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Julie's story, in full
How it started, why they chose Callpad, and what it's like day to day.
One-on-one with clients, and the phone won't stop
Julie has owned salons for most of her working life, and Wilkinson Smith is her fourth. After COVID the salon changed shape. The team got smaller, and the old reception area became a treatment room.
Julie was happy with the new layout. The phone was the problem.
“The phone's ringing and I can't answer it because we're literally one-on-one with clients.”
Usually the person sent to answer it was whoever wasn't doing colour. Voicemail didn't help much (“people wouldn't leave messages”), so callers kept trying and missing each other. Julie ended most days with a pile of missed calls to go through.
“I'm running late, I've got a 30-minute commute to go home. I'm shattered, and the last thing I want to do is spend another twenty minutes on the phone to people.”
Why Callpad
When someone got in touch with Julie about voice assistants, she asked her SalonIQ owners' group chat whether anyone had used one. Callpad was already being demoed there, and it connected to the diary she was already using. That was enough to try it.
Before switching it on, she got every member of the team to ring it themselves. “You need to try it out for yourself, so you understand what it's like.” The team had no objections: “The last thing they want to do is answer the phone and keep disappearing on clients.”
Her clients didn't need convincing
Julie made a choice most owners wouldn't. She didn't announce it. “I wanted to just see how it was perceived.”
Clients just talked to it, and the older ones were the most surprised.
“A couple of my older clients, they're the ones that think it's a real person. ‘I spoke to your receptionist.’ No, you didn't, but you did.”
When someone would rather speak to Julie, Callpad takes a detailed message. She gets a clear email with the full transcript and calls back the ones that need a personal touch. “I think we get both. With the AI you get the efficiency. If it needs the personal touch, I can call back.”
What changed for Julie and her team
Nobody leaves a client halfway through a service now, and the evening callbacks have mostly stopped.
“It allows me to create more time with my clients and spend the quality time with them, nurturing my younger team members. So it has built us new clients as well, because no call gets unanswered.”
“For me, it's an absolute godsend,” Julie says. “We don't lose any calls. Even if they abandon the call, I still get who's called.”
