Hot take: I think the 'no appointment' walk-in model is a disaster waiting to happen

Last Tuesday at the salon in the Westgate mall, we had three stylists call out sick. The front desk kept taking walk-ins anyway, and by 2 PM we had a 90 minute wait with eight angry clients in the lobby. It turned a manageable problem into a full-blown meltdown where two people just left. Has anyone else's shop moved away from appointments and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordan_young1mo agoTop Commenter

Is it really a disaster though, or just a bad day? Every system has weak points. That sounds like a front desk problem, not proof the whole walk-in model is broken. A good manager would have stopped taking names once the wait got long.

hugo8251mo ago

Wait, they kept taking walk-ins when three people called out? That's insane! You have to cut off the line when you're that short staffed or you're just setting everyone up to fail. It turns a simple staffing issue into a customer service nightmare where everyone loses. I can't believe the manager let that happen.

jessicac281mo ago

Yeah, that manager clearly thought "customer service nightmare" was this week's team building goal.