How it works
From sign-up to the first call answered for the shop
Shopbell is set up from your dashboard, mostly in the gaps between clients. Here is each step, what you do, and what the caller hears once it is running.
Sign up
Shop name, email, a password of ten characters or more, and your Australian mobile. A six-digit code goes to the mobile by text, and a link in your email confirms the address. No card for Free, which runs on a marketing consent. On One Chair or Every Chair, you add a card on a secure Stripe page next.
Put up your price board
On **Receptionist**, add each cut, colour and trim with its price and minutes, set your hours for each day, and fill in notes: walk-ins, parking, which barber does what. Then share your booking link, which lives at /book/ and your code.
Use the words on the phone, not the words on the menu. If people ring for "a fade", list a fade.
Get the line and divert to it
On a paid plan, press **Get my phone line** and a fresh Australian number is hooked up to your assistant. Dial the divert code shown for Telstra, Optus or Vodafone, and calls you leave for about twenty seconds go to the line. The off code brings them back.
The assistant picks up
It says "Thanks for calling", your shop's name and "this is the virtual assistant for the team." It answers from your board, takes the caller's name, mobile, cut and when they want to come in, and says the team will text to confirm.
It will not confirm a time, quote a price you did not list, or take card details. If it does not know, it tells the caller it is not sure.
You text the time
A summary lands as the call ends (a text, or an email while texting isn't switched on), and the request waits on **Bookings** with the number ready to tap. Check the book, send the time, next client.
After that
After the first week, most of Shopbell happens on the Bookings page and in your messages. Update Receptionist when a price changes or a barber's days change, and the next call has it. The dashboard shows this month's answered calls against your allowance. Billing shows your plan, the next charge, your invoices and a cancel button that stops the next charge and lets the plan run to the end of the period.
Outgrow One Chair's 35 calls and Every Chair has 180, plus the enquiry form for your website. Stop needing the line and you can cancel in any month. When the paid period ends, tick Free's marketing consent on Billing and the booking link and inbox carry on.
Let the phone ring somewhere useful
Put up your price board, share your booking link and switch on the line when you want it. No card for Free, just a marketing consent.