminders — a third reads as nagging and gets the bot blocked.
Schedule integration
Bot and offline bookings must share one schedule, otherwise double bookings appear. At minimum a shared admin panel for phone bookings; better, sync with the system you already use.
Add time blocking for lunch, holidays and sick days so those intervals disappear from available slots automatically.