A barbershop’s own booking channel: apps, a website and an admin panel. Four months after launch, three in four online bookings come through it.
OWL Barbershop is a men’s barbershop in Jugla, Riga: three barbers and fifteen services, from a classic cut to a father-and-son visit. Its clients speak Latvian, Russian and English.
Online bookings went through Bookla, a third-party booking portal. Everything else came by phone. The shop had no booking channel of its own and no app.
Bookings on a channel the shop owns: its own brand in front of clients, its own client list and its own reminders.
And one condition: the switch must not cost a single booking. A barbershop’s calendar is its income, so a launch day that went wrong was not an option.
Two native apps, a website and an admin panel share one booking engine, so a client, a barber and the owner always see the same free times
For clients
For the shop
Bookings clients made themselves, by month of the visit: the shop’s own app and website against the old portal. Cancelled bookings and walk-ins entered by staff are not counted.
| OWL app and website | Bookla | |
|---|---|---|
| May | 1% | 99% |
| June | 19% | 81% |
| July | 66% | 34% |
| August | 60% | 40% |
| September | 77% | 23% |
Almost one in three clients who booked through the shop’s own channel came back for another booking.
Of all the visits booked on the shop’s own channel.
Seven choices, why we made them, and what each one does for the business
Switching on one launch day would have meant betting the shop’s calendar on it. So the new channel and the old portal run side by side: a booking in either one blocks the same time in both, and the barbers see one schedule.
Clients moved over at their own pace, and no time can be booked twice.
Not every client will install an app for a haircut. So the same booking engine also runs on the website: four steps, nothing to install. Regulars get a gentle nudge to install the app.
Signing up is optional too. Clients can book as guests or sign in with Apple or Google, so nobody gives up at a registration form. A name and a phone number are always required, so the barber can reach the client about a change or a missed visit.
About 44% of the bookings clients make themselves come through the website, and 56% through the apps.
Online bookings arrive as requests, and staff approve each one with a tap, in the app or in the browser.
A system that fills the calendar on its own is convenient until it books a time the owner meant to keep free.
Reminders go out on their own before every visit, by default a day, two hours and an hour ahead. A client whose plans change can cancel up to 2 hours before, or move the booking up to 4 hours before, in the app, without calling.
A time freed early can be sold again. A no-show can’t.
After every visit the client is asked for a review. After a set number of days without a visit, they get a “time for your next cut” message with three free times at their own barber.
The client doesn’t have to remember, and the shop doesn’t have to call.
Pausing bookings for a holiday, showing an announcement in the app, editing the website’s texts and photos in three languages, sending a push campaign, creating a promo code: each is a switch or a form the owner uses alone.
A shop that has to call a developer to change something soon stops changing it.
Push and email delivery are checked every hour, and a failed check alerts us at once. Errors arrive as a daily digest. Every booking keeps its full history, and staff actions are logged.
A booking system that fails quietly loses clients before anyone notices. This one tells us first.
The work did not end at launch either: the iPhone app had nine updates between May and July.
Six steps. The shop does one of them by hand.
Scans the QR code at the counter, or opens owlbarbershop.lv. The same code works on every phone.
Services, a barber or “any available”, and a time. In the app or on the website, with no account needed.
The request appears in the staff app and the admin panel. One tap confirms it, and the client hears straight away.
They go out on their own before the visit. Plans changed? The client cancels or moves it in the app.
The visit is marked done on its own, and the client is asked for a review.
After a set number of quiet days, the client gets a message with three free times at their own barber.
The website
The shop’s storefront in three languages, with a Book button that stays on screen.
Services and prices
The prices come straight from the booking system, so they are never out of date.
Booking on the web
Four steps, no account and nothing to install.
Everything it takes to run the day, from a phone or a browser
Online bookings arrive as requests. The owner or a barber approves or declines each one with a tap, and marks the visit done or a no-show.
Today’s bookings, the planned revenue, the week’s earnings and the rating, on the first screen of the staff app.
A day view per barber, with the old portal’s bookings in it too. Press, hold and drag a booking to another time or barber, and clashes are checked as it moves.
A walk-in or a phone booking goes in within seconds. Clients can be marked VIP or blocked and sorted by spend or visits, and the statistics show bookings, revenue, new clients and each barber’s results.
The owner, the manager and each barber sign in to the same apps and see what their role allows. The admin panel does all of it in a browser, and adds marketing and the website.
For reference: what each part does
iPhone and Android, in Latvian, English and Russian.
The same apps, by role: owner, manager, barber.
The whole shop in a browser, in three languages.
Behind both apps and the website.
owlbarbershop.lv in Latvian, English and Russian.
The app is on the App Store and Google Play, and the website takes bookings at owlbarbershop.lv. Open it and see what a client sees.
A salon, a nail or brow studio, a physio or dental clinic, a car service, a tattoo or fitness studio: any business that lives by appointments can take its bookings back the same way, without switching overnight. Tell us how you take bookings today.
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