Answering service · Canada
The answering service for Canadian salons and barbers
Both hands are in somebody's hair and the phone is the next booking. EveryRing answers it, books into a chair that is actually free, and takes the cancellation that would otherwise have been a no-show.
The calls you are missing
A salon phone rings at the worst possible moments by definition: mid-colour, mid cut, during the one appointment that cannot be paused. Picking it up interrupts the client in front of you; not picking it up costs the booking.
The cancellations are worse than the bookings. Somebody who cannot reach you to cancel simply does not come, and a chair sits empty that could have been filled if anyone had known an hour earlier.
What it does on one of your calls
It answers as your salon, in the name you chose, and says the call is recorded if you have recording on.
- It books onto a chair, not onto the salon. If three stylists work Saturday it checks which one is genuinely free at that time and books that one, so two clients are never given the same slot.
- Different services take different lengths, and it knows that. A fringe trim and a full colour are booked for the time you said each takes, so a quick appointment does not swallow an afternoon.
- It takes cancellations and moves. A client ringing to move Thursday to Friday gets it moved, and the original slot goes back into the diary where somebody else can have it.
- A missed call gets a text straight back, which for this trade is often what the client preferred anyway.
- It emails a confirmation with a calendar file when the client wants one, which is the cheapest reduction in no-shows there is.
What it will not do
It cannot book a named stylist yet. If a client asks for Priya specifically, it books the appointment and passes the request on rather than pretending to honour it. We would rather say that here than have you discover it on the first Saturday.
It will not quote a price you have not published. Colour pricing in particular depends on the head in front of you, and a number invented on the phone is one you either honour at a loss or argue about at the chair. It offers a callback instead, and writes it down.
It gives no advice about hair or treatments. No view on whether a colour will lift, whether a service suits somebody, or how long anything will last.
It answers in English. It sends no marketing messages of any kind, to anybody, because there is no feature in the product that could: the only texts that leave are replies, confirmations and reminders for work somebody asked for. And there is no way to export your customer list, ours or anyone's. Neither is a policy we wrote down; both are things the software cannot do.
Against a human answering service
| What is being compared | A human answering service | EveryRing |
|---|---|---|
| Published rate, Canada | Commonly sold by the minute, with a setup fee | $199 to $399 a month, plus a one-time setup fee |
| At 2am | If you bought the after-hours plan | Always, at no different rate |
| What happens to the call | A message you ring back | The job booked, in your calendar, on a van that is free |
| What it knows | A script you wrote for them | The profile you published, and it refuses to guess past it |
| Your number | Often theirs, forwarded | Stays yours |
Rates for human services vary by provider and by how many minutes you buy. Compare the ones you are considering on their own published prices: ours are on the pricing page and do not change by time of day.
Questions salons ask
Will it double-book my stylists?
No. Every booking is checked against the chair it is going onto at the moment it is made, and the database itself refuses a second booking in the same slot.
Can clients cancel through it?
Yes, by phone or by text, and the slot frees up immediately rather than after somebody has read a voicemail.
Does it work with the calendar we already use?
It works with Google Calendar, one per stylist if you want. Changes you make there come back to us as well.
What about the clients who would rather text?
A missed call is texted back within seconds and the whole booking can happen by message. We only ever text somebody who contacted you first.
What does it cost?
From $199 a month with no long contract. The pricing page has the plans.
Can I hear it before deciding?
Yes, set up with your services and your hours, and you ring it yourself.
Hear it before you decide
The quickest way to judge this is to listen to it answer as if it were your business. We will set it up with your hours and your services and ring you.