Three ideas, written up for 1802 Shelby St
Three jobs a site can be wired to do once it's up. No points scheme, and no app. They're the three things that go wrong while you've got clippers in your hand: somebody wanting a time, somebody meaning to leave a review, somebody who rang and gave up.
Before you read on. None of this happens at Fatboys today. Bookings come in on the phone and on your Facebook page, nobody gets asked for a review, and a call that rings out just rings out. What follows is a proposal with the working shown, so you can see the whole thing before you decide whether you want any of it. Every name, time and message below was made up for the demonstration, and we've said so wherever one turns up.
Somebody decides at eleven at night that they need a cut before Friday. They can't ring you. You're shut, and they'll have forgotten by morning. On the site they pick a time and it's done, and it lands on the shop's calendar the second they tap it.
Wednesday because it's the one that runs till eight, and the evening end of it is the bit that gets asked for after work.
On your calendar
Held the moment they tap it, on the shop's own calendar. Nothing for anybody to write down, and no second book to keep straight.
Straight away
Before the chair
The reminder is the part that cuts no-shows, not the booking.
If you want it
Switched on where the trade warrants it, and left off where it doesn't. Plenty of shops never turn it on. It's there for the ones getting burned.
Right now a booking is a phone call in shop hours or a Facebook message somebody has to spot. Neither one works at eleven at night, and that's when people decide.
4.8 out of five, off 417 of them
every one written without being asked
Text or email, whichever suits. Nobody at the counter has to stand there asking a man with hair down his neck to give them five stars.
One question first. What comes back decides where that customer gets sent, and the two ways out are not the same door.
The link is in the same message they're already holding. No hunting for your listing, no app, nothing to sign into.
Privately, on your phone, with what they said. You get first go at putting it right, rather than reading it in public a week later.
That is the point of it. Saturday, 8 till 2, three chairs going. You are not thinking about reviews, and you shouldn't have to.
Tap how a visit went and watch where it sends them
A demonstration, not a live one. Nothing you tap here sends anywhere.
Saturday morning, eight till two, everybody wanting in before the afternoon. The phone goes and you're mid-fade. It rings out. Maybe you spot the missed call at the end of the day, maybe you don't, and either way whoever it was has already rung the next shop on Shelby.
11:42 am
Incoming call · six rings, then nothing. Clippers going, hands full.
11:42 am
+8 seconds
“Sorry we missed you at Fatboys — what can we help with? Text us back here and we'll sort you out.”
11:44 am
“any chance of a cut this afternoon? off work at 4”
11:58 am
“5:30 work? Cash only, corner of Shelby and Iowa.”
Only the first message is automatic. The rest is you, when your hands are free. A text waits at the sink. A ringing phone does not.
Booking first, because it changes a Saturday. The review requests next, because 417 people have already done that job for you unasked and it seems a shame not to ask the rest. The text-back last, and it's the least fuss to live with. It runs on the number you already give out. Say the word on any one of them and it gets switched on; say no to all three and the site still stands up perfectly well without them.
Real: the 4.8 and the 417 reviews behind it, the hours, the cash-only note, the address and the phone number. All of it off Fatboys' own Google Business Profile.
Made up: the Wednesday times, Jordan P., and every message in that thread. Written out so you can see the shape of the thing instead of a screenshot of somebody else's software. No chair on this page is really free and no call really came in.
Left out on purpose: what any of it costs. That's a conversation with a person, not a number stuck on a preview page, same reason there are no haircut prices on this site while yours are still on the chalkboard by the door.