Best of Seven Barbers - Calgary

At Best of Seven, we run a virtual line-up, meaning we combine people who come to us online with those that book in person and those who are walk-ins. Complicating this is we have clients who request a specific barber and those who will take whoever is available. What this means in practice is that, true to a barbershop, we don’t do ‘appointments’, rather we put our clients as next in line for either their preferred barber or for the next barber available. We’re pretty good at knowing how long it takes to do what we do so we offer our clients a predicted time when their barber will be available to serve them. It’s usually spot-on but please bear in mind they respond to real-world challenges to a nice predictable day and can occasionally run ahead or behind.

That being said, to keep our booking system operating as smooth as possible, we also require clients to reschedule if they are running more than 10 minutes late for their reserved time slot. We respect each and every client’s time equally and consider the 10-minute policy as a way to ensure that all reserved times are kept on track with minimal wait time for all.

If a barber is unavailable

If a barber is ill they will refrain from giving it to their clients and stay home to recover. As soon as we know they won’t be in, we block their schedule so more people can’t book in with them and call all the people they were expecting to see. We try our best to either book with another barber at the same time or reschedule for the next time and day that works for you. Having a barber be unexpectedly away sucks for you, us and the barber – we just do what we can do!

If you’re late

Hey, we know life happens but have to give you the story on this. Most days our barbers have most of their day reserved to clients. If one of those clients is late, that delay can reset their schedule so they will run behind all day. So… here’s what we do. First, we see if the barber has a gap after your booking and can just move your spot in line ahead. This is what everyone hopes for. Next we see if they have some flexibility in their schedule to allow some juggling. We can tell if clients are specifically requesting a barber or just want the next person available. If their next client doesn’t care who does their service and if another barber is available, we will move them over and make room for you. Both these scenarios are managed by our Reception people and will be transparent to you. The last option is to see what we can do to reschedule you for the next available time for your barber or, at your option, the next available time for any of our other barbers.

As you can see, it’s a juggling act our Reception people do with a smile every day.

If you can’t make it

Life happens part two… If your schedule gets hijacked, please drop us a line and let us know you won’t be coming in so we can let someone else take the spot.