How to accept appointments online

When it makes sense and when it doesn't

It makes sense if you sell blocks of time at a known price: a cut, a manicure, a facial, a session.

It doesn't if every job has to be seen before you can quote it. A plumber or a roofer can't let someone book "a repair" sight unseen: what they need is for calling to be easy, not for booking to be easy.

If you're in the second group, what you want is a short form and the call button up top, not a calendar.

What you actually gain

**Booking hours stop being your hours.** Nearly half of a salon's online bookings come in outside business hours, when the person is home at night and you were never going to answer.

**The back-and-forth ends.** "Do you have Thursday?" "What time?" "I can't do that one" is four messages per appointment you no longer write.

**Gaps get filled.** If someone cancels, the slot goes back up on its own without you telling anyone.

**You can take a deposit.** That's what kills no-shows, and it's below.

The tools worth using

**Square Appointments.** Free for a single person, which covers most small businesses. Sends reminders, takes card payments and gives you your own booking page. It's what I'd recommend first for barbershops and nail techs.

**Google, straight from your profile.** If your listing is already set up, you can put the booking button right there, where they're already looking. Costs nothing and catches the person who never reached your site.

**Calendly.** Free for one appointment type. Better for consultants, trainers and photographers than for a salon with five different services.

**Fresha.** Free for the business, built for salons and spas. It only takes a commission on new clients it brings you from its own directory.

None of the four needs you to have a website: all four give you a link you can put on Instagram, on WhatsApp and on your Google profile starting today.

The mistake that makes it fail

Putting the link where nobody sees it.

If the booking button is inside a menu, inside a tab, people don't get there. It has to be at the top of your site, in your Instagram bio and on your Google profile. Three places, same link.

How to stop no-shows

It's the number one complaint from everyone who turns on online booking: booking without talking to anyone is easier, and so is not showing up.

Three things fix almost all of it:

1. **Take a deposit**, $10 or $20, credited to the service. It kills most no-shows and doesn't scare off anyone who actually meant to come.
2. **Automatic reminder** the day before. Every tool above sends it on its own.
3. **A written cancellation policy**, visible at booking. "24 hours notice or the deposit isn't refunded." Just having it written changes behavior.

What to put on the booking page

Less than you'd think. For each service: the name, how long it takes and what it costs.

Putting the price there doesn't scare people off, it filters. Someone who books knowing the price doesn't argue it when they arrive, and you stop losing the chair to people who walk out when they hear the number.