Garden centres and florists: booking order collection slots

Give customers a booked time to collect their orders: short collection slots, such as fifteen minutes, each with a set number of places matched to how many orders your team can hand over in that time. Open more slots on peak dates, keep bulky items like trees and pallets of compost for slots near the loading area, and say in the description what to bring. Orders are ready when customers arrive, queues at the counter shrink, and cut flowers wait in the cold room until just before collection.

A collection slot isn't one customer: it's how many orders you can hand over in fifteen or thirty minutes. On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own capacity. When a slot is full, it leaves your page, so later customers choose another time instead of crowding the same one.

Lengths and places are examples: set your own. Leave the price empty: the order is paid the way you take payment today.

Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, All Saints' Day and the run-up to Christmas bring a rush of orders on a few days. Open extra collection slots for those dates only, with more places per slot if you have extra staff on. Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, but for peak days create the slots for those dates directly. When the day's slots are full, your page shows only the remaining days, which tells customers to order earlier or pick another date.

Trees, large shrubs and bags of compost need space and sometimes two people to load. Keep them in a separate service with fewer places and longer slots, and say in the description where to park and whether staff help load. Ask customers to bring a vehicle that fits the order.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that reaches you in the new booking email and appears in the customer's calendar file. Ask in the note for the order number or the name on the order, and whether someone else will collect it. Say in the description what to bring, such as the order confirmation, and how long you keep unclaimed orders.

Check the next day's collections in your bookings list each afternoon and prepare orders in slot order. Label each one with the customer's name and slot time. Keep cut flowers chilled until the slot before collection. Your bookings sync with Google, iPhone or Mac calendars, so the team can see the day's collections at a glance.

Book handles the collection time, not the order itself. Whether customers order on your website, by phone or in store, send them your booking link with the order confirmation and ask them to pick a collection slot. A short line such as "Choose your collection time here" next to the link is enough. Match orders to bookings with the order number in the note.

If you also deliver, a delivery round can work the same way: a service per area with slots for morning or afternoon windows and a few places each. Customers choose between collecting and delivery by picking the service.

When a customer orders by phone, book their collection slot yourself; first and last name are required, email and phone optional, and the customer receives a confirmation with a calendar file if you enter their email. Book doesn't send reminders, so that calendar entry is what reminds them to come.

Customers can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you move the collection to another slot from your bookings list and confirm it yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Say in the description how long you hold an order after a missed slot, especially for cut flowers. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.