Patch tests and colour bookings
Colour is the appointment that cannot be taken like any other, because a test has to happen first and it has to happen days before. That single requirement turns one phone call into two, and handling it badly costs you a full chair on your busiest day.
Why the timing is the whole problem
An allergy alert test needs to sit for a period — typically forty-eight hours — before the colour service. So somebody ringing on Thursday wanting colour on Saturday has already run out of time unless they can get in today. That is not a scheduling preference, it is a safety requirement your insurer and your manufacturer both care about, and it is the reason a colour booking cannot simply be dropped into the next free slot.
What has to be established on the call
A regular tested recently may not need repeating; a client who has not been for a year usually does. This question comes first because it determines everything after it.
A reaction elsewhere, a new medication, a pregnancy, henna or a box dye since the last visit. Any of these changes the answer.
Two minutes in the salon, two days before. Cheap to do and expensive to skip.
A root touch-up, a full head and a correction are wildly different amounts of chair time, and callers use "just a colour" for all three.
The booking you should refuse
A colour appointment for somebody who cannot test in time. It feels helpful to say yes and sort it out later, and it ends with a client in your chair who cannot be coloured, an awkward conversation at the worst moment, and a three-hour slot you cannot refill. A clear "I can do the test today and colour you Saturday" is a better answer than a yes you will have to withdraw.
Why this call is worth answering live
Colour is among the highest-value things on your price list and the most time-sensitive to arrange. A colour enquiry that reaches voicemail on a Wednesday evening is usually gone — not because they found somewhere better, but because by the time you ring back the testing window has closed and somebody else could fit them in.
Frequently asked
An allergy alert test needs to sit for a period, typically forty-eight hours, before the service. Somebody ringing Thursday for Saturday has run out of time unless they can test today.
Whether they have been before and when, whether anything has changed — a reaction, new medication, pregnancy, box dye or henna — whether they can come in for the test, and what the service actually is.
No. It ends with a client in the chair who cannot be coloured and a long slot you cannot refill. Offer the test today and the colour later.
No — callers use it for a root touch-up, a full head and a correction, which are very different amounts of chair time.