A parent has been cutting her son's hair in the kitchen for four years. He cannot manage noise, mirrors and a stranger behind him with clippers, and the one time they tried a shop it ended badly for everybody.
She has never asked another barber, because she assumes the answer will be no and she cannot face the conversation.
The checklist
Publish these and people who gave up come back.
1. The physical access
Step or no step, door width, space to turn and whether a wheelchair can be worked from. Described precisely rather than as accessible.
2. Whether the chair can be avoided
Whether somebody can be cut in their own chair, and whether the shop has the equipment and space. It is the question that decides everything for some customers.
3. Whether a quiet appointment is possible
Before opening, after closing, at a quiet time, with music off and fewer people. It costs nothing and almost nobody advertises it.
4. The sensory adjustments
Lights, clipper noise, scissors instead, no gown, no mirror and taking breaks. Naming specifics is what tells a family you have done this before.
5. Whether somebody can come along
A parent, a carer or a support worker, and whether they can be beside the chair.
6. Whether a visit first is possible
Coming in to look, without a cut, so somebody can see the room. It is the single most effective thing a shop can offer for an anxious customer.
7. Whether the cut can be short
Five minutes of what is tolerable rather than a full cut. Progress over several visits is how these appointments work.
8. Whether home visits happen
For anybody who cannot come in, with the area and cost. It reaches customers nobody else serves.
9. The communication position
Whether staff will write things down, speak clearly, avoid conversation if preferred and follow the customer's lead.
10. The booking route
A way to explain needs in advance, in writing, without having to say it at a counter in front of people, which is the private capture point.
11. Which barbers are experienced with it
Named, so a family can request somebody. It matters more than anything else on the list.
12. The toilet and waiting arrangements
Because a long wait in a crowded room is the barrier for many people, as in accessibility and family questions about visiting.
13. Say plainly that people are welcome to ask
And that nothing needs explaining beyond what somebody wants to say, which is the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot.
13b. Say how long an appointment can take
A cut that normally takes twenty minutes may need forty, with breaks, at a pace somebody can manage. Blocking the time properly, and saying that you do, means a family books knowing nobody will be rushed and that the shop has thought about it before they arrived.
14. Take these bookings quietly at any hour
Because families arrange it in the evening and will not telephone, which is the booking handling in walk in or appointment and other questions barbers hear and walk in versus appointment questions barbers answer daily.
Getting started
Publish your access, quiet appointment options and sensory adjustments specifically, then take bookings with notes at any hour. SpideyChat for barbershops answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.