Who is calling, and what do they need?
Callers want an appointment, need to change a booking, or have a question about a service. If the team spends the day with clients, route calls to a shared office mobile or use voicemail for times when nobody can answer.
Keep the top-level menu in the caller’s language. In Auto Attendant each option does one thing: it rings up to three phones one after another (each for 10 to 60 seconds, never together), takes a voicemail, or plays a message and hangs up. Point each option at the person, or the shared phone, that actually handles this call, and add a backup only where a missed call costs you.
How salon or barbershop calls actually go
Salons and barbershops lose calls for the best possible reason: the people who would answer have their hands in someone’s hair. The result is that a fresh booking enquiry often goes to a ringing phone, and the caller moves to the next shop. Voicemail with an emailed transcript, plus a short menu, keeps the enquiry from disappearing.
The calls themselves are narrow: book, change or cancel, ask a price, ask whether someone has availability today. A menu with two or three options is plenty. The risk is overbuilding; a long menu in a small shop puts callers off and adds nothing the stylist can act on.
Recommended menu
| Caller’s choice | Role to ring | What it does | Why this route |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Book or change an appointment | front desk mobile | Rings one phone | A shared front-desk mobile lets whoever is free between clients answer. |
| 2. Service or opening-hours question | shop manager | Rings one phone | A simple route avoids making callers choose a stylist before they know what they need. |
| 3. Existing appointment today | shop coordinator | Rings one phone | A direct route helps with arrival or same-day schedule questions. |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Shaded text is a fill-in field: replace it with your own.
This example uses 3 menu options. Auto Attendant allows up to seven; add an option only when it sends a distinct kind of caller to a meaningfully different destination. A call that rings every phone you listed without an answer goes to voicemail. The menu can be in English, French or Spanish, and a line can also skip the menu and go straight to one action.
Greeting script
Business name. To book or change an appointment, press 1. For a service or opening-hours question, press 2. If your appointment is today, press 3.
Shaded text is a fill-in field: replace it with your own.
25 words, about 10 seconds spoken at 150 words per minute. The estimate is calculated from the script above; allow extra time for pauses and clear delivery.
Read each reason before its key, as in “For a new enquiry, press 1”. Replace the shaded fields and any role or service wording before you type the greeting into the menu; a text-to-speech voice reads it to callers.
A worked example
Illustration: a five-chair salon offers 1 for new appointments and 2 for changes or cancellations, both ringing the shared front-desk mobile. If nobody picks up, the call goes to voicemail, which asks for name, number, the service wanted and two preferred days. A person reads the transcript between clients and replies from the salon’s mobile.
Common failure: a stylist’s personal mobile is the only number, and each missed call is a lost booking. A separate business number that rings a shared front-desk mobile keeps stylists’ personal numbers off the sign.
After hours, weekends, and holidays
State the next opening time and let callers leave a callback number. If online booking is available elsewhere, the phone menu cannot make that booking; give the location verbally only if the business has a stable public address page.
Confirm the holiday hours and whether the booking desk is staffed. A weekend greeting should match the actual appointment schedule.
Outside the hours you set, Auto Attendant plays your closed message and then takes a voicemail or ends the call; it does not forward calls after hours, and holidays are closed all day. Where the advice above mentions an on-call route, either keep that person’s option within your set hours or give the arrangement in the closed message.
Check the greeting after every schedule change. A voicemail arrives by email with the recording attached and a transcript when one is produced, but it does not make the call live or guarantee a response time.
Rules and standards worth knowing
Salons are places of public accommodation, so the ADA’s requirements for businesses open to the public apply, including effective communication with customers who have hearing or speech disabilities 12. A published email address and a number that accepts relay-service calls are simple measures. Where service animals are concerned, staff may ask only whether the animal is required because of a disability and what task it has been trained to perform 3.
Licensing for hairdressers, barbers and salon premises is set by states, and the SBA’s guide to licences and permits points you toward the right authority 4. Do not mention a licence or qualification in a greeting unless it is current.
Calls recorded outside the voicemail box are subject to recording-consent laws 5; Auto Attendant does not record live calls.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules differ by state and change; confirm anything that affects your business with the source or an adviser.
Common menu mistakes
- Sending every call to a stylist who is serving a client.
- Making a caller listen to a long list of individual staff.
- Promising that voicemail changes a booking automatically.
Keep the greeting short, use the same names callers see elsewhere, and make sure every route has a sensible end when nobody picks up.
Check the menu before you publish it
- Keep the menu to three options or fewer.
- Ask voicemail callers for service wanted and two preferred days.
- Agree a time of day when the transcript inbox is cleared.
- Publish a non-voice way to book for customers who cannot use the phone.
- Check the lunch-hour and Monday greetings against actual opening hours.
Related guides and templates
- Fitness studio: phone menu guide
- Photography or events studio: phone menu guide
- Auto repair shop: phone menu guide
- Restaurant or takeout business: phone menu guide
- Appointment-based business: call-flow template
- Lunch-hour greeting: call-flow template
- General voicemail greeting: call-flow template
- One-person office: call-flow template
- Call routing and menu design
- Missed calls and what they cost
Further reading
Longer research pieces on this topic, each with its own source list and a downloadable PDF.
Articles on this topic
Topics Small business phone Auto attendant Call forwarding Voicemail All topics
Sources
Every regulatory and pricing claim on this page links to the primary source it came from. Figures were checked on the date shown at the top of the page; rules and prices change, so verify before relying on one.
- ADA.gov, Businesses That Are Open to the Public (Title III). Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.ada.gov/topics/title-iii/ - ADA.gov, ADA Requirements: Effective Communication. Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.ada.gov/resources/effective-communication/ - ADA.gov, ADA Requirements: Service Animals. Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-2010-requirements/ - US Small Business Administration, Apply for licenses and permits. Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/apply-licenses-permits - 18 U.S.C. § 2511, Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited (one-party consent exception). Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2511