Solutions Built to order
Open-Slot Scheduler
Customers pick a time that is really open, and the office stops trading calls to find one.
Built to order: set up around the way your business already works.
The gaps
- Booking only happens when someone answers the phone
- Open times live in one person’s head or calendar
- Visits get double-booked or packed too tightly
- No reminders, so some customers do not show
- Changing a visit takes another round of calls
See how it works
A working example with sample data; nothing you do here is saved or sent. Your version is built to order: your name, your services, your rules.
The situation
A business that works by appointment books every visit by phone. The customer asks for a time, the office checks the calendar, the time is gone, and the calls start over. In the evening and on weekends, when customers have time to book, nobody answers.
The plan
- Objective
- Customers book an open time themselves, at any hour, inside rules the owner sets once.
- Who uses it
- The owner sets the rules and sees the calendar. Customers book, reschedule, and cancel on their own.
- What it replaces
- Phone tag, and the paper or personal calendar that only one person can see.
What changes
| What | Today | With the solution |
|---|---|---|
| Finding a time | Three phone calls | The customer picks from the open times |
| After hours | Voicemail | The booking page works all night |
| The rules | Remembered | Set once: hours, visit length, gap between visits, notice, and a daily limit |
| Reminders | None | An email confirmation and a reminder the day before |
| Changing a visit | Another call | A private link that reopens the time for someone else |
What gets delivered
- A booking page in English and Spanish that matches your website
- A rules screen: working hours, visit types and lengths, gaps, notice, and daily limits
- A few questions the customer answers when booking, set for each kind of visit
- Email confirmations and day-before reminders
- A private reschedule and cancel link for each booking
- Day and week views for the owner
- A calendar feed your phone’s calendar can follow
- One install that can serve more than one website or location, each with its own hours, visit types, and booking page
- A written guide
The phases
Phase 1
Rules and the booking page
Your hours and visit types, and a page that shows only open times.
Phase 2
Confirmations and changes
Confirmation and reminder emails, and the reschedule and cancel link.
Phase 3
Owner views
Day and week views, and the calendar feed for your phone.
What it leaves out on purpose
- Text-message reminders. They need a paid messaging service, so email comes first.
- Deposits and payments.
- Reading the owner’s personal calendar. The feed goes one way, from the scheduler to the phone.
- Splitting visits across several staff members.
Outside services and costs
None in the first version. Reminders are sent by a timed task on the hosting. Text reminders would add a service that charges per message, listed in the agreement if you want them.
How we will know it works
- Bookings made without a phone call
- Missed appointments
- Visits rescheduled by link compared with by phone
Questions people ask
Will it sync with my phone’s calendar?
Your phone’s calendar can follow the scheduler’s feed, so bookings appear there. It does not read your personal calendar, so you block personal time in the scheduler.
Can it send text reminders?
Email is included. Text reminders need a service that charges per message, and can be added.
Can customers pay when they book?
Not in the first version.
Can one scheduler serve more than one website?
Yes. One install can run the booking pages for several websites or locations. Each one keeps its own hours, visit types, and wording.
How you get yours
Every tool is delivered built to order for the business that will use it.
See how it works
Open the example closest to your gap and walk through it with sample data.
Tell us what is different
Your services, your rules, and the steps your office already follows.
We build your version
Your name, your colors, your wording, in English and Spanish if you need it. Before work starts you see the plan, the price, and the revisions agreed.
It runs on your hosting
Your data stays in your own database, with no monthly software fee. Changes later are a new request.
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Still not convinced?
Send us something you have on your to-do list and we can work from there.