You are mid-fade and the phone is across the room
Clippers down, gloves off, apologise to the chair, cross the shop, miss it anyway. The only two options a busy shop has are ignoring the ring or interrupting a paying client, and both cost money.
// for independent barbershops and salons
Every ring, booked.
You are behind a chair with clippers in your hand. The line picks up, takes the booking in English or Spanish, knows who your members are, and sticks to your walk-in policy. And you can dial it right now. It is the one demo that answers as a barbershop, because that is what it was built on.
live · answering right now
Call it right now. It answers.
+1 (860) 474-8017It answers as a barbershop, because that is the book it was built on. Ask it for a Saturday, ask it in Spanish, try to talk it into a discount. The same engine gets tuned to your services, your prices and your rules.
From $149/mo · set up in minutes · 30-day money-back
// how the call goesSample · not a recording
- 00:00Handled · AIHi, this is the AI assistant for the shop. This call may be recorded for quality. ¿Español or English?
- 00:05CallerEspañol, por favor. Quiero cortarme el sábado.
- 00:08Handled · AIPerfecto. ¿Corte clásico o corte con barba? ¿Y eres miembro Signature?
- 00:14CallerClásico. Sí, soy miembro.
- 00:18Handled · AIComo miembro tu corte del mes ya está incluido. Tengo sábado 2:00 PM o 4:30 PM disponibles.
- 00:26CallerLas cuatro y media.
- 00:29Handled · AIReservado: sábado 4:30 PM, corte clásico, miembro. Queda confirmado y el barbero lo verá en su agenda.
An illustration of the booking rules, not a recording of a live call, and the number above is the real thing.
// why this trade misses calls
Three reasons the phone rings out.
The Saturday rush is when the phone rings most
Your best four hours of the week are the four hours nobody can answer. Callers on a Saturday afternoon do not leave voicemail. They call the next shop on the map.
Same eight questions, all day, forever
How much for a fade, do you take walk-ins, are you open Sunday, does my membership cover this, can I get in with Junior. None of it needs you, and all of it uses you.
// pick the one that sounds like you
Three ways people arrive here.
You already know which one you're in. The prices are what they cost. No quote form standing between you and a number.
Start from nothing
No website, no online booking, and the phone is your whole front desk.
Nothing online, nothing answering, and the work arrives by word of mouth. You get a page people can actually be sent to, and a line that picks up while you work.
Replace what's not working
You're paying an answering service, or the phone goes to voicemail and you call people back at nine.
Voicemail, a call-answering service reading from a script, or whoever is nearest the phone. The line takes it over: same number, your prices, your booking rules, every hour of the day.
Add to what you have
Booksy or Square already runs the book. The calls that never reach it are the problem.
The site is fine and the work is coming in. The phone is the hole. Put the line in front of it, then add one AI employee to do the chasing you never get to.
Phone plans carry a one-time setup because a person builds the line from your price list · every number on pricing
// built, not configured
What it has to know.
A person loads all of this from your own price list and booking rules before the line goes live, then keeps adjusting it once real calls start coming in. That is what the one-time setup on every plan pays for. It is not a form you fill in.
- Your service list and what each one costs, quoted from the list you sign off on
- How long a cut, a beard and a colour actually take, per barber
- Each barber's schedule and the gaps between chairs, so it never offers a slot that isn't there
- Your walk-in policy: whether it logs an arrival time or refuses the booking
- Your members: what's already included and what it should mention
- Your deposit and no-show rules, and which callers get put straight through to you
// the whole loop, both ends
What the caller gets, and what lands on your side.
The caller
They dial the number they already have for you
Nothing you've printed changes. Your line forwards to the receptionist with one carrier code, and the caller never sees a different number.
Forwarding on and off is a dial code you control
The line
It says what it is, then does your job
Discloses that it's an AI, works from your services, your prices and your booking rules, and either takes the booking details, puts an urgent caller through to you, or takes the message.
English or Spanish, caller's choice, every plan
Your side
The call is written down: length, outcome, and a summary
Every call lands in your record with how long it ran, how it ended and a written summary of what was said. Add the weekly-report AI employee and that record is emailed to you every Monday: calls answered, time on the phone, average and longest call, and what the last few were about.
Weekly report is an add-on from $299/mo
Two things are not switched on yet, and you should read them here rather than find out on a Saturday. A text or email to you on every single call: Handled has no SMS channel connected. And writing the booking into your calendar: the line takes the details and they land in the call record, but nothing writes to Google Calendar or anywhere else. That one is being built.
— Not a franchise. Not a course.
We're the boring opposite of an AI franchise.
The FTC banned Air AI for $18M in March 2026 over fake earnings claims. We're the opposite: no licensing fee, no reseller program, no promises about what you'll make. Just an AI receptionist that answers your phone, and a person who sets it up and keeps it tuned.
// public receipts
- Who runs it
- Florida-registered · on the public recordVerify on FL Sunbiz ↗
- Earnings claims
- None. No promises about what you'll make, and no testimonials we can't prove.
- Refunds
- 30 days to get your money back on Line, Starter and ProPricing terms ↗
- What callers hear
- Every call opens by saying it's an AI: FCC · TCPA · CA AB 2905 · NY GBL § 396-b. The scripts are published.Read the scripts ↗
// the details most companies leave out · ftc air ai action march 2026
// the six things everyone says
Say the reason you'd say no.
Each of these is answered by something that already works, not by something we intend to build. Where the answer is “that isn't switched on yet,” it says that instead.
“I'd have to change my number.”
No. You keep the number on your van, your window and your cards. You dial one forwarding code from your business phone (*72 on Verizon, *21* on AT&T, **21* on T-Mobile, or a setting in your VoIP portal) and calls arrive at the line. Dial the cancel code (*73, #21#, ##21#) and they ring straight to you again.
“I'd be locked into a contract.”
It's monthly. Cancel any time by replying to your last invoice or emailing hello@handled.build. Cancelling stops the next renewal. The period you've paid for runs to its end, and there's no proration either way.
“What if it doesn't work for my shop?”
30-day money-back on Line, Starter and Pro. The Industry plan at the top of the ladder does not carry it, because it's scoped to your business from day one, and we'd rather put that in the objection than in the small print.
“My callers will think they've been tricked by a robot.”
They're told in the first sentence. Every call opens "Hi, this is the AI assistant for [your business]. This call may be recorded for quality." That isn't a courtesy. FCC synthetic-voice rules, California AB 2905 and New York GBL § 396-b all require the disclosure, and it's written into the prompt rather than left to the model.
“Half my callers speak Spanish.”
English and Spanish are on every plan, from the first ring, and the caller picks. It isn't a paid add-on and it isn't English run through a translator. A caller can switch language mid-call.
“It'll make up a price and I'll have to honour it.”
It quotes from the list you sign off on and nothing else. The prompt forbids discounts, waivers, price-matching and ballparks, and it is built to refuse a number a caller floats first. Anything it hasn't been given (a repair it can't see, a quote that depends on your judgement) goes to you instead of getting invented.
The full versions are on terms and the refund policy. Neither is longer than this page.
The phone line
The line that never sleeps.
Four plans from $149 · $500 setup · cancel anytime. Website and app prices are public too: see /pricing.
Get started.
$249/month
One line for a one-person shop. $500 setup. 30 days to get your money back. Quieter phone? Line is $149/mo for 200 minutes.
- 500 minutes of calls a month
- Built in English, in Spanish, or to switch between them
- Takes the booking on the call and records the whole thing
- Hands the call to you when it needs a person
The pro line.
$549/month
For a phone that rings all day. Every call comes back written up, and a person tunes the line every month on what actually came through it.
- 1,500 minutes of calls a month
- Tuned every month on your real calls · we answer you first
- Every call recorded, transcribed and written up
- Optional: a copy of your own voice, or keep a preset
Industry tuned.
$1,200/month
For barbershops, insurance offices, dental, legal, real estate and medspas.
- Everything in Pro
- 5,000 minutes of calls a month · $0.15 a minute past that
- Knows your trade's words: the services, the questions people ask
- Every detail lands in the right field of your software
- Tuned every two weeks · your own Slack channel
Need more than the phone?
Add a website, an app, or someone to run your social media.
Put your plan together// common questions
Straight answers.
Will it try to book walk-ins?
Only if you want it to. Whether you take walk-ins is a setting for your shop. If you take walk-in requests by phone, it takes the name and when they'll arrive and logs it against the call instead of blocking off a chair. If you don't take them, it says so, in either language.
How good is the Spanish, really?
Dial the demo line and ask it in Spanish. A caller can switch language mid-call and it switches with them. No transfer, no second voice, no lost booking. That is the fastest way to settle this question, and it's why the number is on this page.
Does it know when I'm mid-cut?
It never puts a call through during a booked appointment. Words you choose ("emergency", "the owner") get you the call with a one-line summary once you're between clients.
Can it take a deposit for a Sunday or after-hours booking?
It can hold the slot as unconfirmed and tell the caller plainly that it isn't final until the deposit is paid, then flag it to you to send the link. It cannot send the payment link itself. Handled has no texting channel switched on, and we'd rather say that here than have you find out on a Sunday.
Has it answered for a real barbershop?
It is built on a working shop's real book (the Saturday rush, the members, the walk-in policy, the awkward Spanish moments) and the demo line on this page answers as that shop. What it has not done yet is answer a paying customer's phone: Handled's receptionist has no customers. You would be the first, and the 30-day money-back exists because of exactly that.
What does it cost?
The phone line starts at $149/mo for 200 min/mo, with a one-time $500 setup on every plan because a person builds the line from your price list rather than handing you a form. The ladder is Line $149/mo (200 min/mo), Starter $249/mo (500 min/mo), Pro $549/mo (1,500 min/mo), Industry $1,200/mo (5,000 min/mo). 30-day money-back on Line, Starter and Pro. If you also need the website, a Landing Page is $597 one-time and a teardown of the site you already have is $297.
// where these clients are
Handled is run out of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, and most of the work above is within an hour of it: Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and Palm Beach County. The line itself works anywhere in the country; the reason to mention the map is that we have actually stood in these businesses.