Business Email for a Salon or Spa: Bookings, Gift Cards and Booking Apps

Most salons already have a booking app that sends confirmations and reminders. What the app does not do is answer the client who wants to move a colour appointment, the bride asking about a trial, the supplier with a product order, or the stylist applying for a chair. Those need a real address on your own name, and the app's no-reply address is where those messages currently die.

Quick answer

Create bookings@, hello@, gifts@ and careers@ on your own domain, and name@ for the owner and the front desk. Keep the booking app for automatic confirmations and reminders, but set its reply-to address to bookings@ so a client who replies reaches a person. All four addresses are free on OquMail.

The addresses to create

• bookings@yoursalon.com for everything about appointments that the app cannot handle: changes, special requests, group bookings, patch-test questions. A group with the front desk and the owner.
• hello@yoursalon.com as the public address on the website, Instagram and the Google Business Profile. A group with the owner and the front desk; the hello@ vs info@ guide explains the choice.
• gifts@yoursalon.com for gift-card orders and questions. A mailbox of its own; gift cards are a December business and the orders must not be lost in the party-season bookings queue.
• careers@yoursalon.com for stylists, therapists and apprentices. Chair rental and job enquiries arrive all year and deserve a reply within a day.
• name@yoursalon.com for the owner and the manager. Stylists who do not email clients do not need one.

Working with the booking app

Fresha, Vagaro, Square Appointments, Treatwell and the rest send confirmations from their own addresses. That is fine for the reminder, but check two settings. First, the reply-to address: set it to bookings@yoursalon.com so a client who replies "can I come at 3 instead?" reaches the front desk. Second, the sender name: make it the salon's name, not the app's. If the app lets you send through your own mailbox over SMTP, use bookings@ as that account; the reminders then come from your domain and replies land where they should.

The emails you send yourself

• Patch-test and pre-appointment instructions, from bookings@, for colour, lashes and some skin treatments. A written instruction is also your record that it was given.
• Bridal and group quotes, from the owner's name@: date, number of people, start time, price per person, deposit and cancellation terms.
• Gift-card confirmation, from gifts@: the amount, the code or the collection details, and the expiry. The appointment email templates include the no-show and cancellation wording that matches.
• Review request, from the stylist's or the owner's name@ the day after a first visit.

Set it up in an afternoon

1. Add your domain in OquMail and paste the MX, SPF and DKIM records at your registrar. The DNS checklist has the exact values.
2. Create bookings@ and the owner's name@ first, then a name@ mailbox for each person who replies to customers.
3. Create the shared addresses as groups and add the right people as members. Each member gets a copy in their own mailbox, so nothing depends on one person checking one inbox.
4. Set a signature on every mailbox in webmail with the phone number, the address and the licence or registration number where your trade requires it.
5. Put the new addresses in the Google Business Profile, on the website, on invoices and on the vehicles, in that order; the profile is where most local leads start.
6. Turn on two-factor authentication for the owner account. Invoice fraud starts with a stolen inbox.

Mistakes specific to the trade

• Running bookings from a stylist's personal address. When the stylist leaves, the clients follow the address.
• Letting the booking app's no-reply address be the only one clients ever see. Changes and questions then go to Instagram DMs, which nobody is tracking.
• Sending gift-card codes from hello@ where they are mixed with everything else and impossible to find at the collection desk.
• No careers address, so good applicants message the Instagram account and are never answered.

Common questions

Should each stylist have a mailbox?

Only self-employed stylists who manage their own clients, and then on their own domain, not yours. Employed stylists reply from bookings@ or not at all. It keeps the client relationship with the salon.

Can I send a monthly offer to all clients from here?

A few hundred, yes: the free plan sends 250 messages a day per mailbox, and a mailbox for promotions keeps the complaints away from bookings@. For thousands of clients use a newsletter tool, which also handles unsubscribes for you.

What goes on the price list and the mirror sticker?

The phone number and hello@yoursalon.com. One address, kept for years; the group behind it changes when staff do.