For salon owners · The owner's desk

See your rebook rate and empty chair hours

A short weekly read of how many clients left with their next appointment and which chair hours sat empty, with the math shown.

By Aaron Byrne, KeenHand

The prompt

Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in each part in [BRACKETS]. Salon owners.

I run a salon. Every week I want to see two things: how many clients left with their next appointment booked, and how many chair hours sat empty. My booking app has the numbers, but I never have the evening to put them together.

What I have:
- For each stylist last week: clients seen, and how many left with their next appointment booked: [REBOOK NUMBERS]
- For each stylist last week: hours on the schedule and hours booked, with the empty days and times if I have them: [CHAIR HOURS]
- The same numbers from the week before, if I have them: [WEEK BEFORE]

What I want:
1. Work out the rebook rate for each stylist and for the salon. Show the math in one line each.
2. Work out the empty chair hours for each stylist and for the salon, and say which days and times were emptiest.
3. If I gave the week before, compare in plain words: up, down or about the same.
4. Point out up to three patterns worth a look, such as the same morning empty every week.
5. End with up to three questions for me to decide, not answers.

Rules:
- Write a draft for me to read. Do not send anything.
- Use only what I gave you. If something is missing, ask me instead of guessing.
- Never guess a number or claim anything I did not give you. If a number looks wrong, ask me about it.
- Do not rank or judge the stylists. Show the numbers. What to do about them is my call.
- Leave out clients' full names, card details and anything about their health.

Give me back:
- A one-page weekly read I can get through in two minutes
- The math behind each number
- Up to three questions for me

When to use it

Monday morning, before the team huddle, when you want to know how last week really went instead of going by feel.

When not to

Do not use it to decide a stylist's pay, level or hours, or to share a ranking with the team. Those are your calls, made in person.

What to paste in

[REBOOK NUMBERS]: For each stylist, clients seen last week and how many left with a next appointment, from your booking app.
[CHAIR HOURS]: For each stylist, hours scheduled and hours booked last week, plus the empty days and times if your app shows them.
[WEEK BEFORE]: The same two sets of numbers for the week before, or none.

Never paste

Client names or phone numbers
Stylists' pay or commission details

A filled-in example

Sample. Fictional business, fictional client.

REBOOK NUMBERS: Jess saw 28, 21 rebooked. Maya saw 24, 12 rebooked. Rae saw 19, 15 rebooked.
CHAIR HOURS: Jess 36 scheduled, 33 booked. Maya 32 scheduled, 22 booked, Tue and Wed mornings empty. Rae 30 scheduled, 27 booked.
WEEK BEFORE: Jess saw 26, 20 rebooked, 31 of 36 hours booked. Maya saw 25, 13 rebooked, 24 of 32. Rae saw 18, 14 rebooked, 26 of 30.

What you should get back

The rebook rate for each stylist and the salon, with the math shown
Empty chair hours by stylist, with the emptiest days and times
A plain comparison with the week before
Up to three questions for you, not decisions made for you

What stays with you

The prompt writes a draft. You decide what happens to it, and nothing should reach a client until you have read it. Decisions about money stay with a person every time, and so do health questions and complaints. When KeenHand builds a routine like this, every message carries the same four decisions: Automate, Approve, Revise, Reject.

Rebook a client who left without booking. A short, personal nudge for a client who left without their next appointment, timed to when their cut or color is due, not a blast.
Fill slow weekdays with your regulars. A short text to regulars who are due for a cut or color soon, offering the open weekday times, with any offer left entirely to you.
Build a retail reorder list from what sold. A reorder list for retail and back bar product, worked out from what sold and what is on the shelf, with slow sellers flagged for you.

More: every prompt for salons, the owner's desk, and AI for salons.

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