Offer arrival windows
Let customers book a real arrival window from your technicians' free time, and confirm bookings.
Instead of asking for a preferred day, your booking page can offer real arrival windows, like "Tue, arriving 8:00 – 10:00". ServFlo works out the open windows from your technicians' working hours, time off and booked visits, so customers only see times you can actually do. Available on Connect, Grow and Pro.
Turn on arrival windows
Switch the booking mode
Go to Settings → Online booking. Under Scheduling → What customers choose, select A real arrival time.
Decide who confirms
Under When a time is booked, choose:
- You confirm it — the time is held for a technician as a new request until you confirm it.
- It's confirmed at once — the customer and the job are created straight away. If the contact matches a customer you already have, the booking is held for you to link and confirm instead, so nobody can book under someone else's account.
Set your windows
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start times every | How often a start time is offered, from the start of each technician's day (15 minutes to 4 hours). |
| Arrival window | How long the window customers see is, from the start time. Choose Exact time for no window. |
| Earliest booking | How long from now the first bookable time can be. |
| Travel time | Time kept free before and after every visit. |
| Days ahead | How far ahead customers can book, today included (1 to 90 days). |
| Most bookings per day | A cap on online bookings per day across the business. Leave empty for no limit. |
Select Save.
Set up your technicians and services
Windows come from your technicians, so check each one:
- Go to Team → Technicians and select the working hours button on a technician.
- Set the hours their day Starts and Ends, their Working days, and whether they're Bookable online.
- Under Time off, select Add time off for holidays or appointments. Choose whole days, or turn on Only part of the day for set hours.
Each service's default duration sets how long a booked visit is. Turn services on or off for online booking with the Online switch in Settings → Service types.
What customers see
On your booking page (titled Book a visit), customers choose a service, then a Day and an Arrival time. Days with nothing free are shown as closed. Customers never see which technician is free.
After they select Book this time, they see You're booked (confirmed at once) or We've got your time (you confirm it), with the day and arrival window.
ServFlo gives the booking to the free technician with the least work booked that day. If two customers try to book the last window at the same moment, only one gets it.
Confirm a booking
When you confirm bookings yourself, each one arrives in Sales → Requests showing Booked online for the day and time, and Holding that technician's time until you confirm.
- Open the request.
- Check the details. If the contact is an existing customer, link them.
- Select Confirm booking.
ServFlo creates the customer if needed, books the job at that time for the held technician, and marks the request Converted. To turn the booking down, select Archive: this frees the time.
Messages to customers
If you use automatic messages, the booking confirmation and visit reminders tell the customer the visit's date and time. That time range runs from the visit's start to its expected finish, based on the visit's length, rather than the booking page's arrival window. Automatic messages are included on Connect and up.
With automatic messages on, confirming a booking (or It's confirmed at once) sends the customer a confirmation.
On Pro, you can also stop offering windows that are nearly full. See Plan capacity.