Letting clients ask for a visit

Somebody who wants work done can say so, and say when would suit them, without waiting for you to pick up the phone. What arrives is a lead carrying everything they told you — including their preferred date and time window — so whoever books the work is not starting from a name and a number.

Take a request from your public page

Your public page has a form that takes:

• Their name and how to contact them.
• A description of the work.
• A preferred date.
• A preferred time window — morning (9 AM – 12 PM), afternoon (1 PM – 5 PM) or evening (5 PM – 8 PM).

It arrives as a lead. When you convert that lead to a client, the screen shows the preference right there and offers Create Appointment from Preference, which opens your calendar on that date at the start of that window, so whoever books it can book something that actually works for the customer.

Give an existing client their own link

A client you already have gets their own link to the same form. Copy it from Request link in the Links panel on the client’s Communication tab. A request through that link arrives filed against their record rather than creating a second copy of somebody you already know — which is the small thing that stops your client list quietly splitting into duplicates over a year. The form itself looks the same as it does to anybody, so they still type their name and how to reach them.

Let a client call off a visit

A client who cannot keep an appointment can cancel it from the page that tracks it — the link under Need to change or cancel? in the emails they get about the visit, sent while you have On the way. They tap I need to cancel this visit, ask for a code that goes to the email you already hold for them (and by text to their mobile, where you send texts), say why if they want to, and confirm. You are emailed straight away with whatever reason they gave, and nothing is refunded automatically.

The page offers this until the end of the visit’s day. Once somebody is on the way or has arrived it stops offering it, and from then on it is a phone call.

This is the call that otherwise does not get made. Without it, the customer who has to go out feels awkward about ringing, says nothing, and the van goes anyway.

Where a preference becomes a booking

A preferred window is a request, and somebody in your office confirms an actual time. That was the whole of this feature when it shipped, and it is still the right shape when you would rather decide each visit yourself.

If you would like customers to pick a genuine slot instead — one computed from your hours, your crew, your travel time and your area — that is Online booking and availability, and it uses this same form for anybody outside your service zones.