Our most requested service has become a scheduling nightmare. One customer takes forty minutes, another needs two hours because every job has different complications. Fixed booking slots create delays and unhappy people in the waiting area. I'm considering a short intake questionnaire and two appointment categories, with buffer time reserved daily. Has anyone made variable-length services predictable enough to schedule without turning every booking into a phone interview?
Handling a popular service that creates scheduling chaos because every job takes a different amount of time
- small-business
- handling
- popular
- service
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0 replies
I’d track actual durations for a few weeks before locking anything in. People are terrible at guessing how long a job takes, but the pattern...
I’d track actual durations for a few weeks before locking anything in. People are terrible at guessing how long a job takes, but the pattern usually shows up fast enough to build a rule around.
4 replies
The intake form is the right instinct, but keep it short. If you ask twenty questions, people will either lie or give up, and then you still...
The intake form is the right instinct, but keep it short. If you ask twenty questions, people will either lie or give up, and then you still have a messy schedule.
Two appointment categories is sensible. I’d make one for the predictable jobs and one for the “needs a look first” jobs, then keep a buffer block that you protect like it’s already booked.
That buffer is where the hidden cost lives, though. If the long jobs routinely spill, the buffer stops being slack and becomes part of the s...
We do something like this for custom orders. Customers choose a base option online, then we call only the ones who tick a complication box.
That keeps the phone calls from becoming a full-time job. The key is that the form has to sort people into buckets, not gather every detail...