Letting customers book their own appointments online: what works for installation businesses
Letting customers book appointments online: which ones suit it, what choices to give the customer, what decides who comes and the pitfalls.
In this article
Short answer
Letting customers book their own appointments works for appointments with a fixed duration and predictable scope, such as a site survey, a maintenance visit or a standard installation. Let the customer choose from a handful of slots you can deliver, with a time window instead of an exact time. Urgent and complex appointments you schedule yourself.
By the makers of stiptUpdated August 13, 20266 min read
Why do installation businesses let customers schedule themselves?
The slowest part of scheduling is not the puzzle but the contact: calling, voicemail, calling back, and then Thursday does not work after all. A booking link moves that contact to a moment the customer chooses, at nine in the evening if need be. Your planner gets back the hours spent on the phone.
Booking appointments online is not the same as opening up your calendar. A hairdresser can offer an empty hour, an installation business cannot: every appointment needs the right technician, a reachable address and a realistic duration. So it only works well if the system shows only slots that can really happen.
Which appointments do you let the customer book, and which not?
| Appointment | Let the customer book? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Site survey or measurement | Yes | Fixed duration, predictable work, usually one technician |
| Maintenance visit | Yes | Recurring work you can bundle into rounds |
| Standard installation | Yes, after the quote is approved | The duration is known and the materials are ordered |
| Handover visit or snag items | Sometimes | Only if the materials are in and the scope is settled |
| Urgent breakdown | No | You sort urgency yourself, a customer does not choose an emergency order |
| Complex project or homeowners' association | No | Several parties, access and sequence are yours to arrange |
This is a rule of thumb. The line is drawn by how much uncertainty is left around the appointment.
From job to appointment, in five steps.
- 1Job becomes plannable
After the quote is approved or after the site survey, the record is ready to be scheduled.
- 2Customer gets a link
By email or WhatsApp, with what happens and how long it takes. No account or password needed.
- 3Customer picks
From a few slots, each with a time window, and confirms with one button.
- 4Confirmation
The appointment lands in your calendar. The customer sees the confirmation on the page and can add it to their own calendar.
- 5Technician arrives
The technician sees the appointment with the record and work order, like any other appointment.
What choices do you give the customer?
The customer picks a window of a few hours. That is more honest than an exact time you will not always hit.
Not a full calendar to scroll through, but a few good slots, say the five best.
If the customer can only do it after a certain date, say after a holiday, they have the options recalculated.
What kind of appointment it is, how long it takes and at which address, so the customer knows what they are choosing.
For a site survey and an installation, the customer can pick both slots in one go, with a minimum number of days between them.
What decides who comes?
The customer picks a slot, but not the technician. Your system decides that, based on three things: skills (who may do this work), work area (who works in these postcodes) and travel time (who is already nearby). That way the solar technician does not turn up for a heat pump, and options with a lot of travel sink in the ranking.
That only works if the basics are right. Every technician needs working hours and a start address, and their days off must be right. Without working hours the system cannot offer anything, and without a start address it can only estimate the drive from home. So finish your team's details before you invite customers.
In stipt you choose per appointment type whether skills and work area count, record per technician what they can do and where they work, and the option with the least travel time gets the label Greenest.
Pitfalls to avoid
- The link goes out before the team details are right: without working hours there are no slots to offer, and without work area or skills technicians drop out wherever you require them
- A wrong duration set: the customer then books a window the technician cannot make
- Only slots far ahead: if the first available day is two months away, the customer gives up and calls anyway
- Nobody follows up: a customer who does not open the link needs a reminder or a call after a few days
- A wrong or missing address on the record: travel time and work area cannot be right
- Urgent work in the link: appointments in a hurry are not chosen by letting a customer browse
- No plan for when there are no slots: the customer has to end up with a person, with a phone number
What about rescheduling and cancelling?
Decide up front whether the customer may reschedule themselves or whether that goes through the office. In stipt a used link is a confirmation: the customer sees their appointment, and changes go through you. That keeps the calendar reliable. Do put a phone number and an email address in the confirmation, so the customer knows where to go.
Also ask yourself what you do about a customer who books and then forgets. A confirmation and a reminder beforehand belong here, as with any other appointment.
Frequently asked questions
Which appointments do you not let customers schedule?
Urgent breakdowns, complex projects with several parties and appointments where you first need to sort something out, such as materials still to be ordered. There your own planner decides the order.
Does the customer have to create an account?
Not with a good solution. The customer opens a personal link, without logging in or a password, picks a slot and confirms.
How far ahead can the customer book?
You set that per type of appointment: a site survey can go further ahead than a breakdown. Choose the horizon your planning can handle, and do not make it longer than you can see ahead.
What if the customer does not open the link?
Send a reminder after a few days and call if that does not help. Expect in your planning that some customers will not choose right away.
Can I not simply open my calendar for online booking?
You can, but it rarely makes for good scheduling. An open calendar shows slots that are free on paper but do not fit in practice: too far away, the wrong technician, a missing skill. Better is a scheduler that shows only slots calculated on travel time, skills and work area.
Read more
More articles. On software and processes in the installation trade.
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