Salon Front Desk Guide: Duties, Scripts, Payments and a Daily Checklist

Your front desk is the only role in the salon that deals with every client, every day. It decides whether a caller becomes a booking, whether a Saturday runs on time, whether a payment matches the ticket, and whether a client leaves with their next appointment or a vague "I'll call you".

Owners often treat the desk as an admin cost and hire for it last. In practice it is a revenue role. This guide covers the duties, a daily routine, scripts for calls and messages, how to run the book and take payment, and how to hire and pay the person who does it. Figures are in US dollars; the maths is the same in any currency.

#What does a salon front desk do?

A salon front desk does five jobs: fill the book, welcome clients, keep the day on time, take payment, and rebook. Whether you call the role receptionist, front desk coordinator or client care coordinator, those five jobs are the same.

Write each of these into the job description, with what "done" looks like. A desk that is only told to "answer the phone and be nice" will do exactly that.

#The front desk day, from opening to close

The desk's priorities change through the day: preparation before opening, follow-up in the quiet hours, triage in the peaks and accuracy at the close. Plan the day around those shifts rather than reacting to whatever rings first.

Who comes first when everything happens at once

Serve the client standing at the desk first, then the phone, then messages. The client in front of you can see whether you're paying attention; a text can wait ten minutes without the sender knowing.

If the phone rings while you're checking someone out, answer it with "{Salon name}, this is {your name}, could I call you back in five minutes?" Take the number, finish the checkout and call back. Letting it ring out is worse.

#Scripts for calls, texts and emails

Scripts make every person at the desk ask the same questions, quote prices the same way and finish with a confirmation. They aren't meant to be read aloud word for word. Reply on the channel the client chose, whether that is a call, a text, an email or WhatsApp.

Taking a booking by phone

Rescheduling by text

Always offer two specific times. "When works for you?" gets "I'll check and get back to you", and that slot usually stays empty.

A price enquiry

Give a range, then move to an exact price and a booking. A single number with nothing after it invites a comparison with a cheaper quote and a conversation that ends there.

A walk-in when you're fully booked

Every walk-in should leave with an appointment, a waitlist place or at least their number on file as an enquiry.

An upset client

Let the client finish, repeat back what they said, apologise for the experience, and offer one specific next step with a time. Don't debate whose fault it was at the desk, in front of other clients.

Log it, tell the owner, and make sure that call happens. The guide to handling salon client complaints covers redos, refunds and what the owner says next.

#Running the book: durations, processing time and walk-ins

The front desk sells time, so the most important skill at the desk is booking each service for the time it really takes. A day that looks full but runs 40 minutes late loses more than a day with two honest gaps.

Keep a chart at the desk with each service's active time, processing time and finishing time, by hair length where it matters. The figures below are examples; time your own team for two weeks and use those.

Walk-ins and the waitlist

Decide each morning where walk-ins can go, and give them out in a fixed rotation written on a board. Without a rotation, walk-ins go to whoever is standing nearest the desk, and stylists notice.

Put every walk-in on the calendar before the service starts, even if they sit straight down. Keep a waitlist for each day, and text it the moment a cancellation comes in.

Confirmations, reminders and no-shows

Confirm every booking when it is made, remind the client before the visit, and mark every no-show and late cancellation on the client's record. Apply your policy the same way to everyone; the desk shouldn't have to decide who gets charged. The guide to salon no-show policies covers deposits, card on file, reminder timing and wording clients accept.

#Taking payment: card, contactless, cash and tips

Close the ticket with every service and product before taking payment, read the total aloud, take payment in whatever mix the client wants, and send the receipt. When the ticket is complete before the card is tapped, the payment and the record always agree.

• Card and contactless on the reader. Let the client tap or insert their card on the reader. Key a number in by hand only in the way your payment provider tells you to.
• No card numbers on paper, by text or by email. The payment card industry's own guide for small merchants tells businesses not to store card data they don't need, to destroy paper with card details on it, and not to take payment details by email. For deposits, send a secure payment link or use your booking system's card capture, so nobody at the desk handles the number. Never write a card number in a diary.
• Cash counted aloud. On a $76 ticket, "That's $100, so $24 back", counted into the client's hand.
• Split payments recorded as split. A gift card plus a card payment should show both on the ticket, or the closing won't match.
• Discounts as approved. Write down who can approve which discounts, and record the reason on the ticket.

Tips

Record tips separately from the service total, so you know exactly what belongs to each stylist, and pay them out on a fixed, published schedule. Tips added on the card reader land in the salon's account first, and a tip that sits there until the end of the month starts to look like one you kept. Rules on how tips are shared, recorded and taxed differ from place to place, so check yours with an accountant or your local tax authority.

The end-of-day close

Close the day with two people present whenever you can, in the same order every night:

1. Close every open ticket, and mark no-shows and cancellations with a reason.
2. Work out the expected cash: opening float + cash taken − cash refunds − cash paid out.
3. Count the drawer and compare it with the expected cash. Write a reason next to any difference.
4. Match the card reader's end-of-day total to the card payments on the day's tickets.
5. Check the day's discounts, refunds and voided tickets, each with a reason and a name.
6. Send the owner a short report: sales by payment type, tips, differences and reasons.

A small difference found the same evening has one explanation and someone who remembers it. Found at the end of the month, it has none.

#Rebooking and memberships at checkout

The checkout is where the next visit is won. Offer every client a specific next appointment before they pay, and suggest a membership or package only when their own history shows it would save them money.

Ask stylists to set it up at the chair ("I'd like to see you in five weeks"), so the desk's question is a follow-on rather than a sales pitch. Track the rebooking rate by stylist and for the desk; the guide to salon KPIs to track has the formula.

For memberships, start from the client's own visits. In Salos, the Client 360° panel shows a client's full history, packages and wallet beside the bill, so the desk can see the pattern before saying anything.

If the client says no, rebook them as normal and leave it there. How to price memberships so the saving doesn't eat your margin is in salon membership programs.

#Hiring and paying your front desk

Hire for composure, accuracy with numbers, warmth with strangers and honesty with money. Your booking system and menu can be taught in two weeks; temperament can't.

Test with a role-play rather than an interview alone: a booking call, a reschedule, a price enquiry and an upset client, then a checkout with a gift card, a split payment and a tip. Ask "Tell me about the last time a customer was angry with you. What did you say?" and "Your drawer is $20 short at closing. What do you do?" A good answer to the second starts with a recount and the tickets, and ends with telling the manager, not quietly covering the gap. The guide to hiring salon staff has the scoring rubric, reference questions and a first-30-days plan.

Pay a base wage at or above your local minimum, plus a small incentive tied to things the desk controls: rebookings that clients keep, and memberships or prepaid packages sold. There is no universal rate, so look at local job ads for similar roles and at what your own team earns, and check your local employment rules on how incentives must be paid.

Keep incentives small next to the base, so a quiet month doesn't hurt. Don't pay the desk a share of stylists' service sales, or walk-ins start drifting to whoever bills the most.

#The front desk daily checklist

Print this, keep it at the desk and have each shift tick it. It turns your best coordinator's habits into the desk's habits, so the day runs the same on their day off.

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