Waiting list
How customers wait for a time on a full day, who is told and when a time becomes free, and where you see who is waiting.
On this page
When a day is full, the customer doesn't have to give up. On the booking page they can join the waiting list and get an email as soon as a time becomes free. You switch the list on in Settings → Waiting list (it is on for new businesses).
How customers join
On a full day the booking page offers Tell me if a time becomes free. The customer chooses:
- one or more days, at most a week ahead;
- the part of the day: any time, morning, afternoon or evening;
- a staff member or anyone;
and the services are the ones they have already chosen. They enter their name and email (the phone is optional) and agree that the data is used only for waiting-list notices.
Joining isn't possible while there are free times for the chosen days and part of the day. The page then offers to pick one of them. One email address can have at most 3 active entries.
When a time becomes free
A time becomes free when an appointment is cancelled or moved, when you delete time off, extend working hours or change the rules. About a minute and a half later we check who is waiting for exactly that time:
- as many people as Notices per freed time says (5 by default) are told, in the order they joined;
- the email offers the free times and leads straight to booking;
- nobody hears about the same time twice, and each entry gets at most 3 notices a day.
The time is not held for anyone: whoever books first gets it. If someone gets there first, the others see on the page that the time has just been taken and can choose another.
For a combination of services, a notice comes only when enough time for all of them becomes free, with a staff member who provides them.
Where you see who is waiting
The Waiting list menu shows every entry by day and staff member. The calendar shows how many people are waiting next to each day, and when you cancel an appointment, we remind you that people on the list will be told.
You can remove an entry (Remove). Staff members see the list and remove entries waiting for them.
Entries waiting for new appointments, when you open appointments manually, are shown separately.
When an entry ends
An entry closes when a customer with the same email books the chosen services, when the days they waited for have passed, when they leave through the link in the email, or when you remove it. Closed entries are deleted after 30 days. Analytics keep only the number of entries and notices, without personal data.
If you switch the waiting list off, existing entries stay, but no new notices are sent.