Before you hand over the phone
Questions a shop owner asks
The ones that come up in the first ten minutes of every conversation, with the real answers. If yours is not here, ask us.
Line 01
Getting it
Getting it into your shop
- What does it cost?
- Tell us what your shop needs, how many chairs you have and what you book with, and we will quote it. It costs less than what you are doing now about the phone, guaranteed.
- What does it have to connect to?
- Your booking calendar, because that is the thing it reads and writes. Operator asks the book a short, fixed set of questions: your hours, your services and prices, which slots are open, and which appointments belong to the number that is calling. Any book that can answer those can sit behind it. Today it runs on Queueist.
- Does it work for a salon, not a barbershop?
- Yes. Operator has no opinion about what your services are called: it reads them off your own price list, so color, treatments and a two-hour appointment work the same way a twenty-five minute cut does.
- Can I hear it before I decide anything?
- Call (984) 208-2357. That is a live line answering for a real shop, and you can ask it for a haircut, ask it a price, or ask it to put you through to a person. Nothing about that call is staged.
- What do you need from me to set it up?
- Your services and prices, your barbers and their hours, and access to the book. Operator does not keep a copy of any of it, so there is nothing to re-enter later when a price changes.
Line 02
On the phone
What it does to your callers
- Does it pretend to be a person?
- No. It introduces itself as the shop's automated assistant on every call, and it hands the call to a person whenever the caller asks for one.
- What happens when it cannot help?
- It stops trying. During your hours it transfers the call to the shop; after hours it takes a message. Either way the call and the message show up in your daily report, so nothing quietly disappears.
- Can it double-book a chair?
- No, and this is built into how a booking is made rather than into how carefully it is worded. Operator proposes an appointment, reads it back, waits for the caller to agree, and only then writes it, re-checking availability at that moment. If the slot went while you were talking, it says so and offers the next ones.
- Can a caller change somebody else's appointment?
- No. Operator can only see and change appointments attached to the phone number it is speaking to, and that is enforced on our side rather than left to the assistant's judgment. It has no way to look up a stranger by name.
- Will it quote a price that is six months old?
- It cannot. Prices, hours and openings are looked up at the moment they are asked for, so there is no remembered copy to be wrong. Change a price at noon and the 12:05 caller hears the new one.
- What if it does not know the answer?
- It says so and offers a person. Where a question is ambiguous it asks rather than picks: somebody who asks the price of “a haircut” at a shop with an adult cut and a senior cut is asked which one they want.
- Can a caller talk it into waiving a fee?
- No. Your cancellation window and your no-show policy are enforced by the same code your own booking screens use. The assistant states the policy when it applies and has no power to change it.
- Does it take card numbers?
- Never by voice. If a deposit or a card is needed, Operator texts a secure link and the customer types their details into the payment page. If somebody starts reading a card number aloud anyway, it stops them, and card-shaped digits are stripped before anything is stored.
Line 03
Texts and records
Texts, recordings and who sees what
- Who does it text?
- Only people who gave your shop their number, about their own appointment: a confirmation, a reminder, and a message if something changes. No marketing and no promotions.
- How does somebody stop the texts?
- They reply STOP to any message and the shop sends nothing further to that number. HELP returns the shop's name and contact details. Message and data rates may apply.
- Is the call recorded?
- Calls handled by the assistant are transcribed so it can respond, and the conversation is kept so you can read back what your assistant actually said. Those records are deleted on request.
- What do I actually see as the owner?
- A daily report of every call, every booking, every message taken and everything it could not handle, plus the conversation itself when you want to read one.
Line 04
Still deciding
Ask the one that is not on the list
We would rather answer it than have you guess.
hello@operator.help Or hear it for yourself: (984) 208-2357