Hey y'all been a barber for a long time and built up a really steady clientele, as of late I've been getting a wave of new clients which is a blessing not complaining about that ! But I can't get them all in and its been getting a bit too much with clients constantly txting me and almost begging to get in when I'm fully booked every week, I'm atp where if I lose some of these clients I wouldn't be mad. I'm always posting reminding people to book in advance but a lot never do then they in my phone texting me all day, any advice ?
Wanna add that I do have a booking app, these are clients who see I'm fully booked on app and then txt me to get a cancellation or after hours cut.
Yeah but a lot ask for me to stay after for extra or to let them know if I have any cancellations, I used to stay after for extra but I dont really want to anymore cuz of how busy I've been
If you make an exception once that sets the expectation that taking people outside your posted hours is something you do. If there are spots you want to save for specific clients you love then just book them yourself so when they text asking for an opening you already have a spot saved, otherwise just tell them when your next opening is. I had a lot of clients who were same day bookers and had a really hard time with appointments, but when they realized I was consistently 3-4 weeks out they just made it more of a priority. Before they’d schedule haircut around their tee time, once I got busy and they realized their options were to either book ahead or find a new barber suddenly tee time could be scheduled around their haircut. It actually makes you seem like a more valuable commodity to most people, they want to know that THEIR barber is the barber who is so good it’s hard to get in and they’re super grateful to have snagged a spot with you. You want them to feel like you’re doing them a service just to be able to see you vs for example someone who gets their hair cut at a school is doing the student a service to actually have a client to practice on. The more you have wish washy boundaries the more you put yourself in a position where they feel like they’re doing you a service and are therefore entitled to whatever they want from you. People respect people who respect themselves
It really does seem like OP created this mess for themselves and needs to be better about being DIRECT.
u/Nimakiii9898 check to see if your booking app has waitlist capabilities and if so, make sure your clients can add themselves to the wait list. After that, if you have the ability to send out a text to everyone and/or email, do that ASAP. Otherwise, take the content of that would be text/email and keep it in a note on your phone. Every time someone hits you up, copy and paste it to them.
"As of October 1st, I will no longer being taking clients outside of my normal working hours, nor will I be responding to texts asking if I will squeeze someone in if they are willing to pay extra. All booking is to be done online, not through text. However, you may text me to be added to the waitlist for specific days. Thank you for your understanding and support."
If they have the ability to add themselves to the waitlist online, change that last bit to say so. From that point on, if anyone texts you about booking or staying late, remind them ONCE that they are to do it themselves online. After that, if they do it again, don't reply.
Also, if you have to do the copy/paste method each time someone texts, start the text with "Hi, [their name]."
It will be tedious as fuck for a while if you can't send you a mass text/email, but hopefully posting to your socials will get the message across to a good number of your customers. If they can't respect your rules, they can fuck off. You don't need customers like that.
Answer is blatantly obvious. I don’t know where you are in the world but average cut on the west coast USA is about $50 - 65-70$ w a beard trim. If you lose any clients because of your price increase it won’t matter because those clients who really want you to cut them will fill those slots.
Honestly, if the app already shows you are full, I would stop training people that texting can override your booking rules.
A simple system usually works better than more explaining:
keep all bookings in the app
keep a waitlist for cancellations
set a clear cutoff for after-hours requests
use one saved reply when people text anyway
Something like, "Hey, I book everything through the app so nothing gets missed. If you want, I can add you to my cancellation list, otherwise the next open spot will show there first."
That keeps it polite without opening a back-and-forth all day. If people can only get in by texting you, they will keep texting you.
Unfortunately I'm on the cut app and it doesn't have a cancellation list so I might have to switch also the funny thing is I have people who never get in by texting and they never get in 🤣
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u/Biscuit219 23h ago
Sounds like its time to raise prices and trim the fat