Arrival time windows: book visits without being late

When you work in people's homes, promising an exact arrival time is a promise you'll break as soon as one job runs over or traffic is bad. Arrival windows solve this: the customer books a morning or afternoon window, you decide how many visits fit in each, and you call when you're on your way. Group the windows by area on set days, keep an exact time only for the first job of the day, and tell customers clearly what the window means and what to prepare.

A dripping tap turns out to be a corroded valve. The boiler service is quick, but the customer has a question about the radiators. The cleaner finds a kitchen that needs twice the usual time. In a workshop, an overrun means a customer waits in reception; at home, it means the next customer waits in an empty house, having maybe taken the morning off work.

A window is honest about that uncertainty. The customer knows they need to be home between 8 and 12, and you have room to do each job properly.

On Book, create a service per type of visit, for example "Repair visit", "Boiler service" or "Regular clean", with its description and an optional price. Open one slot per window and set the number of places to the number of visits you can realistically do in it: each customer books one place, and when the window is full it no longer appears on your page. For long jobs, keep one place per window.

Slots from different services aren't linked. If you offer both repair visits and boiler services in the same morning, remember that a booking in one doesn't reduce the other. Either open each window for one service only, or count all your services when you set capacity.

Windows work best when the visits in them are close to each other. Choose which areas you cover on which days, for example the north of town on Tuesday and the south on Thursday, and say it in the service description or in the service name itself. A slot created once can be repeated on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so your area pattern is set up for the whole season in a few minutes.

When a customer outside your usual areas asks for a visit, agree a day by phone and book it yourself from your calendar, in the window that fits best on your route that day.

The booking form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note. You receive an email for each new booking, with the note, so you can prepare parts or tools and plan your route the evening before.

Book confirms the booking by email, but it doesn't send "on my way" messages or reminders. A quick call or text when you leave the previous job is what makes windows work for customers. If a job runs so long that you'll miss the next window, call the customer as early as possible and offer another window; then reschedule the booking from your bookings list. Book doesn't email the customer when a booking changes, so your call is the confirmation.

Burst pipes, lockouts and power cuts don't wait for a window. Keep emergencies on the phone and use the booking page for everything that can be planned. If you regularly fit urgent calls in, leave one window a day unopened as a buffer.

Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited bookings and services, no commission on your jobs and no contract.