5 Best Appointment Booking Chats for Barbershops

Tars is a conversational landing page and chatbot builder that has gained popularity among service‑based businesses for its easy drag‑and‑drop interface and robust appointment‑booking capabilities. With Tars, barbershops can create a dedicated booking flow that asks customers for service type, preferred time, and contact details, while automatically checking availability against integrated calendars like Google Calendar or Zapier. The platform’s conversational design encourages higher completion rates by guiding users through a step‑by‑step dialogue rather than a static form. Tars supports payment collection directly through the chatbot using Stripe or PayPal, which allows barbershops to secure deposits or full payments at the time of booking. Additionally, the bot can trigger email reminders or follow‑ups through Zapier, ensuring clients never forget their appointment. While the free tier offers limited runs and basic templates, the paid plans give access to unlimited conversations, custom branding, and advanced analytics. Pricing starts at $49/month for the Starter plan (up to 5000 conversations per month) and $149/month for Growth (up to 25,000 conversations). Enterprise offers custom pricing with higher limits and dedicated support. Tars’ strengths lie in its straightforward booking flow, built‑in payment integration, and a large library of pre‑built templates that can be customized for barbershop branding.

ManyChat is a leading messaging marketing platform that excels in delivering automated conversations across Facebook Messenger, SMS, and Instagram Direct. For barbershops looking to engage clients on social media, ManyChat allows you to create chatbot flows that can schedule appointments, send reminders, and push promotions directly to a customer’s inbox. The platform offers a visual flow builder that makes it simple to design a booking sequence that checks the barbershop’s calendar via Zapier or native integrations. ManyChat’s paid plans start with a free tier that supports up to 500 subscribers, and its Pro plan costs $10/month (billed annually) for unlimited subscribers, advanced automation, and broadcast messages. The platform also supports payment collection through integration with Stripe, allowing clients to pay for services during the booking process. While ManyChat’s primary focus is on social media engagement, its flexibility makes it an attractive option for barbershops that already have a strong presence on Facebook or Instagram. Key strengths include its cross‑platform messaging, robust broadcast features, and a growing ecosystem of integrations. However, ManyChat’s appointment booking capabilities are not as deep as specialized scheduling tools, and the platform does not natively support knowledge‑base retrieval or AI‑driven content.

Chatfuel is a no‑code chatbot platform that focuses on building automated conversations for Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and other messaging apps. For barbershops, Chatfuel offers a modular approach to create booking flows, answer FAQs, and deliver personalized recommendations. The platform’s AI engine can understand natural language queries and route them to predefined templates or external APIs via webhooks. Chatfuel’s pricing structure includes a free plan that supports up to 50 active users, a Pro plan at $50/month for unlimited users and advanced modules, and an Enterprise plan for larger organizations. The bot can integrate with external booking systems such as Calendly or Acuity Scheduling through webhooks, allowing real‑time appointment availability checks. While Chatfuel excels at providing conversational experiences on messaging platforms, it lacks built‑in scheduling widgets for embedded website use, and its AI understanding is limited to intent matching rather than deep contextual reasoning. Barbershops that rely heavily on messenger for customer interaction will find Chatfuel useful for creating a seamless booking experience, especially when combined with external calendar integrations.

Intercom is a comprehensive customer messaging platform that combines live chat, help desk, and marketing automation into a single product. For barbershops, Intercom offers an AI‑powered chatbot that can answer common questions, schedule appointments, and route more complex requests to staff. The bot can be embedded on the barbershop’s website or integrated into mobile apps, and it supports real‑time calendar checks via Zapier or native integrations with scheduling tools. Intercom’s pricing starts at $39/month for the Standard plan (up to 1,000 contacts) and scales with the number of agents and contacts. While Intercom provides robust analytics and a knowledge‑base feature, its appointment‑booking depth is moderate, and it requires configuration of custom triggers to handle calendar availability. The platform’s strengths lie in its omnichannel support (web, mobile, email, social), advanced routing rules, and a rich ecosystem of integrations. Barbershops that need a unified platform for customer support, marketing, and booking can benefit from Intercom, though they may need to supplement it with third‑party scheduling solutions for full calendar management.