Scheduling and reminders

Bookings that land in the calendar and remind themselves.

A build that puts bookings straight into your calendar, confirms them by text and email, reminds the customer the day before, and gives them a link to move the time instead of ringing you. No-shows get followed up without anyone remembering to.

Get your free plan Three sizes

The standard size takes: Two weeks
You own: The system and the calendar rules, in your accounts
Runs monthly: Only if you choose to pay monthly

No figure appears on this page. Your free plan comes back with the price of every size, and with what the whole job costs together.

What it is

A booking made by phone tag costs both sides a quarter of an hour of messages and still ends up written down twice. When the customer picks from the slots you actually have free and the job writes itself into the calendar with the address and the notes, the double booking stops being possible and that quarter hour goes back into the day.

Reminders are the cheapest thing in this catalogue. A text the day before and a message on the morning turn most no-shows into either an attendance or an early cancellation, and an early cancellation is a slot you can still sell. The follow-up afterwards recovers a share of the rest.

This is for you if

Booking a time takes four messages and two phone calls
People forget appointments and the slot is wasted
Two jobs get booked into the same window because two people booked them
Rescheduling means ringing you, so people just do not turn up

One of these is usually enough. If none of them is true, this is not the first thing I would build for you, and the plan will say so.

Why it comes where it does

Booking by phone tag costs two people a string of calls and messages for one appointment, and the appointment still gets forgotten. A no-show costs a whole slot, and neither problem needs a person once the system is built.

Nothing has to be built before this one, so it can be the first thing you do. Your free plan still puts it in order against everything else you are considering.

Three sizes, by scope

The sizes differ by how much is in them, not by how well it is done. Start at the size that matches the business today; moving up later is normal.

The Essentials

Bookings in the calendar, confirmed.

A booking page showing only the slots you have free
Jobs written into your calendar with address and notes
Confirmation by email and text
Written documentation

One week

The usual choice

The Standard

Reminded and rescheduled without a phone call. Most businesses choose this.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Reminders the day before and on the morning
A reschedule link inside your notice rules
No-show follow-up the same day
Training for whoever manages the diary

Two weeks

The Works

The diary for a team on the road.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Multiple staff calendars with skills and travel time
Deposit taken at booking where it fits
On-the-way texts on the day of the job
Monthly report of bookings, cancellations and no-shows

Three weeks

The figure for each of the three sizes is not published here, because it depends on what else you are building at the same time. Build your free plan and the figure for each size comes back with it, along with what the whole job costs together.

How it is built

01
I map how a booking happens now: who takes it, what they ask, where it gets written.
02
I set the rules with you: job lengths, travel time, hours, notice for a change, who covers what.
03
The build: booking page, calendar connection, confirmations and reminders by text and email.
04
Reschedule links and the no-show follow-up.
05
A week running beside the old way, then the old way stops.
06
Written documentation and a session with whoever manages the diary.

Before you decide

Three things people get wrong.

They sayOur jobs are too variable to book online.

Then the booking asks the two or three questions that decide the length, and only offers slots that fit. Variable does not mean unbookable, it means the rules need writing down once.

They sayLetting customers reschedule themselves will make a mess of the calendar.

You set the notice period and the hours. Inside those rules a reschedule is better than a no-show, and outside them the link asks them to call.

They sayWe already send reminders.

By hand, when someone remembers, on the days that are not busy. The value here is that the busy weeks get the same reminders as the quiet ones.

Your options

The alternatives, side by side.

Doing it yourself and hiring it out are both real answers. Here is how the three compare on the things that actually decide it.

Slide the table sideways to read every column.

Option	What it costs	What you own	Time	Outcome
Keep doing it by hand	Phone tag, double bookings and the slots no-shows waste	Nothing new	Now	A calendar only one person fully understands
Hire a booking coordinator	A salary plus leave, KiwiSaver, sick days and training	A person, who can leave	Weeks to hire, months to train	Booked well in office hours, nothing after five
This build	One build, or a monthly fee	The system and the calendar rules, in your accounts	Two weeks	Booked around the clock, confirmed, reminded and followed up

In practice

A diary that fills itself

Customers pick a time from the slots you actually have free, the job appears in the calendar with the address and the notes, a text goes out the day before, and anyone who does not turn up gets a message the same afternoon offering another time.

Straight answers

Questions I get asked about this.

01Which calendar does it use?

The one you already use. Google Calendar and Outlook are the common ones, and the job lands there with the address and the notes attached.

02Can we still book someone in over the phone?

Yes. A phone booking goes in the same calendar and gets the same confirmation and reminders. The booking page is the fast path, not the only path.

03Do reminders go by text or email?

Both, and you choose which for which job. Text is what stops no-shows; email carries the detail and the reschedule link.

04What happens when someone does not turn up?

They get a message the same day offering another time, and the slot is marked so it shows in the monthly count. A recovered booking is a slot you would otherwise have lost outright.

Also in administration

What sits next to this.

Business operations retainer

The admin that runs itself.

Workflow audit

Where the hours actually go, measured over two weeks.

Quote and invoice automation

Quotes that follow themselves up. Invoices that chase themselves.

See all of administration

The next move

Scheduling and reminders, priced in context.

The free plan asks a few questions about the business, then comes back with this service at the size that fits, anything that has to come first, and the figure for each part and for the whole job. Nothing is charged and nothing is booked at the end of it.

Get your free plan stuart@sevenlens.co

Get your free plan