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RESEARCH & CASE STUDIES

What the research says.

Sarai AI is in invite-only beta — so until real customer stories land, here's the public industry research we're betting on. Every stat below links to its source.

Service businesses
The cost of missed appointments
Research
14%
of revenue lost on average
$200B
annual U.S. service-industry impact
30%+
no-show reduction with SMS reminders

Service businesses lose roughly 14% of potential revenue to no-shows and last-minute cancellations.

Source + breakdown →
Consumer behavior
Why customers want text, not phone calls
Research
78%
open rate within 3 minutes
98%
SMS open rate (vs ~20% email)
45%
SMS response rate

Across every age group, customers now prefer to confirm appointments by text over phone — and respond to texts at 4-8x the rate of email.

Source + breakdown →
Small business operations
How owners actually spend their week
Research
10-15hr
per week on coordination
26%
of owner time on admin (SBA)
$45/hr
median opportunity cost

Independent service-business owners spend 10-15+ hours per week on appointment coordination, no-show calls, and rebooking — time that doesn't pay them.

Source + breakdown →
Customer retention
Repeat customers cost less, spend more
Research
5x
cheaper to retain than acquire
67%
more spent per visit (returning)
+25%
profit lift from 5% retention bump

Returning customers spend more per visit than new ones and cost a fraction to retain. The math heavily favors keeping clients vs chasing new ones.

Source + breakdown →
Marketing economics
What it actually takes to get a client
Research
10,000
ads seen per day (high estimate)
7
touches before a purchase decision
3-5x
weekly post cadence to stay visible

The average consumer is exposed to 4,000-10,000 marketing messages per day. Cutting through requires consistent presence, not occasional bursts.

Source + breakdown →
Technology ROI
What automating the front desk is actually worth
Research
30%
no-show reduction (avg)
$2-8k
monthly revenue recovered (small shop)
<30 days
typical payback period

Automated appointment confirmation, no-show recovery, and waitlist filling consistently pay for themselves within the first month for shops doing 100+ appointments.

Source + breakdown →
Real customer stories

Coming once we're out of invite-only beta.

We're letting people in slowly so we can support each shop well. Real metrics + named owners drop here as our first salons cross 60 days. Join the waitlist to be first.

🕯