You know last Saturday was busy. Do you know how many people called and never ended up in your book? Most of us don't. A call conversion rate is just that number, and you can count it yourself this week with a pencil and your phone's call list.
TL;DR
- Your call conversion rate is the calls that booked, divided by every call that came in, including the ones you missed.
- Count it by hand for one week: a tally sheet in the drawer at your station, or your phone's Recents next to your book on Sunday night.
- Calls usually leak in four places: missed while you're mid-color, voicemail nobody returns, price shoppers, and clients who would rather speak another language. Each has a plain fix.
What a call conversion rate is
Take every call that rang your salon in a week. Of those, how many ended with an appointment in the book? Divide the second number by the first. That is your call conversion rate.
Say 40 people called and 22 booked. 22 divided by 40 is 0.55, so 55 out of every 100 calls became a booking. The other 45 went somewhere. Some had a quick question. Some were moving an appointment. Some wanted to book and didn't.
Two things matter about how you count. First, count the calls you missed. A call that rang out while you were rinsing is still a call, and leaving it out hides your biggest leak. Second, keep a second number next to it: how many calls you answered at all. If the answered number is low, the problem is before hello. If you answer most calls and still few book, the problem is in the conversation.
Why the numbers you see online don't help
You will find confident percentages about missed salon calls on a lot of vendor sites. Follow the links and they lead to another vendor's blog, not to anything you could check. So I'm not going to give you an average. The guides that do exist are written for chains with a call center, and a chain and a two-chair shop in a strip mall have nothing in common on the phone. Your own week, counted honestly, beats any number someone else wants you to believe.
How to count it this week
Pick a normal week. Not the week before prom, not a holiday week. Then choose one of two methods.
Method one: the tally sheet
Rule a sheet by hand and tape it inside the drawer at your station, or by the desk if you have one. One line per call. It takes five seconds to fill in, gloves and all, if the pencil lives in the same drawer.
| Time | Answered? | What they wanted | Booked? | If not, why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:40 | Yes | New client, balayage | Yes | — |
| 11:15 | No, mid-color | Unknown | No | Rang out, no message |
| 1:05 | Yes | Price for keratin | No | Hung up after the price |
| 3:30 | Yes | Move Thursday cut | Yes | Rebooked Friday |
| 6:10 | No, closed | Unknown | No | Voicemail, called back next day |
Method two: your phone's call list
If calls come to your cell, your phone already kept the log. On Sunday night open Recents, go back seven days, and count incoming and missed calls separately. Then open your book and match the names you can. The ones you can't match are your "what happened?" pile. Write down the times of the missed calls, because they tell you exactly when you can't pick up.
Either way, don't fix anything during the counting week. Just count. If you change your habits while you measure, you will never know what a normal week looked like.
Your counting week, in six lines
- Pick a normal week and a start day.
- Tape the sheet where your hand already goes, or decide you'll use Recents.
- Log every call, including the ones that rang out.
- Note what the caller wanted and whether they booked.
- For every no, write the reason in three words.
- On Sunday night add it up: calls in, calls answered, calls booked.
Where calls leak, and what to do about each
After one week your sheet will show a pattern. Here are the four leaks I see most, and the first fix for each.
Missed while you're mid-color
Your sheet will show a cluster of "No" between the same hours every day. That is your color block. Tell the client in the chair you're letting it ring, and set two call-back windows you actually keep, say 12:30 and 5:15, and put them in your voicemail greeting. Or set your line to text a missed caller your booking link. Or hand the phone to something that answers. The options, with their trade-offs, are in how to answer the phone while you're doing color.
Voicemail nobody returns
Voicemail is where calls go to die. If your sheet shows messages returned the next day, assume some of those callers booked somewhere else in between. Keep the greeting under twenty seconds, say when you call back, say your booking link out loud, and return every message before you leave for the day. If you can't keep that promise, a greeting that makes it costs you more than one that just says "text us".
Price shoppers
"How much is a keratin?" Click. You'll have a few of these. Don't dread them. They called you, which means they are ready to book with someone. Say the price plainly, then ask one question: "Are you looking for this week or next?" or "Have you had one before?" Offer a quick consult if the service needs one. Then watch your sheet. If price calls never book, it isn't the price. It's that the call ended at the number.
Clients who speak another language
If your neighborhood has clients who would rather speak Spanish or another language, your sheet will show them as short calls that went nowhere, or as "call back when Ana is in." Relying on whoever is bilingual being free is a leak. A text line they can write to, a colleague you can pass the call to, or a concierge that answers in the client's own language in the first place all close it.
Count again in a month
Make one change, then count the same way four weeks later. Compare calls answered and calls booked. If the answered number went up but booked didn't, your fix worked on the phone and the leak is in the conversation. Keep both sheets. They are the only honest record of your phone you will ever have.
One thing this number does not cover: the client who booked and then didn't show. That is a different leak with its own fixes, in how to reduce no-shows at your salon.
If you'd rather not count by hand
This is the part where I tell you what we built, so take it as that. Salonity Concierge answers your salon's phone on the number clients already call, in the client's own language, and books the appointment. Afterwards you see each call marked booked, rebooked, handed to a person, or slipped away, with the reason in one line, and how each stylist's week filled. The count this post asks you to do by hand is what the owner's screen shows every morning. At one Los Angeles salon it has answered and summarized more than 870 calls so far.
Hear your own concierge: build one on the home page in four steps, then call it from your own phone. Or start with the tally sheet this week. Either way, you'll know your number.