AI reception for salons, barbers and beauty studios in Bicester
You can't take a booking with your hands in someone's hair
Booking calls come in waves: lunchtime, the hour after work, and Sunday evening when people plan their week. Those are also the hours you're either fully booked with clients or closed.
Set up in days · month to month, no lock-in · Bicester, Brackley, Banbury, Buckingham, Kidlington and Oxford
The problem
What it actually looks like for salon and beauty businesses in Bicester.
Years of new housing means a young customer base that expects a same-day answer and will book with whoever gives them one.
- A missed booking call is not a missed enquiry. It's an empty chair on a specific afternoon, and you can count what that costs.
- Answering mid-appointment is bad for the client in the chair and bad for the one on the phone.
- Cancellations that never reach you become no-shows, which is the same empty chair with less warning.
None of that is a discipline problem. You can't be on the tools and on the phone at the same time, and no amount of trying harder changes that. It's a coverage problem, and coverage is a thing you can buy.
What we build
What Frankie does for a salon, a barber shop or a beauty studio.
Frankie is one of the Front Desk Team, the AI receptionist we build for salon and beauty businesses. Frankie answers your phone, in your business's name, using what you've told us about how you work.
- Answers every call in your salon's name and books into your columns, by stylist if you work that way.
- Takes cancellations and rebookings, which is what actually protects the day's takings.
- Answers the price and duration questions for your service list, exactly as you've written it.
- Sends a text confirmation and can chase a deposit link if you take them.
- Handles the after-hours calls, which for salons is a real slice of the bookings.
The instinct is that a salon call needs a warm voice that knows the clients. Fair. She's tuned to sound like your front desk rather than a call centre, and anything she isn't sure about she passes to you rather than guessing.
The evidence
The one number worth knowing.
411 Locals monitored 85 small businesses across 58 industries for 30 days and found that 37.8% of calls were answered by a live person. The same share went to voicemail. Nearly a quarter got nothing at all.
A BT Business study of 1,515 firms put the average value of a single missed call at around £1,200, and found that callers try twice at most before going somewhere else. About a fifth try once.
Those are the two numbers we use, and they're both from named studies you can go and read. We deliberately don't quote the bigger ones that circulate in this industry. The claims about what missed calls cost UK business every year don't trace back to a primary source, and we won't sell you something on a statistic we can't stand behind.
Coverage
Where we cover.
Frankie doesn't care where she is, so the coverage question is really about your patch. Businesses using her around Bicester typically work Brackley, Banbury, Buckingham, Kidlington and Oxford as well, and she takes the postcode at the start of every call, so you know before you ring back whether it's a job you'd travel to.
Fair questions
Questions salons, barbers and beauty studios ask.
Can she book a specific stylist?
Yes. She works from your column structure and knows who does what, including which treatments need a patch test first if you tell her so.
What about deposits?
She can send the client your deposit link by text at the end of the call, and flag to you if it isn't paid by the time you'd want it.
Will regulars notice?
They'll notice that the phone gets answered. She introduces herself as part of the team, honestly, and hands anything personal to you.
What does it cost?
Catch is £149 a month plus £250 to set up. Book is £299 a month plus £500. Front Desk+ starts at £450 a month. All prices exclude VAT, and it's month to month, so if she isn't earning her place you stop.
How long does setup take?
Days, not months. We need your service list, your hours, what she may and may not say, and where the bookings go.
Hear her
Try her before you decide.
You don't have to take our word for how she sounds. Ask her something on this page, or leave your number and she'll ring you back so you can hear a real conversation handled.