Same shape as Chef Vola's: a phone line that answers, a booking engine that knows what's actually possible, and an app the owner runs the day from.
Get these before anything else. Each one, answered wrong, is a rebuild.
Do you double-book during processing time?When a colour is processing for 35 minutes, does that stylist take another client — a cut, a blowout — in the gap, or do they stay with the chair? → This is the single biggest fork. "No" = a simple per-stylist calendar. "Yes" = the engine has to model each service as active / processing / active segments and pack other clients into the passive gaps without ever putting a stylist in two active segments at once. That is a genuinely harder engine, and it is what every real colour salon does.
Default · yes, double-book into processing gaps — but only into gaps the system created, never overlapping two active segments.
Does a client book a stylist, or book the salon?Will people accept whoever's free, or is "I only see Danielle" the norm?
Default · stylist-first. Every request names a stylist; "no preference" is an option but not the default. This decides whether availability is one pooled resource (like Chef Vola's covers) or N independent calendars.
Who gets paid how — commission, booth rent, or salary?
Default · commission. It matters because if stylists rent their chair, they own their own book, the owner cannot reassign their clients, and the app is a scheduling tool with no authority. If it's commission, the owner runs the book and the app can move people around.
What is your website address, who built it, and who manages it — name and contact?Ask this on day one, not at the end. On Chef Vola's this went unanswered and still blocks moving the guest-facing pages off a vercel.app URL months later. The confirmation and deposit pages we text clients need to live under the salon's own name.
Default · none — this one has no default. It is a real answer we need from a real person, and the follow-up is "can I have their number?"
What number do callers reach a live human on, and is it a different line from the one we're forwarding?Same trap as Chef Vola's: the public number forwards into the phone system, so "transfer to the front desk" cannot dial the public number or calls loop forever.
Default · none. We need a separate, directly-dialable line before go-live.
Days and hours open, per day?Any day that starts late or ends early?
Default · Tue–Sat 9:00–6:00, closed Sun/Mon. Last appointment must end by closing, not start.
How many stylists, and what does each one actually do?(Some cut only, some colour only, some do extensions.)
Default · every stylist can perform every service, and the owner narrows it per person in Settings.
Are there shared resources that can run out — shampoo bowls, colour bar stations, a dryer, one set of extension tools?
Default · shampoo bowls are the only shared resource we model; set a count in Settings. Everything else is assumed unlimited. (This is the salon's version of Chef Vola's table inventory. If two colourists need the bowl at the same minute, someone waits.)
Do stylists have fixed schedules, or does it change week to week?Who sets it — you or them?
Default · a repeating weekly schedule per stylist, editable, plus one-off time-off blocks.
Lunch and breaks — blocked out, or taken when there's a gap?
Default · a blockable break per stylist per day, not automatic.
Holidays and closures?
Default · a closures list in Settings, same as Chef Vola's.
Full service list, and for each: how long it takes and what it costs. Be honest about the time, not optimistic — this number is the scheduler.
| Service | Total | Active | Processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's / clipper cut | 30 min | 30 | — |
| Women's cut & style | 60 min | 60 | — |
| Blowout / style | 45 min | 45 | — |
| Root touch-up | 90 min | 55 | 35 |
| Full highlight | 180 min | 110 | 70 |
| Balayage | 210 min | 130 | 80 |
| Gloss / toner | 45 min | 30 | 15 |
| Keratin / smoothing | 180 min | 180 | — |
| Extensions (install) | 300 min | 300 | — |
| Updo / event style | 75 min | 75 | — |
Default · (to correct, not to accept):
Does the time change by stylist?(A senior colourist may be 40 minutes faster than a new one on the same service.)
Default · yes — per-stylist duration override, falling back to the menu default. Build it in from the start; retrofitting it is painful.
Does the time change by the client?(Very long or very thick hair.)
Default · the stylist can add a "+30 / +60 min" flag to a client's record, which the scheduler then respects forever.
Which services need a consultation first before they can be booked?
Default · big colour corrections and extensions. Booking one of those from the phone creates a consultation appointment, not the service.
Which services can be combined in one visit, and does the combination take less time than the sum?(Cut after colour usually shares the blowout.)
Default · services stack end-to-end, minus one shared blowout when a cut follows a colour.
Buffer between clients for cleanup and turnaround?
Default · 10 minutes after every appointment, not shown to the client.
Are prices fixed, or "starting at"?
Default · "starting at" — the app shows a price estimate and never quotes a guaranteed total for colour.
When do you take a deposit, and how much?Everyone? New clients only? Long services only?
Default · deposit required for any service over 2 hours and for every new client, at $50 or 25% of the estimate, whichever is greater. Card is held, not charged, until the service is done or missed. (Chef Vola's left "hold vs. real deposit" ambiguous and it cost a round trip. Nail down: do you want the money now, or the card on file?)
What is the no-show / late-cancel fee, and what's the cancellation window?
Default · 50% of the service price, charged automatically for a no-show or a cancellation inside 24 hours.
How late can a client be before you won't take them?
Default · 15 minutes for a cut, 10 for colour. Past that the app marks them late and prompts the stylist to keep or release.
How far in advance can someone book?
Default · 3 months for everyone, 6 months for established clients.
Do you take walk-ins?
Default · yes — the app shows "who's free right now" and can take a walk-in into a real slot.
Do you want the app to rebook automatically — a colour client every 6 weeks, a cut every 8?
Default · yes, but as a reminder text with a booking link, never an appointment created without the client agreeing.
Do you want a waitlist for cancellations?
Default · yes, and note that it is real new scope — a store, a phone path, an app view, and a "spot opened" notification. On Chef Vola's this was said casually and turned out to be a feature.
Do certain clients get priority, and how do you decide?Should the app track that on its own from visits and no-shows, or do you rate people?
Default · both — a manual 1–5 rating plus an automatic score from visits, spend and no-show history.
Do you keep colour formulas per client, and would you use the app for it?
Default · yes. This is the feature that makes stylists actually open the app — formula, developer, timing, per visit, with history. Treat it as core, not a nice-to-have.
Photos — before/after per visit?
Default · yes, attached to the visit, private to the salon.
Allergies, sensitivities, patch tests?Do you require a patch test before colour, and how long is one good for?
Default · a patch-test date on the client record, valid 6 months, and the app blocks a colour booking without a current one. Confirm this — the rule varies and the insurance answer may decide it.
Private notes on a client that only staff see?
Default · yes, same as Chef Vola's guest notes.
Do you have existing client records anywhere — a book, a spreadsheet, another app — that need to come across?
Default · none, we start clean. If there is an export, ask for a sample file before designing the client table.
Should the phone line take bookings, or just take a message and let you call back?
Default · take the request, never tell the caller "we're full," and let the salon confirm — the Chef Vola's model. Live booking over the phone is possible but much harder to get right with stylist preference.
What should the menu options be?
Default · 1 = book or change an appointment · 2 = cancel · 3 = prices and hours · 0 = talk to someone.
Whose voice answers?
Default · the owner's, cloned, same as Chef Vola's — with written consent on file.
Do you want texting: confirmations, reminders, "your stylist is running 20 minutes late"?
Default · yes — confirmation on booking, reminder 24 hours before, and a one-tap "running late" text the stylist sends from the app.
Note up front, so it isn't a surprise later: texts come from a phone number, not from the salon's name. US carriers do not allow a name as the sender. The messages will lead and sign with the salon's name instead.
Do you take payment in the app, or at the desk?
Default · at the desk. The app holds cards for deposits and no-show fees only. Full point-of-sale is a different product.
Tips — do they go to the stylist directly, through the register, and does the app need to track them?
Default · the app records the tip against the visit for reporting but does not move money.
Do you sell retail product, and should the app track it?
Default · no. Out of scope unless asked for — say so out loud so it isn't assumed.
Does the owner need per-stylist reporting — hours booked, revenue, no-shows, retention?
Default · yes, a simple per-stylist month view. If it's commission, this is how they get paid.
Gift certificates?
Default · out of scope for v1. Same as Chef Vola's — this is a purchase flow, code generation and redemption, and it is real work. Price it separately.
Who works the front desk, and what do they need on screen?
Default · a "Today" view — every chair, in time order, with arrive / seat / done / no-show, and what's running late.
What does each stylist need to see? Just their own day?
Default · their own day by default, with a toggle to the whole floor.
When a stylist runs long, who fixes the knock-on — the app or a person?
Default · the app flags the collision and suggests a move; a person always approves it.
Who gets the app, and what can each role do?
Default · Owner (everything) · Manager (everything except staff and billing) · Stylist (own book, own clients, formulas) · Front desk (whole floor, book/cancel, no reporting).
Can a stylist see another stylist's clients?
Default · no — names and times on the floor view, but not notes, formulas or contact details.
If a stylist leaves, who keeps the client?
Default · the salon. Confirm this — with booth renters the answer is the opposite, and it's a fight if it's discovered late.
Are we forwarding the salon's real number, all hours?Do they still want to answer live sometimes?
Default · all calls, all hours, with option 0 ringing a live line.
Is there an existing booking system in use today, and what happens to it?
Default · ask what they pay for it now — it is the price anchor for this whole project.
What does a good first month look like to them?
Default · none — let them answer. It's the only question here that tells you what they'll actually judge the thing on.
Say these out loud during the interview so they aren't assumed into scope: online self-booking for clients, retail inventory and point-of-sale, payroll and commission payouts, memberships or packages, marketing email, a public website. Each is real work and can be added — but priced separately, like Chef Vola's gift certificates should have been.
guest-facing pages off a proper domain for months.
forwarding, or calls loop into the phone system forever.
in the room, not in a follow-up email.
how long a balayage takes will be short, and every scheduling bug afterwards traces back to it. Ask to watch a day, or check their existing book.