Let clients cancel or move their own booking
In short
Your texts and emails can carry a link to the client's appointment. From there they cancel it or pick a new time, either straight away or as a request you approve, depending on what you allow.
A client who cannot make it no longer has to call. Their confirmation, reminder or change message carries a link to their appointment. They open it, type their phone number to prove it is them, and cancel or choose another time. You decide how much they can do on their own.
Switching it on
The owner sets this up in Client Self-Service. Let clients manage their booking is on for new shops, and it works whether or not you take online bookings.
At first it covers only appointments the client booked online. Tick Include appointments added by staff to offer the link on every appointment.
Values shown for an example shop.
Clients get a link in their messages to cancel or move an appointment without calling you.
Clients who booked online have already served themselves once. Widen this when you are comfortable.
Needs Let clients manage their booking turned on
Three modes, for cancelling and for moving
Cancelling and Rescheduling are set separately, so you can let clients cancel freely but ask them to check with you before moving.
- Not offeredThe client does not see the button and contacts you as before.
- DefaultNeeds approvalThe client sends a request. Nothing changes until you approve or decline it.
- Auto-approvedThe change happens at once. Your calendar and Google Calendar update, and the client gets your usual cancellation or change message.
Values shown for an example shop.
Whether clients can cancel from the link in their messages: not at all, once you approve, or straight away.
Needs Let clients manage their booking turned on
Whether clients can move their appointment from the link in their messages: not at all, once you approve, or straight away.
Needs Let clients manage their booking turned on
A new time is always for the same service with the same specialist, at the price already agreed. Wanting a different service means cancelling and booking again.
How a request plays out
- Monday 09:00Confirmation with the linkFor Wednesday at 10:00
- Tuesday 19:40Ana asks to move itShe picks Thursday at 17:00
- Tuesday 19:40You are toldIn the app and by email, plus push if it is on
- Wednesday 08:30You approveThe appointment moves, Ana gets the change message
Requests show up among your requests on the Appointments page and on the appointment itself, with Approve and Decline. The notification goes to the specialist on the appointment. Owners and receptionists see every request, an employee sees those for their own appointments. If the requested time has been taken in the meantime, decline it and offer another.
If nobody answers
You have the time set in Response window to answer, counted in working hours. It is the same setting that answers online booking requests. About an hour before it runs out you get a reminder. If it runs out anyway, the two requests resolve in opposite directions: an unanswered cancellation goes ahead, an unanswered move is declined and the original time stands.
Values shown for an example shop.
How long you have to answer a booking request or a change request, counted in working hours.
Limits on moving
- Moves per appointment
- Once, 2 or 3 times
- Only moves the client makes count. Yours never do, and a declined or withdrawn request costs nothing.
- How much later
- 7, 14 or 30 days
- Counted from where the appointment sits now. Moving earlier is always allowed. Never past your booking window.
- Out of moves
- Cancelling still works
- The move button disappears, the cancel button stays.
Values shown for an example shop.
Counts moves the client makes. Moves you make yourself never count.
Needs Let clients manage their booking turned on
Measured from where the appointment sits now, so each move starts again from its new time. Moving earlier is always allowed.
Needs Let clients manage their booking turned on
Visits and recurring appointments
A visit with several services moves or cancels as a whole, and moving it keeps the services in the same order and spacing. It counts as one move. For a recurring appointment, the link acts on that one date only; the rest of the series stays with you.
Sending the link again
The link rides on the first text that reaches the client, and after that on emails, not on every SMS. If a client asks for it again, open the appointment, find Manage link under SMS messages and press Send. It is there when the client has a phone number and the appointment can still be managed.
Related
See it with your own shop
Start a free trial and set things up the way this guide describes.
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