Pest treatments that need several visits: booking follow-ups

Book every follow-up visit before you leave the first one. Treatments for bedbugs, cockroaches or rodents rarely work in a single pass: the second visit catches what hatched or survived, the third checks baits or confirms the result. If those visits are left to "call me in two weeks", some customers forget, some call too late, and the treatment fails. Create the follow-up slots on the dates your protocol needs and book the customer into them from your calendar, with the preparation instructions in the note.

After a first treatment, customers see fewer insects and assume the problem is solved. The eggs that survived hatch a few days or weeks later, and by then the follow-up hasn't been booked. For rodents, bait stations need checking and refilling; a missed check means the population recovers. When the treatment fails, the customer blames the technician, not the missed visit.

Treating the full treatment as one plan, with dates fixed at the start, avoids that. The customer knows from day one that there are two or three visits, and when.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Each slot belongs to one service, with its own start and end. Customers pick a service, then a free slot. With one place per slot, a booked slot is full and disappears from your page.

Lengths and prices are examples: set your own. If your price covers the full treatment with its follow-ups, say it in the first visit's description and show the follow-ups at a price of zero, or explain it in words; Book displays whatever price you enter.

The first visit is the one customers book themselves. The public booking form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that you read in your new-booking email. Ask for the type of pest, the size of the home, the rooms affected, and how long the problem has lasted. In the description, list the preparation for the first visit, such as washing bedding at high temperature, emptying wardrobes or clearing floors, and warn that the treatment includes follow-up visits.

For discreet situations, such as bedbugs in a flat or a hotel room, say in the description that you arrive in an unmarked vehicle if that's the case, and ask in the note for any access instructions.

Customers can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you reschedule from your bookings list, keeping within the window your protocol allows. Book doesn't email them about changes, so confirm the new date yourself, and remind them that moving it too far may reduce the effect of the treatment. Book doesn't take payments, so say in the description how and when you're paid. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.