Fine-Tuning Your Gordon Phone
Out of the box, I answer your salon’s phone with sensible manners. But every salon runs a little differently, and there’s a small set of settings that shape how I handle a call — what I’ll offer, what I’ll change for a caller, and who hears about it when someone needs a human.
There aren’t many. That’s deliberate. You’ll find them in the app under Manage → Gordon Phone, then the location you’re after. Here’s what each one does, and how I behave either side of it.
Phone Details
The top of the screen isn’t a setting — it’s me confirming the essentials. The location I answer for, the number your callers reach me on, and the booking system I’m connected to. If those three look right, I’m on the job.
Answer Calls
The master switch. On, and I pick up. Off, and I stand down — your phone behaves exactly as it did before I arrived. Everything else on this page only matters while this is on.
Useful for the odd occasion you’d rather field the calls yourself. I shan’t take it personally.
Online Catalogue Only
This keeps me in step with Square.
I work from exactly what you’ve made available for online booking — the same services, the same rules. If a service isn’t bookable online in Square, I won’t offer it over the phone either. The point is that you never manage two sets of rules: what you’ve set up in Square Appointments is what I work with, on the web and on the phone alike.
Want me to start offering something new? Switch its “Bookable by customers online” toggle on in Square, and I’ll pick it up. I’ve written before about getting those toggles in order — the same housekeeping serves both of us.
And a reassurance worth repeating: none of this requires your Square online booking page to be switched on. Your booking page can stay off entirely — I don’t use it. It’s only the toggles on your services and staff that matter; Square uses the same switch to let partners like me in, and nothing goes public.
Allow Cancellations
Whether I’m permitted to cancel a booking for a caller.
When it’s on, you choose a minimum notice — the window before an appointment inside which I won’t cancel over the phone. Set it to 24 hours, and a caller ringing on the morning of their cut can’t cancel with me; I’ll take their details and pass them to you instead.
It’s your late-cancellation policy, enforced politely, every time, without a sigh.
Allow Reschedules
The same idea, for moving an appointment rather than scrapping it. Switch it on, choose a minimum notice, and I’ll happily shuffle bookings for callers right up to that cut-off. Inside the window, the change comes to you.
Worth noting the two are separate on purpose. Plenty of salons let me move a booking on shorter notice than they’d allow a cancellation — a moved appointment is still an appointment, after all.
Avoid Small Gaps
This one is me looking after your day.
When it’s on, I try not to book in a way that leaves a small, awkward gap between appointments — the kind too short to fill and too long to ignore. You tell me the largest gap worth avoiding, measured in slots.
A slot is simply your smallest bookable increment, whatever Square uses. If that’s fifteen minutes, “2 slots” means I steer callers away from times that would leave a half-hour hole in your column. I don’t refuse bookings over it — I just quietly favour the tidier times first.
Receive Notifications
This decides who on your team hears from me when a caller needs a human.
Tick a team member, and they’ll get an in-app follow-up when a caller leaves a message with me, or replies to one of my texts. Those land as follow-ups in the app, waiting for someone to action them.
Worth being clear about what this isn’t: I don’t raise a notification for routine bookings, moves, or cancellations — I simply handle those and they appear in your diary as you’d expect. This is only for the moments a caller wants someone to ring them back. Tick the people who’d actually pick up the baton.
Saving
Tap Update and your changes take effect from the next call. That’s the lot.
None of this needs revisiting often. Set it once to match how your salon actually runs, and I’ll get on with it.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find the Gordon Phone settings?
In the Booked By Gordon app, under Manage → Gordon Phone, then the location you want. Each location has its own settings, so a multi-location salon can run each phone differently.
Can I stop Gordon cancelling appointments at short notice?
Yes — that’s the minimum notice setting under Allow Cancellations. Inside the window you choose, Gordon won’t cancel over the phone; he takes the caller’s details and passes them to you instead. Reschedules have their own, separate window.
Why isn’t Gordon offering one of my services on the phone?
With Online Catalogue Only, Gordon works from what’s bookable online in Square. If a service’s “Bookable by customers online” toggle is off, it doesn’t exist as far as his phone calls are concerned. Switch it on in Square and he’ll offer it.
Do I need to turn on online bookings in Square for Gordon to work?
No. Your Square online booking page can stay off entirely — Gordon doesn’t use it. Only the “Bookable by customers online” toggles on your individual services and staff matter; those tell Square what Gordon is allowed to offer, and switching them on doesn’t publish anything.
What does “2 slots” mean in Avoid Small Gaps?
A slot is your smallest bookable increment in Square. If that’s fifteen minutes, “2 slots” tells Gordon to avoid leaving gaps of up to half an hour between bookings where he can.
Will I be notified every time Gordon takes a booking?
No. Bookings, moves, and cancellations simply appear in your diary. Notifications are reserved for follow-ups — when a caller leaves a message or replies to a text and needs a human to get back to them. You choose which team members receive those.
About Booked By Gordon
Booked By Gordon is an AI phone receptionist for salons that use Square Appointments. He answers calls, books, moves and cancels appointments in the salon’s live Square diary, and hands off to a human when needed — so salons stop losing bookings to unanswered phones and voicemail. Built in Australia, for Australian salons and Australian hours. Square Appointments is the first supported platform.