Salon Rescheduling and Cancellation on WhatsApp
This recipe lets a client move or cancel a booking by sending a message. It checks the client is who they say they are, finds the booking in your salon booking software, offers new times with the same stylist, applies your cancellation and deposit policy and tells your team when a slot frees up at short notice. Part of the hair and beauty salon workflows.
What happens today
A client messages at 8am: “sorry something came up, can I move today’s 2pm colour to next week?”. The stylist sees it at 11, between clients. By then the 2pm three-hour slot is too close to fill. If the client had not messaged at all, the chair would have sat empty with no warning.
On long services, how early you learn about a change decides whether the time can be resold.
The flow that works
- The client asks to change or cancel. AeroChat checks they are messaging from the number on the booking.
- It finds the booking in your salon software and confirms it with the client.
- For a change, it offers up to three new times with the same stylist for the same total time. For a cancellation, it cancels.
- It checks the notice against your cancellation window and states what happens to the deposit.
- It moves or cancels the booking in your salon software, confirms the change, and notifies the team when a same-day or next-day slot is freed, so someone can offer it to a waiting client.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a client asks to reschedule or cancel a booking, follow these steps.
- Find the client in our salon system using the phone number they are messaging from, and find their upcoming booking. If the number does not match a client with a booking, do not share booking details. Ask for their name and the booking date, and hand the conversation to the front desk.
- Confirm the date, time, stylist and services with the client.
- If they want to reschedule, check the same stylist’s availability in our salon system for a free block of the same total time within opening hours, and offer up to three times closest to what they ask for. If they are happy with another stylist, offer those times too and say who it is.
- If they want to cancel, confirm which booking and cancel it.
- Check how much notice they have given. Example policy: free changes and cancellations up to 24 hours before. Inside 24 hours, a deposit is kept, or moved to the new booking once if they reschedule. State the policy plainly. If they ask for an exception, hand the conversation to the manager.
- Move or cancel the booking in our salon system, and note on the booking what happened to the deposit.
- Confirm the change with the stylist, services, date, time and address. If the old booking was today or tomorrow, notify the team that the slot is free.
If the client says they are cancelling because they are unhappy with a previous service or had a reaction to a product, hand the conversation to a person straight away. Reply in the client’s language.
Change the cancellation window and the deposit rule to your own before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your salon booking software. The same connection the stylist booking workflow uses. Phorest, Zenoti or Square Appointments connect through their APIs. AeroChat reads the phone number and deposit on each booking and moves or cancels it there. If booking is already connected, this recipe reuses it.
- Your cancellation policy. Upload it to the AeroChat knowledge base so the wording matches what clients agreed to when they booked.
If you run a small salon from Google Calendar, connect your Google account and approve the access. AeroChat then moves bookings in your stylists’ calendars.
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
- Your cancellation window, and whether a late change keeps or moves the deposit.
- Whether clients can switch stylist without asking.
- Who gets told about a freed slot, and how you fill it.
- How many times a client can reschedule before the manager steps in.
The result to expect
Changes reach you when the client decides, often before the salon opens, so a freed afternoon slot is known in the morning. Stylists stop handling diary changes between clients. Clients who would have stayed away without saying anything have an easy way to move instead.
Measure it with your own numbers: no-shows, and late cancellations that were refilled, for a month before and after you start.
Next: rebooking after a visit.
Move a test booking
Book yourself a test colour, then message the salon number asking to move it to next week. Check the booking moved in your salon software.
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