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Let an AI phone system linked to your booking software take most salon calls, with 30 trigger phrases that send callers straight to a person
Chet Pope, co-owner and CEO of 27 The Salon in Mesa, Arizona, on the Brazen & Bold podcast
The salon runs an AI phone system that answers 24/7 and "plugs right into my software" for booking. So it's never hard to reach a human, Pope uploaded about 30 phrases and words that immediately route a caller to someone at the front desk. At recording he was testing a second AI system on the same plugin: a stylist who's sick texts it, and it contacts that stylist's clients to rebook them, following rules from the salon's stylist levels (same-level stylist the same day first, and never a junior stylist for a client of the most senior one). He doesn't name the product.
Medium · or we set it up for $197
AI phone system (not named) connected to the salon's booking software
The problem
Answering the phones took a full-time front-desk person, and when a stylist called out sick he was the one making 6 a.m. calls to rebook that stylist's clients.
What happened
"My AI phone handles 65% of my call volume. That means I'm able to have one less full-time employee at the front desk answering phones," he says. The sick-day rebooking system was still being tested, so there are no results for it yet. Self-reported on a podcast whose host's company sells assistant services.
Quoted in the source: Chet Pope, co-owner and CEO, 27 The Salon. Source: Brazen & Bold podcast ep. 64 (YouTube): Adapt or Die, The Salon Numbers Nobody Wants to Look At (Chet Pope) (2026-08-06) · Added 2026-11-02.
How to set it up yourself
- What 27 The Salon does: an AI phone system connected to the booking software handles about 65% of calls, and about 30 trigger phrases send callers straight to the front desk.
- Check whether your booking software offers an AI phone or receptionist add-on, or a standalone AI receptionist that can book into it (the source doesn't name the product).
- Before going live, write your list of phrases that should go straight to a person, like a complaint, a color correction or "talk to someone." Use the prompt below to build it.
- Make test calls yourself and check the bookings land correctly in the software.
- If you automate sick-day rebooking later, write your rules down first (same-level stylist first, never a junior stylist for a senior stylist's client) and test it before it texts real clients.
Copy-paste prompt
I run {SALON NAME}, a {NUMBER}-chair salon. We're setting up an AI phone system and want callers to reach a person immediately when they need one. List 30 words and short phrases a caller might say that should route straight to the front desk: complaints, refunds, color corrections, allergic reactions, wedding or group bookings, "talk to a person" and anything else a salon would want a human to handle. Group them by reason.We set up one AI automation in your tools, live within 48 hours of getting access, for $197. No call needed. Founding price for our first 10 customers (regular $297).
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See the $197 Quick-WinNeed more than one automation or ongoing care? Bigger setups: $149/mo with setup included (6-month minimum), or $497 pay-once. Satisfaction guarantee: we'll fix it until it works. Pay-once setups: or we refund your setup fee. $149/mo plan: cancel in the first 30 days and we refund your first month. We reply within 1 business day.
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