Playbook · Hair salons and barbershops
After-hours answering for hair salons and barbershops on Square
Answer customer messages at any hour from the business’s own facts, and hand anything else to a person with a holding reply.
Start the 14-day trial, then find it under Templates → Library. It installs into the client you choose, switched off, with its checklist.
Every step, in order
Branches show each arm; a step indented under one runs only on that arm. The words are the template’s own, and the client’s fields fill them in.
Why this workflow
Most messages ask what the business has already written down: hours, area, prices, how to book. Left until morning they go cold; answered by a bot that guesses, they create promises nobody made. An answer limited to the business’s own facts, with a clean hand-off to a person for everything else, does the first without the second.
- Starts whenA message is sent to the bot
Telegram - BranchA red flag?
- IfIf red flag
- TextText the owner: a person must reply
- App stepTell them a person will replyTelegram
- StopStop: handed to a person
- IfIf otherwise
- AgentAnswer from the facts
- BranchNeeds a person?
- IfIf person
- App stepTell them a person will replyTelegram
- TextText the owner
- IfIf answered
- App stepSend the answerTelegram
What each client fills in
- Business name
- How messages sign off.
- AI model
- The model the client’s key can use.
- Business facts
- Hours, area served, services, call-out fee, how to book: everything the bot may say, and nothing else.
- When a person replies
- In the customer’s words: “first thing tomorrow”, “within the hour”.
- Owner’s mobile
- Texted when something needs a person now.
The accounts it needs
Each is the client’s own, stored encrypted and never copied between clients. Until one is added the client’s checklist shows it, and nothing runs.
In Telegram, message @BotFather → /newbot → copy the token. Add the bot to the client’s group, or have the client message it once.
platform.claude.com → Settings → API keys → Create key, in the workspace that bills this client.
After you install it
It lands switched off. The client’s checklist holds exactly this:
- Connect the client’s Telegram, for “A message is sent to the bot”, “Tell them a person will reply” and “Send the answer”
- Connect the client’s Twilio (SMS), for “Text the owner: a person must reply” and “Text the owner”
- Connect the client’s Anthropic, for “Answer from the facts”
- Fill in Owner’s mobile (Texted when something needs a person now)
- Fill in AI model (The model the client’s key can use)
- Fill in Business name (How messages sign off)
- Fill in Business facts (Hours, area served, services, call-out fee, how to book: everything the bot may say, and nothing else)
- Fill in When a person replies (In the customer’s words: “first thing tomorrow”, “within the hour”)
What it does not do
- It answers on Telegram only. The catalog cannot receive or reply to SMS, WhatsApp or website chat yet, so if the client’s customers do not message on Telegram, this playbook is not for them.
- Red flags come first. An enquiry that mentions “allergic reaction”, “swelling”, “burning scalp”, “blisters”, “difficulty breathing” goes straight to a person and is never sent a booking link or an automatic answer: for hair salons and barbershops on Square these are signs the right answer is emergency or professional care, not an appointment.
Related templates
- PackHair salons and barbershopsBarbershop stylist packA barbershop stylist’s work is short, frequent cuts and walk-ins, with much of the booking on barber-focused apps.
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