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Beardsgaard Barbers

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Big News / New Appointment Policies

June 17, 2015 By //  by The Beardsgaards

Beardsgaard has just roared into our 9th month of operation, and things are going pretty great.

Colin Does Stuff

We’re still working on teaching Shopkeep to groom himself.

A wonderful group of smart, nerdy, and now phenomenally handsome gents have developed around this place (ladies…), and we have been thrilled that this idea and dream we had way back when has connected with so many people. We are genuinely humbled.

That is not to say there haven’t been a few hiccups. They have happened, and they have been rapidly handled. But there is this one sticking point that we as a shop finally have to address in a formal manner.

Late arrivals and no shows

We really don’t want to be dicks about this. We certainly could have made ourselves a walk-in only barbershop, like so many are.

Except a vast swath of our clients live an hour or more away, and/or are parents beholden to schedules of tiny gremlins. They, and heck, anyone who has schedule of any sort, need to plan their lives or else nothing gets done.

Beardsgaard RR14

Shop Kid knows well the importance of lists

As a family-run shop of former long-distance commuters, we get that better than most, which is why we invested in one of the most extensive and powerful POS/CRM/appointment scheduling services on the planet. With an app and everything. All for you guys.

We understand that everyone leads busy lives and that things come up, traffic happens. We as a shop lock in our schedules three months in advance to make sure we can accommodate our beloved clients on their schedule.

All we ask for in return is for our clients to do their best to plan for these inevitable hiccups (like, if you have a 5:30 appointment, plan for traffic). What we can no longer ask is for that lost appointment (and subsequent lost income) to fall so squarely on the shoulders of our barbers.

Between you and Beardsgaard, let’s go Dutch instead.

Schorem

Yes, sort of like that. Barbershops are a little different in The Netherlands. At least in Rotterdam. {Photo credit: Schorem & Jelle Mollema Photography}


This is the Important Part

Beginning August 1st, we will be charging 50% of a scheduled service cost in cases of no shows, late cancels (less than 12 hours notice), and terminal lateness (when a client arrives late enough for their appointment that we cannot complete said appointment) in order to pay our barbers for that now-empty time slot.

Luckily, the vast majority of our clients are on time, in the shop and ready to go for their appointments and these new policies, in practice, will never affect them in any way. Even among those who do occasionally have a scheduling conflict (it happens), most we have already spoken to about these upcoming policies have been incredibly supportive and understanding (thank you!).

Still, we understand that some may not love these new policies. But neither do we love having hours worth of appointments in a single day cancel without enough time to fill them, nor pushing other clients (who were on time) back due to the tardiness of others. And we will never, ever rush a service.

Appointment-Book-Names-Blocked-680x220

Left: Our book at the beginning of the day, every day. Right: How it looks by the end of the day. No shows in orange, late cancellations shown in big empty blocks. Not awesome.

We know this is all big and new and scary, but fear not! We will be rolling this out in stages and we have a nice little counterpoint to our having to firm up operations.

When our new policies take effect on August 1st, 2015, we will also be taking Walk-In Wednesdays for a test drive (walk-ins only, no appointments on Wednesdays). It should be a hoot, but be prepared for a wait.

Here are the stages for building a better Beardsgaard for all of you.


Step 1 / Updating Billing Information

Beginning July 1st, 2015, we will be requiring a credit card on file to book an appointment. Please note that we do not store your credit card information in any way, it is all secure and encrypted on MindBody’s servers (a PCI-Compliant Level 1 Service Provider).

Step 2 / Bombardment

On the website, blog, in the newsletter, on our social channels and in shop, we are going to do our damnedest to let everyone know about the new policies, repeatedly, before they go into effect.

Step 2 / Rollout

Beginning August 1st, 2015, our new policies will be in effect, as will Walk-In Wednesdays. They are outlined below, as they will appear on the Bookings page of the website.


Beardsgaard Appointment Policies

General

  • Because we tend to book anywhere from a week to a month out (depending on the barber and time of day desired), by necessity we are appointment only and do not take walk-ins (except on Walk-In Wednesday).
  • A phone number and credit card on file are required for all appointment bookings. Email is appreciated for additional reminder purposes.
  • Due to the back-to-back nature of our appointment book, only pre-booked services will be performed. Our services are precisely timed and scheduled to see as many of our wonderful clients as possible, so if you booked a haircut, for example, you cannot add a beard trim or shave once you’re in the chair. Time just does not allow.
  • In cases where a late, cancelled or no show payment would trigger, you will be notified by phone and email before payment will be applied.
  • There will be occasions where the Late Cancellation and No Show fees might be waived (we’re not monsters), but this will be on a case-by-case basis and determined by a call to the front desk.

Late Arrivals

  • You must be in the shop by the time your appointment is due to start (plenty of people show up early to enjoy a cup of coffee and our extensive library of weirdness). If you are not physically present by that time, we will call to check in.
  • Please note that when we call you or you call us for an ETA, if you say you are 5 minutes away and we don’t see you for another 20, your appointment will likely no longer be available once you arrive.
  • We will never sacrifice quality for time. In cases of lateness, once 25% of your booked service time has elapsed, we will not be able to complete that service in your remaining time. If multiple services are booked, one service may have to be sacrificed or downgraded (full haircut turns into a cleanup, beard trim with straight razor becomes a regular beard trim, etc.)

Cancellations & No Shows

  • Appointments cancelled fewer than 12 hours in advance are subject to a charge for 50% of services booked in order to pay our barbers for the time in their books that was reserved. You can cancel by phone, email, app or online, although the latter two are only available with more than 12 hours left before the appointment start time.
  • No shows will also be subject to a charge for 50% of services booked.

Other

  • On Walk-In Wednesdays all services are first come first served. The last butts hit the chair 30 minutes prior to close at 5:30. No exceptions.
  • While it is exceptionally rare, barbers do sometimes get sick, injured, or have a family emergency. If we have to cancel on YOU within one week (7 days) of your scheduled services, you will receive 25% off your rescheduled service.

We know that this is a big change and will take some getting used to.

We also understand that some folks prefer a low-commitment shop where you can just walk in and get a haircut, and we have some great recommendations for shops just like that all over Chicagoland (fair warning, some of those come with hours and hours in a waiting area). Or you can make Wednesdays your haircut day.

Dweebs

From all of us here at Beardsgaard, we thank you endlessly for building this place from two dweebs and a dream into the epic fortress of barbering and nerdery it is today. Because we put up the drywall and stuff, but our clients (and staff, these days!) have made this place into what it has become.

Clients

This is the best way we know how to serve all of our clients better and make sure our barbers make a living. We thank you in advance for your understanding, and not mounting the head of the acting messenger/our Shopkeep on a pike while we implement these new policies.

He has a reasonably helpful head. Nice hair, at least.

Kindest Regards-01

Filed Under: Blog, Shop News Tagged With: Past, Policies, Shop News

About The Beardsgaards

The Beardsgaards are a pair of mom-and-pop barber nerds with a shared obsession with perfection. We built this old school barbershop to feel like home to everyone who enters beneath the Elvish script above our door. If we and the Gaardian army can give you a better handle on your grooming routine, all the better.

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We built this place for you, to bring you everything you ever dreamed you could find in your friendly neighborhood barbershop, and a stupid amount more. Beardsmith and Blademaiden, the mom and pop founders, invite you to explore the realm.

Our Little Slice of Valhalla

In historic downtown Batavia on Route 31 between 1st and Main

117 S Batavia Ave, Batavia, IL 60510

PHONE: ( 630 ) 454 - 4820

EMAIL: shop@beardsgaardbarbers.com

Appointment & Walk-Ins Both!

Parking

On the general 2020 theme, there is currently no parking out front due to construction, and no front shop entrance either! Enter the back parking lot by First Street and come on in the back door with the beard on it (like a restaurant, wait at the sign inside for the Shopkeep to greet you)

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Family owned & operated since 2014. There be nerds here. And dragons.
💈Classic Haircuts • Epic Beards • Razor Shaves💈
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Beardsgaard Barbers
You don’t have to wear it after your cut, but do You don’t have to wear it after your cut, but don’t forget your hat. It’s cold outside.
The product goblin (and the rest of us) think @soa The product goblin (and the rest of us) think @soapdistillery body oils smell good enough to drink. We promise the oils will make you feel much better if you put them on your outside instead of your inside though.
Well hello to those with wild beards who heard whi Well hello to those with wild beards who heard whispers of moving out of Tier 3 Mitigation! Please pause, we're not there yet. 

This does not apply to the entire state of Illinois, only certain regions. As of now, we are still in Tier 3. We will announce when we have moved to Tier 2 on all of our social media channels as well as our email list, so sit tight until then!

Because knowledge is power, you also can go to http://dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics?regionID=8 at any time and look at Region 8, which contains Kane County. As of this posting, we are not meeting the metric on hospital bed availability. 

We promise, we want to get everything under your mask looking and feeling great, but we cannot do that until it's safe. Thank you for understanding, and please keep an eye out here, on Instagram or sign up for our email list at the bottom of www.beardsgaardbarbers.com to get updates.
And you? Do you like the barber shop? We like you. And you? Do you like the barber shop? We like you.
We may specialize in short, traditionally masculin We may specialize in short, traditionally masculine haircuts, but Beardsgaard has always been a place for everyone; girls, guys, gays, theys - all identities and orientations find acceptance and a barbershop home here. If, however, you are looking for the luscious salon locks that are far less in our barberly skill set, we are the lucky next door neighbors of the incredible @coasthairsalon
Between the two of us, we have heads of every sort covered in spectacular hair, and positive vibes.
While we would love to see more than half of your While we would love to see more than half of your faces, until Illinois is out of Tier 3 we are just not allowed to do any face services. That means all beard trims and face shaves are not a thing for the foreseeable future. We know that’s a bummer for most of you but think of how epic and wizardry your beards will be once we can do trims!
For beard updates we will be posting across social media and sending an email out to those of you that are on the email list as soon as we know anything. Hang tight Gaardians, your face gardens will be pruned again some day.
When this year started, we eternal optimists could When this year started, we eternal optimists couldn’t have imagined what dragons were coming. With the support of this amazing community, this little barbershop made it through lockdown, occupancy restrictions, six flipping months of construction including losing our whole front entrance for months, are still in the middle of not being able to perform our signature services, but we’re all starting to see light on the other side. We don’t know what this next year will hold, but we believe this shop and this community will keep on adapting and end up stronger for it. We just hope, so hard, that the dogs will be able to return in 2021. In the meantime, we have the dragon. And all of you.
Over the years here, no one has held quite as many Over the years here, no one has held quite as many positions at Beardsgaard as Joey. As (at the time girlfriend, now wife) Amanda worked here, Joey was keen to fill in on desk when a shopkeep got sick, and he didn’t even work here yet. Nor did he yet when he let us tie him to a tree during the making of a dumb movie. 

Eventually, he came to be a Shopkeep at Beardsgaard before, like Tyler, following his wife into the blade game and going to barber school, turning out to be really good at it. He progressed from intern to apprentice to a knighting to staff barber of Beardsgaard to beard model for our sibling shop’s most popular product, Deepwell. 

And now, as if the fondest wish for any Gaardian, business ownership, taking over for Amanda as the head chair of Fox & Stone Barbers in St Charles while she is off wrangling puppies for a living in the vet world. 

We wish him endless luck and happiness in his next steps, but we won’t miss him too much. As the dad of our dearly departed Mia, and the wiggly love sausage Mabel, he has agreed that Mabel should still work at Beardsgaard once we can have shop dogs again because she is so good at her job and misses all of you. So we’ll see him then! Huzzah!

Today is his last day, be sure to give him your love/hardcore trolling, whatever your relationship with him is. As you know, he’s a barber who can do both.
Onward buttercup! There’s fuckery to spread! Onward buttercup! There’s fuckery to spread!
A big Happy Birthday to @barberbeardsmith 🎂
We’ve been messing up his age for years now so the first person that can tell us his correct age gets a free Deepwell Beard Butter (in-store pick up only).
🎉
#giveaway #beardsmith #happybirthday #barber #barbershop #shoplife #guesstheage #chicagobarber #bataviail #bataviaillinois #smallbusiness #fyb #fuckyeahbatavia
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Our Little Slice of Valhalla

In historic downtown Batavia on Route 31 between 1st and Main

117 S Batavia Ave, Batavia, IL 60510

PHONE: ( 630 ) 454 - 4820

EMAIL: shop@beardsgaardbarbers.com

Appointment & Walk-Ins Both!

Parking

On the general 2020 theme, there is currently no parking out front due to construction, and no front shop entrance either! Enter the back parking lot by First Street and come on in the back door with the beard on it (like a restaurant, wait at the sign inside for the Shopkeep to greet you)

Current Hours

Closed for Shop Lunch 2-3 pm weekdays, 1-2 pm Saturdays

• Monday - Friday 9 / 8 • Saturday 9 / 5

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All full for the day! (Closed Sundays & Mondays. Call or book online )
For the safety of our staff and clients, we must refuse service to anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms.
Actually there’s a whole list of questions we’re gonna ask you at the door, brace yourself.
Shop closes for lunch weekdays 2-3 PM and Saturdays 1-2 PM
Shop our entire shop online, for shipping worldwide or curbside pickup! {CLICKY HERE}
While you’re here, peruse our sibling shop right next door or in the Webs of Inter, River Peak Apothecary!