A quiet room deserves a quiet phone.
The lights are low, the music is soft, and the phone by the front door keeps ringing. AlloPlace answers in English or French with your spa's name, so the next call doesn't interrupt the facial you're in the middle of.
The calls you get
"What's the difference between your two facials?" "Do you have anything Sunday for two?" "How long should my hair grow before waxing?" "Can I buy a gift card?" "I need to move my lash fill." "Is there parking?" A lot of questions, a fair number of bookings, and almost all of them arrive while you're with someone.
What it does for you
Explains your menu in your words. It describes treatments using the text you wrote or the pages it imported from your website. It doesn't add promises of its own about what a treatment does.
Books into Google Calendar. Facials, waxing, lashes, brows, massages. Each service gets the length you set, including the cleanup time between clients if you build it in.
Handles gift card calls without taking a card. It can't take payments, so it tells callers how you sell gift cards: at the desk, on your website, or however you do it.
Steps back from anything personal. If a caller asks whether a treatment is right for a skin condition, a pregnancy or an allergy, it doesn't answer. It takes a message so you or your esthetician can call back.
Picks up more than one line. Two calls at once on a Saturday morning? Neither gets a busy signal.
A typical call
It's a Friday afternoon in Gatineau and you're with a client. A caller asks how your hydrating facial differs from the classic one. AlloPlace reads her your descriptions, she picks the 60-minute hydrating facial, and it books Tuesday at 10:00. She asks about parking and gets the answer you wrote. She agrees to a reminder text.
TBD: replace with a real call once a customer agrees.
Rules you might write
- "Don't recommend treatments for skin conditions, pregnancy or allergies. Take a message for the esthetician."
- "Gift cards are sold at the front desk and on our website. We don't sell them over the phone."
- "Couples' appointments are weekends only. Take a message and I'll set up both rooms."
- "If someone's going to be more than 15 minutes late, tell them we may need to shorten the treatment."
Good to know
- Calendar or software: AlloPlace books into Google Calendar only. If your spa runs on Vagaro, Fresha, Mindbody or Square Appointments, it can't book into those, though it can still answer, explain your services and take messages. It fits best if you're on Google Calendar or mainly need calls answered. Otherwise, talk to us first.
- Your words only: it answers from what you've given it, and says so when a question goes past that.
- French: it starts in the language you pick and switches when the caller does. More on that
What it costs
Starter is US$30 a month (about CA$43) for 150 minutes and 20 transfers. If you're busier, Pro is US$100 a month for 500 minutes. Full pricing