Who it is for / Beauty therapists and nail technicians
You cannot stop a treatment to answer the phone. While You Work answers the calls you miss in your business name, finds out what the client wants and when, gives your prices if you have set them, and sends you the details a minute later.
Founding members pay £49 and their line switches on as soon as they finish the set-up form. The first week on a live line is free.
On every call
Urgent jobs
If a caller describes a medical emergency, the receptionist tells them to ring 999, or 111 if it is not life-threatening, before taking any message.
Real calls
Beauty clients book by phone during treatments, which is exactly when you cannot answer. The receptionist takes the treatment, the preferred time and any patch-test question.
The maths
Say you miss 4 calls a week and two in five of those callers would have booked a treatment worth about £45.
4 calls × 40% × £45 = £72 a week. × 52 weeks ÷ 12 = £312 a month of work going to someone else. An example: put your own numbers into the missed-call calculator.
A new client who reaches voicemail books elsewhere, and a beauty client who books elsewhere once tends to stay there. The real loss is the year of appointments behind the first one.
Timing
Lunchtimes, early evenings, and the fortnight before Christmas and the summer holidays. Every one of those calls arrives while your hands are in gloves or holding a wax strip.
What callers hear
The receptionist asks one thing at a time, checks the number back and never makes up a price. The details reach you by email a minute after the call, and by text straight away when it is urgent.
What reaches you
Chloe (existing client), 07700 900681. Gel nails, Friday afternoon if possible.
Receptionist: Hi, you’re through to Glow Beauty. Hannah can’t get to the phone right now, but I can take your details so she can get back to you. Calls are recorded so nothing gets missed. What’s your name?
Caller: Hi, it’s Chloe. I’d like gel nails on Friday afternoon if there’s space.
Receptionist: Thanks, Chloe. Have you been to Glow Beauty before?
Caller: Yes, a few times.
Receptionist: And what’s the best number for Hannah to ring you on?
Caller: 07700 900 681.
Receptionist: So that’s 07700 900 681. Is that right?
Caller: Yes, that’s right.
Receptionist: Thanks, Chloe. Hannah will get back to you to confirm Friday, and I’m sending you a text now to confirm.
Set up
A short form made for beauty therapists:
One code on your mobile sends calls you do not answer within 20 seconds to your While You Work line. Turn it off whenever you like.
Every caller is greeted in your business name. You get the details a minute later, and the caller gets a text saying you will ring back.
Questions
Yes, with the Voice Booking and Pay module. It offers the caller your real free times, books the appointment and texts them a confirmation, with your deposit link if you take deposits. Without the module it takes the details and tells the caller you will ring back.
Only if you add them in the set-up form. If you leave prices blank, callers are told you will confirm the price yourself. It never makes up a price.
It answers in your salon’s name with a natural British voice. If someone asks, it says it is your automated assistant and carries on taking the details.
£49 a month including VAT for founding members, locked for as long as you stay, with no contract and the first week free once your line is live.
If you list which ones in set-up, it tells new clients a patch test is needed and how far ahead, before they choose a day.
With the Voice Booking and Pay module it offers your real free times, books the slot and texts a confirmation, with a deposit link if you take deposits. Without it, it takes the details and you confirm when you are free.
More detail: what a missed call costs, UK call answering prices and how we compare.
Founding price locked for as long as you stay. No contract. Your line switches on as soon as you finish the set-up form.
Also for salons, clinics, cleaners, barbers, dog groomers, personal trainers and every other kind of business.