Every stylist is with a client. The phone does not care
Vandial answers it, books by service and by stylist from your real calendar, and absorbs the reschedules that make up most of your calls. When someone cancels, it offers the gap to the waiting list before the hour goes empty.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callAlina Kovács“Can I move my Thursday to the same time on Friday?”
Moved — Thu 2pm to Fri 2pm, same stylist
- Mid-appointment
- is when the phone goes, and it is why the booking goes somewhere else
- Released slots
- offered to the waiting list by text, not left empty
- Never skipped
- the patch test before a first color, however insistent the client
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a salon gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One salon & spa call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“Can I move my Thursday to the same time on Friday?”
Matched0:13
- existing booking
- Nora
- color + cut
- 2h15
Rescheduled0:29
- Fri 2:00pm
- Nora
- 2h15
Waiting list notified0:48
- Thu 2pm released
Moved — Thu 2pm to Fri 2pm, same stylist
Read the whole salon & spa call, line by line
- 0:02Alina Kovács: Can I move my Thursday to the same time on Friday?
- 0:04Vandial: Let me look. You're with Nora at two for color and cut, is that right?
- 0:11Alina Kovács: That's the one.
- 0:13Matched — existing booking · Nora · color + cut · 2h15
- 0:19Vandial: Nora's got two o'clock free on Friday. Shall I move it across?
- 0:26Alina Kovács: Perfect, thank you.
- 0:29Rescheduled — Fri 2:00pm · Nora · 2h15
- 0:36Vandial: Done. Thursday's slot goes back on the list — and you'll get a text confirming Friday.
- 0:48Waiting list notified — Thu 2pm released
Answered, understood, booked
One number, picked up on the second ring — at 2am, on a Sunday, while you're already working. By the time the caller hangs up, it is in your calendar.
It answers
Answered on the second ring while every stylist is mid-color, which is the entire working day in a busy salon.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
The right service, the right length and the right stylist — read from your real calendar rather than guessed.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
Confirmed by text, with the cancellation terms stated and the released slot offered to the waiting list automatically.
Text to Dave · 13:01
You’re booked for today, 1–2pm. Reply R to move it.
It asks what you would ask
These are the questions the agent runs for salons and spas, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
Which service, and roughly how long does yours usually take?
A color is not a trim. Booking the wrong length puts a stylist an hour behind for the rest of the day.
Do you have a stylist you see?
Salon loyalty is to a person, not a premises. Rebooking someone with a stranger is how a regular quietly stops coming.
Have you had this color done here before?
A first color needs a patch test and more time. Discovering that on the day means turning someone away.
New client or returning?
New clients need consultation time and the patch-test conversation; regulars do not.
Would you like the earlier slot if one comes up?
The waiting list is what fills the gaps a cancellation leaves, and nobody at the desk has time to work it.
Anything else while you're in — a treatment, a fringe trim?
Asked once, on the call, rather than at the till when the calendar is already full.
More than a ai receptionist for salons
An answering service takes a message and charges you for it. Vandial knows your prices, your patch and your diary — so it books the job, or puts a real emergency straight through to you.
It picks up out of hours, and while your line is busy
A salon is unreachable by design: the people who could answer the phone are all holding scissors. Vandial takes every call, including the Sunday ones and the ones during a color, without anybody breaking off from a client.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
It books by stylist and by service length from your actual calendar. A color booked into a cut's slot costs the stylist their evening, and it is the mistake anybody rushing to answer a phone makes.
What it knows
Cut and finish
$65, 45 minutes
Full color
$165, 2h15
Patch test
48 hours before a first color
Cancellation
24 hours on color
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
Reschedules are most of your call volume. Absorbed entirely — moved, confirmed, released back to the list — with nobody at the desk touching the calendar.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
When a cancellation lands, the gap is offered by text to the people who wanted an earlier slot. An empty chair on a Saturday is the most expensive thing in the building.
Dave Whitfield · Sunday, 4m 12s
Water heater, leaking
Leaking from the base. Booked for Tuesday 1–2pm. Side gate open, dog in the yard. Asked whether the service call fee applies — told $99, waived on repair.
December, and every Friday afternoon
This trade's peak is weekly before it is seasonal — Friday and Saturday fill first and everyone rings on Thursday — and then December compresses six weeks of demand into three. Both are periods when every chair is occupied, which means every phone call is a choice between the client in front of you and the one on the line.
When it happens · Thursday afternoons, and all of December
A normal month, then a surge month
- Billed per minute
- Your baselineTriples with the calls
- The bill peaks in the same week your phone does.
- Billed per call, like a human service
- Per call, every callEvery extra call, billed
- Including the robocalls and the wrong numbers.
- Vandial
- From $99 a monthThe same
- Call flows are unlimited on every paid rung, and there is no per-minute billing. The rungs differ only in how many unique customers you answer for — and a surge is mostly more calls from the same people.
Robocalls and sales calls are identified and zero-rated on every plan. They never count toward your included customers and never create a customer record.
What it will never do
You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you are not there. These are the lines it does not cross in salon & spa, and the words it uses instead.
It won't skip the patch test
A first color needs a patch test at least forty-eight hours ahead, and a salon that books one without it either turns the client away or takes a risk it should not. The agent asks, books the test, and explains why — every time, including when the client says it will be fine.
What it actually says
“Because it's your first color with us you'll need a quick patch test at least two days before — shall I put that in as well?”
It doesn't promise a result
Whether a color can be lifted, whether extensions will suit, whether that photo is achievable on this hair — those are consultations, not phone answers. The agent books the consultation and does not commit your stylist to something they have not seen.
What it actually says
“Whether we can get to that in one appointment really depends on your hair — Nora will tell you straight at the consultation rather than me promising it now.”
Cancellation terms are said, not hidden
Your notice period and deposit policy are stated on the booking call, plainly, rather than appearing in a text afterwards. A no-show policy nobody was told about is a policy that produces arguments instead of attendance.
What it actually says
“Just so you know, we ask for 24 hours' notice on a color — after that there's a deposit charge. Friday at two is confirmed.”
The job lands where you already work
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
What salons and spas say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“Everyone here is holding scissors.”
Which makes a salon unreachable by design during the hours people ring, and completely unreachable in the evenings and on Sundays — when most people actually get round to booking their hair.
“It'll book a color into a cut's slot.”
It books by service against the lengths you set, and by stylist. Getting that wrong puts someone an hour behind for the rest of the day, which is why it reads the calendar rather than guessing — and why it rebooks a regular with their own stylist rather than whoever is free.
“We'd lose the personal relationship.”
The relationship is with the stylist, not with whoever picked up the phone. What a client notices is being remembered — their stylist, their usual service, their patch test — and it has all three on the call, which is more than a rushed answer between clients usually manages.
Salon & spa questions, answered
What salons and spas ask before handing over their phone number — and what a ai receptionist for salons can and cannot do for you.
Can it book by stylist?
Yes, and it should. Salon loyalty is to a person rather than to a premises, and rebooking a regular with whoever happens to be free is how you quietly lose them. It reads each stylist's real calendar and books accordingly.
Does it get the appointment length right?
It books by service against the lengths you set — a full head of color, a cut and blow-dry and a fringe trim are not interchangeable. Getting that wrong puts a stylist an hour behind for the remainder of the day.
What about patch tests?
It asks whether the client has had color with you before and books the patch test where one is needed, at least forty-eight hours ahead. It does not skip it because the client says it will be fine.
Will it handle cancellations and the waiting list?
Yes, and this is usually where it pays. A released slot is offered by text to the clients who wanted something earlier, rather than sitting empty because nobody at the desk had time to ring round.
Does it state our cancellation policy?
On the call, plainly, at the point of booking. A deposit policy that first appears in a confirmation text is a policy that produces arguments; one that is said out loud produces attendance.
Can it take bookings after hours?
That is when a large share of them arrive. People book their hair in the evening and at the weekend, which is precisely when a salon is closed or flat out, and those calls currently go nowhere.
What does it cost?
Three paid rungs — Starter, Professional and Business — differing only in how many unique clients you answer for in a month. A client who comes every six weeks counts once. Robocalls are identified and never billed.
Already decided you want AI to answer it?
Then the question is which one, and that is a different page: what a generic AI receptionist gets wrong on a salon & spa call, and what is configurable about this one.
Not your trade?
The agent's questions, urgency rules, escalations and vocabulary are all configuration. Nothing about a trade is hard-coded, which is why there are 31 of these and not one.