Hand Salon Colour Photos and Complaints to a Stylist
This recipe handles the messages that need a stylist’s eye or a manager’s attention. When a client sends a photo of a look they want, AeroChat collects the details the stylist needs, offers a consultation and passes the photo on. When a client complains or reports a reaction, it hands the conversation to a person at once and offers nothing. Set it up before any other workflow goes live. Part of the hair and beauty salon workflows.
What happens today
A client sends a screenshot of ash blonde balayage: “can you do this? my hair is black now”. The stylist needs to know the hair length, whether it has been coloured or rebonded, and how much lightening the client can accept. That takes four messages back and forth, spread over a day of clients.
A different message arrives the same afternoon: “my scalp is very itchy after the colour yesterday”. It sits in the same inbox, behind the booking questions.
The flow that works
- A client sends a photo of a look, or asks whether you can do a colour, a correction or a big change.
- AeroChat asks for what the stylist needs: hair length, current colour, any colour, bleach, rebonding or perm in the last year, and their budget if they want to share it.
- It says honestly that the stylist decides whether the look can be done in one session, and offers a consultation slot.
- It tags the conversation and passes the photo and the details to the stylist, who can reply from the AeroChat mobile app.
- Separately, any complaint, any report of a reaction to a product, or any “it went wrong” goes to a person at once.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
Follow these steps for photo enquiries, colour corrections and complaints, even in the middle of another task such as a booking.
- If a client sends a photo of a look or asks whether we can do a colour, a colour correction or a big change, do not promise the result and do not quote a final price.
- Ask: their hair length (short, shoulder length or long), their current colour, whether they have had colour, bleach, rebonding or a perm in the last 12 months, and which stylist they prefer.
- Tell them the stylist will look at the photo and their hair, and that a big change may take more than one session. Offer a consultation slot of 15 minutes (example) with their preferred stylist from that stylist’s availability in our salon system, and book it there.
- Tag the conversation “colour consult” and hand it to the stylist with the photo and their answers.
- If a client says a service went wrong, is unhappy with their hair, or reports itching, burning, redness, swelling or any reaction after a service or product, apologise, do not offer a refund, discount or redo, do not give any advice, tag the conversation “complaint” and hand it to the manager straight away. Tell them the manager will reply, and when.
If a client mentions swelling of the face or difficulty breathing, tell them to seek medical help straight away before anything else. Reply in the client’s language.
Change the consultation length and the reply times to your own before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your salon booking software. The connection from the stylist booking workflow, for consultation slots. Phorest, Zenoti or Square Appointments connect through their APIs. If booking is already connected, this recipe reuses it. If you run a small salon from Google Calendar, connect your Google account and approve the access.
- Handover, tags and notifications. AeroChat’s own handover passes the conversation to the right person. Set who gets “colour consult” and who gets “complaint”.
- The AeroChat mobile app. Install it on each stylist’s phone so they can look at a photo and reply between clients.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- The questions your stylists want answered before they look at a photo.
- Whether consultations are free and how long they take.
- Who handles complaints, and how fast.
- Your redo and refund policy. AeroChat never offers either.
The result to expect
Stylists open a photo enquiry with the hair history already collected, and reply once instead of four times. Clients asking for a big change get an honest answer about what it involves and a consultation in the diary. Complaints and reactions reach your manager straight away, tagged, instead of waiting behind booking messages.
Test it often. Send a complaint and a photo enquiry yourself each month, in the words clients use, and check each one reaches the right person.
Next: price and service questions. See also live chat handover.
Set this one up first
Paste this recipe before any other, then send your salon a photo asking “can you do this colour?” and a message saying your scalp is itchy after a colour. Check each one reaches the right person.
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On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.