The client booked; the confirmation went to spam

Where a booking gets lost

The confirmation lands in spam. The client thinks they have booked, you don't know about it, and the slot runs out. If the tool then drops the booking without a word, a client is lost, and nobody notices.

The mail system “confirms” for the client. Many mail systems' security scanners open every link before the person does. If confirming is a bare link, a booking no person ever approved can look confirmed.

There is no reminder. Someone who booked a week ahead may not remember it on the day.

Cancelling only works by phone. Many people then don't cancel; they just don't come.

It isn't a person booking. Robots fill in public forms too, and a calendar full of junk takes the slot from a real client.

What to look for when you choose a tool

• Whether confirming sits behind a button, not on a bare link.
• Whether you hear about a booking that wasn't confirmed.
• Whether a reminder goes out, and how long before the appointment.
• Whether the client can cancel and move the booking from the mail, and within what limits.
• Whether it knows the public holidays of your country.
• Whether you can set how far ahead people must book, and how long a break there is between two clients.
• Whether you can close booking with one button when too many people turn up at once.
• Who stores your clients' details, and when they are deleted.
• Whether it runs on your own domain, with your site's look, and whether it puts a cookie on the visitor.

Hairdresser, massage therapist, trainer: what differs

For a hairdresser, a cut and a colour don't take the same time. That calls for several appointment types, each with its own length, or the tool gives either too much time or too little.

For a massage therapist, there has to be a break between two clients. The tool should keep it, not you in your head, and both ways: an earlier booking shouldn't run into the next one either.

For a trainer, the weekly rhythm is steady, and only a day that differs goes in as an exception. An exception shouldn't cancel a session that is already booked by itself: the client already has the confirmation.

Ready-made or your own

Ready-made booking tools with a monthly fee start fast and do a lot. If the answer to everything on the list above is yes, and you don't mind the booking running on someone else's site or under someone else's brand, that's a good choice. Your own pays off if the booking should run on your domain, with your site's look, without a cookie on the visitor, and if you want to hear about unconfirmed bookings too.

Workshops, courses and team-building days need something else: places, company invoices, payment at sign-up. That's in a separate piece.

What mine does

One like this runs next to my own site; my clients book calls on it, in Hungarian. It does this:

• a standing weekly rule and exceptions, so only a day that differs has to be entered;
• confirming sits behind a button, so a mail scanner can't approve it;
• it holds the slot for two hours; if it isn't confirmed by then, I get the booking's details by mail;
• it sends a reminder two hours before;
• the client can cancel or move the booking from the mail: twice at most, only to a later time;
• it doesn't allow bookings on Hungarian public holidays;
• the notice and the break between two bookings can be set;
• one button closes booking, and then it asks for an email;
• one person can make one booking, and only a real person;
• every trace of a booking is deleted thirty days after it;
• visitors get no cookie, and it runs on my site's own subdomain, with the site's look.

How it was built, and why I decided what I did, is in the Workshop piece.

Questions on the topic

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