AI receptionist for salons & barbershops · UK
A message can't hold a chair. A booking can.
Magixis is a 24/7 AI receptionist for UK hair and beauty salons. It answers while both your hands are busy, books the named stylist for the length that service takes, arranges the allergy alert test a colour needs first, and states your cancellation policy without touching a payment — then writes the call into a CRM. From 70p a minute, no contract.
Hear it before you decide
One agent. One call.
Our own line is answered by the same agent your callers would get — 24/7. Ask it to take a first-time colour booking: the stylist, the service length, the test that has to come first. Then let it book your 30-minute demo while you're on the call.
- 24/7, 365 days
- ICO-registered · ZC223083
- UK/EU data storage · signed DPA
- No contract · from 70p a minute
The system
What does an AI receptionist do for a salon?
It answers the calls nobody on the floor can reach — mid-colour, mid-blow-dry, ten to five on a Saturday. It books the stylist and the service from your own diary, at the price on your own list, and arranges the allergy alert test first where your rule needs one. Everything it can't decide goes to a named person, and the record writes itself.
Picked up while your hands are full
The agent is trained on your services, your stylists and your tone. It answers within two rings at half past ten on a Saturday and at nine on a Sunday night alike, and it never asks the floor to stop what it is doing.
The right chair, for the right length of time
Service, stylist, duration and price come from what you configured — so a two-hour colour is never dropped into a 45-minute gap, and a first colour is booked around the test that has to happen before it. SMS confirmation on the call.
The CRM writes itself
Name, mobile, service, stylist, price quoted, test status, what was routed and to whom — captured while the caller is still talking. Nobody types up a message pad at close, because there isn't one.
Where the bookings go
The busiest hour on the floor is the busiest hour on the phone.
Everywhere else, the person who should answer the phone is somewhere else — out on a job, in court, with a patient. In a salon they are three feet away with both hands in someone's hair, and that is the whole problem.
Gloves on, timer running, phone ringing
You cannot put down a section mid-application, and the person paying for your attention is sitting in front of you. So the call rings out from a few feet away, and whoever is on the desk is already talking to somebody at the till.
three feet · still unanswered
Every chair full is every line busy
Salon demand does not arrive spread out. Saturday morning, late afternoon before a wedding, the week before Christmas: the hour with no spare hands is the hour with the most callers, and they are the same hour.
Sat 10:00 · six callers
A call is a request for stock, not for information
The caller wants Thursday at six with Maya, ninety minutes, colour. That is a specific chair for a specific length of time. A message taken and rung back at seven finds Thursday gone, or the caller already booked somewhere else.
Thu 18:00 · gone by callback
What happens
62%
of calls to small businesses never reach a live person.
Why ring-back fails
86%
of calls from unknown numbers go unanswered — so when the salon rings back at seven, nobody picks up.
Why colour is two bookings
48h
is the minimum the NHBF sets between an allergy alert test and the colour service, because a reaction can take that long to appear.
How the agent handles salon calls
Two illustrative transcripts.
Scripted examples of how the agent handles these calls, not recordings of real callers. The salon, the stylists, the services and the prices are invented.
New client · colour booked around the test
New client
AGENTGood afternoon, Verity Row.
CALLERHi — I've not been in before. I'm after a full head colour, and a cut if you can do both.
AGENTWe can. With Maya that's two and a quarter hours, and it's £132 for colour with a cut and finish. One thing before I book it: for a first colour with us you'll need an allergy alert test, and it has to be at least 48 hours before the appointment.
CALLERIs that really necessary? I've had my hair coloured for twenty years.
AGENTIt's the salon's rule and it isn't mine to set aside. It takes five minutes — if you can call in today, I'll hold Saturday morning for the colour.
CALLERGo on then. What shade would you put me in — would a copper work?
AGENTThat's Maya's to answer, not mine — I don't advise on colour, or on how your hair will take it. She'll go through all of that with you at the start.
CALLERFine. Half five today for the test?
AGENTTest at 5.40 today, colour Saturday at 10 with Maya. I'll text you now with both.
New client · test Wed 17:40 · colour Sat 10:00 · Maya · £132 from price list · SMS sent
Saturday 09:52 · cancellation inside the notice window
Diary
CALLERIt's Nadia — I've got a two o'clock with Jules today and I can't make it.
AGENTI can move that for you. Your booking carries the salon's policy, so I'll read it as it stands: Verity Row asks for 24 hours to change or cancel, and inside that the appointment is charged at half the service price. I can't take a payment or card details, and I can't set the policy aside — I'll log the change and Jules picks it up.
CALLERCan you let me off this once? The colour went brassy last time and I paid full price.
AGENTThat's a decision for Jules rather than me, and I'm not able to offer a discount or a refund. I'm putting it to her with exactly what you've told me, and she'll ring you today.
CALLERAll right. Can I take Thursday instead?
AGENTThursday at six with Jules is free — that's booked, text on its way. Your two o'clock has gone straight back into today's diary, and the two people waiting on a Saturday slot with her are on her list to offer it to.
Moved to Thu 18:00 · policy read verbatim · no payment taken · fee and goodwill → Jules · 14:00 released · waitlist task raised
Your CRM, written by the call
Ten fields, filled in while your hands are busy.
Every plan includes the Magixis CRM, and the record fills itself in while the caller is still on the line. On the test field it holds a scheduling fact and nothing else — whether your rule requires one and when it is booked. No reaction, no allergy history, no clinical note.
ContactName & mobile
ContactNew or returning
ServiceService requested
ServiceTime it needs
StylistStylist requested
ColourTest required · yes/no
DiaryTest appointment
DiaryService appointment
MoneyPrice quoted from your list
OwnerRouted to
Beyond reception
Every call becomes a client record — with the service value attached.
Magixis isn't only the voice that answers. From the first ring it builds a CRM keyed to your client list, so you can see which services callers ask for, which stylists they ask for by name, and what the week's enquiries were worth at your own prices.
01 · CRM from call data
Caller → client, with service history
Every caller becomes a contact from their first call — names and numbers masked by default — and builds toward a view of what they book, with whom, and how often. No typing up between clients.
02 · The diary, not a message pad
Booked, moved and released as it happens
Bookings, changes and releases land in the diary on the call, so a slot given up at 9.52 is bookable at 9.53 and two callers are never offered the same chair. Nothing waits for someone to read a note.
03 · Every call reviewable
Transcript, recording, and what was refused
A full log of who rang, what was booked, what was quoted, and what the agent declined and routed. Cold sales calls are flagged and excluded from the numbers. Staff can correct the agent, and every correction is logged.
04 · 24/7 human handoff
A real person for the genuine escalation
Anything you choose routes to a person working 24/7 who books into your diary; in hours, a caller who needs a judgement is warm-transferred. You keep authority to approve, override, reassign.
05 · One dashboard, full audit
Run the salon from one place
Access is capability-based, not job-title-based — you control who sees what and who can unmask a contact. Sensitive actions need a logged reason; every consequential action sits in a tamper-evident audit log.
06 · Commercials
A posted rate per minute
From 70p a minute, posted publicly — no allowance to blow through in wedding season or the week before Christmas. Lite has no setup fee and no subscription; every price is on the pricing page.
The alternatives
How does Magixis compare with a telephone answering service?
Salons weighing us up are usually choosing between voicemail, a human answering service such as Moneypenny, and an AI receptionist. The short version: an answering service passes on what the caller wanted; Magixis holds the diary and books it. The detail, like for like:
| Magixis | Human answering service | Voicemail | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answering hours | 24/7, 365 days — included | Typically 9am–5pm Mon–Fri; Moneypenny lists 24/7 as an add-on from £35/month | Always on; most callers hang up |
| What the caller gets | The chair they asked for, booked — named stylist, service length, price from your list, SMS confirmation | A message taken — typically up to five agreed data fields — passed on by email or text | A beep |
| Six callers at 10am on a Saturday | Answered in parallel; each one booked or routed, none queued behind another | Depends on the plan and the team free at the time — and each call still ends as a message, not a booking | Six voicemails, none of them a booking |
| A colour that needs a test first | Your own rule read out, test booked, service booked at least 48 hours later, both on one SMS | The request written down for the salon to arrange | — |
| What you get afterwards | A CRM record written on the call: client, service, stylist, price quoted, test status, what was routed | An email or SMS to action yourself | A recording to ring back — and 86% of ring-backs from unknown numbers go unanswered |
| Pricing | From 70p/min posted publicly · no setup fee on Lite | Quote-based; UK rates not published on moneypenny.com | Free |
| Contract | None — cancel any month | Moneypenny's smaller message-taking plans carry a three-month minimum | — |
Moneypenny details from moneypenny.com/uk/message-taking-service — hours, 24/7 add-on pricing, data fields and minimum terms as published there. Ring-back figure: Hiya, State of the Call 2026. Test interval: NHBF allergy alert testing guidance. Last checked: 13 August 2026.
Moneypenny is a well-regarded service — if you want a human PA taking messages in office hours, it's a fine choice. Magixis is for salons that want the chair actually booked, at any hour, at a posted rate.
Pricing
How much does it cost?
Calls run from 70p a minute. Lite is £1.35 a minute with no setup fee and no subscription; most salons run Pro — £995 setup once, then £99 a month plus 85p a minute, automated CRM included; multi-site Command brings it to 70p a minute. No contract on any plan.
Who's behind the line
Manchester-born. Built for the whole UK.
Magixis is a UK company, founded in Manchester in 2026. A phone line has no radius: a practice in Truro gets the same two-ring answer as one in M2. What travels with every call is the paperwork — ICO registration, UK/EU data storage, a signed DPA — all in writing on the trust page.
CompanyMagixis Limited · UK
HQManchester, M2
CoverageUnited Kingdom
ICOZC223083
Companies House17372370
Before you call · salons
The diary is the product, and nobody on the floor can answer it.
A salon call is a request for a specific chair, with a specific pair of hands, for a specific length of time. That makes it perishable in a way most enquiries are not: a plumbing job rung back at seven is still a plumbing job, but Thursday at six with Maya is either yours or somebody else’s. And the hour when no one can reach the phone is the hour with the most callers, because a full floor and a busy line are the same thing. The NHBF puts UK hair and beauty turnover at £5.8bn in 2023–24, with business numbers up 1,240 (2.5%) in a year while the employed workforce fell by 16,628 (7.5%) — more businesses, fewer people on the floor to answer.
Colour makes the booking two bookings. NHBF guidance is that an allergy alert test is carried out at least 48 hours before the service, because a reaction can take up to 48 hours to appear; how much earlier than that is allowed, and when a returning client needs a fresh test, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and your own protocol. Whoever answers the phone has to know that before they offer Saturday. So the agent reads your rule out, books the test first and the colour after it, and stops there: no view on what shade will suit a caller, whether their hair will take it, or whether they might react. It never tells anyone a test is unnecessary or can be skipped, and it holds no clinical detail about the result. We cite the NHBF as a source; Magixis is not a member of it and holds no hair or beauty accreditation.
Two things vary underneath all this. Licensing is devolved: in Wales the mandatory licensing scheme for special procedures — acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis and tattooing — came into force on 29 November 2024, with further provisions including certain offences from 29 August 2025, while England, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own arrangements locally. Employment status varies chair by chair, and it decides who owns the diary: an employed stylist’s hours are the salon’s to fill, a chair renter’s are not. You configure which is which, and the agent commits nobody who hasn’t handed you their hours. See how a call is handled, how we treat caller data in GDPR for AI voice agents, what it costs on the pricing page, or browse the full reception range.
Sources: NHBF, allergy alert tests, industry tests and your insurance · NHBF Industry Statistics 2024 (ONS and Local Data Company data) · Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 (Commencement No. 8) Order 2024. Last updated: 15 August 2026
FAQ · Salons
The questions every salon asks.
If your question isn't here, put it to our agent on a live call — it can probably answer.
Calls run from 70p a minute. Lite is £1.35 a minute — no setup fee, no subscription, and nothing at all in a month with no calls. Most salons run Pro: £995 setup once, then £99 a month plus 85p a minute, with the automated CRM included. Multi-site Command brings the rate down to 70p a minute. There are no allowances and no overage — see the full pricing comparison.
A human answering service takes a message and emails it to you; standard cover typically runs office hours, with 24/7 as a paid add-on and a minimum contract on smaller plans. Magixis holds your diary: it books the stylist the caller asked for, for the length that service takes, at the price on your list, and confirms by SMS. A message tells you Thursday with Maya was wanted. A booking holds it. The like-for-like table is above.
Yes — that's the point of it. You configure the service list, how long each service takes, which stylists do which services, and the hours each of them works. The agent books inside those rules and nothing outside them. If the caller wants a colour with a stylist who has no colour hours left that week, it says so and offers what your diary actually has.
No to both. It gives no advice on hair, skin, colour suitability, allergies, contraindications or how a service will turn out — that's the stylist's conversation, and the agent says so on the call. Where your rule requires an allergy alert test before a colour service, it reads your rule out and books the test first. It never says a test is unnecessary or can be skipped, and it records no clinical detail. We cite the NHBF's published guidance as a source; Magixis is not an NHBF member and holds no hair or beauty accreditation.
The agent reads your cancellation policy back to the caller in your own words, moves or releases the appointment, and puts the released time in front of the named person along with anyone waiting for it. It takes no payment, holds no card details, charges no fee, and gives no discount, refund or goodwill gesture. It can't waive your policy either — a request to let someone off goes to a named person as a logged task. Whether a charge is fair or enforceable is between you and your client, on your own legal advice; we state no position on it.
For hairdressing and ordinary beauty services, what matters on the phone is your own policy rather than a national rulebook. Licensing is different. In Wales the mandatory licensing scheme for special procedures — acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis and tattooing — came into force on 29 November 2024 under Part 4 of the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017, with further provisions including certain offences from 29 August 2025, and the old 1982 Act registration provisions repealed in relation to Wales. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own arrangements, set locally. The agent states no licensing position anywhere in the UK: it books only what you have configured.
Only inside the hours and services that stylist has given you to fill. Chair renters and self-employed stylists own their own diaries, so you configure exactly what the agent may book for each of them — or nothing at all, in which case it takes the enquiry, says the stylist arranges their own bookings, and routes it to them. It agrees no rate, no split and no availability on anyone's behalf.
Yes. Caller names and numbers are masked by default, data is stored encrypted in EU regions, and access is capability-based with a logged reason for sensitive actions. Recordings are kept 30 days and transcripts 90 days by default, with per-client overrides. We sign a DPA and publish our sub-processor list on the trust page.
On Lite, the same day — you set it up yourself from a link we send. Pro is a two-week build: we listen to a week of your real calls, load your service list, timings, stylists and policies, you test it on a sandbox number, then it goes live on your own number. You keep your number throughout — the build, step by step.