10 Ways to Stay in Control of your Calendar with Online Booking

Running a grooming business can be extremely busy and hectic, and it can be challenging to keep track of everything that needs to be done. One of the biggest challenges that cause stress and confusion is managing your calendar by scheduling appointments that work for you, your staff, and your customers. Thankfully, with the help of online booking, it's easier than ever to stay in control of your calendar. Here are ten ways to make the most of online booking and keep your schedule under control.

1. Approval on booking requests 
2. Applicable service by weight/breeds
3. Booking Limits 
4. Book by slots
5. Block clients
6. Arrival window
7. New/returning clients' treatment
8. Certain Areas Certain Days
9. Fake it filter
10. Minimize booking gaps

#1 Approval on booking requests  

One of the best ways to stay in control of your calendar is to ensure that you have complete control over all of your appointments. With MoeGo’s online booking, you can approve, deny, or add any request to your waitlist. This way, you can ensure that only the appointments you want to accept when you want to accept them are added to your schedule. If there is a dog or pet parent you really want to avoid, or you know that you don’t have time to groom Dolly the 120-pound doodle on a Friday at 4 pm, then you can deny those requests. 

#2 Applicable service by weight/breed

You no longer have to worry about a pet parent booking a grooming service for their “small” 80-pound lab, because you can ensure that clients can only book appointments that are applicable to their pets based on weight or breed. Once a pet parent inputs their dog's breed or weight, only the appropriate services will be viewable for them to book. 

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#3 Booking limits

To prevent your groomers from becoming overloaded, it's important to set booking limits. Online booking lets you specify how many of a certain size dog or certain breeds you can accept daily. This way, none of your groomers will have 8 big dogs in one day! 

#4 Book by slots

Online booking also allows you to set up appointment slots. You can specify the length of each slot and the number of slots available each day. Clients can then book appointments during these available slots, which ensures that your schedule remains organized and manageable.

#5 Block certain clients 

Unfortunately, there will be clients you just don’t want to be able to book appointments online. If you have a difficult client or simply don't want to work with someone anymore, you can use online booking to block them from booking future appointments. This gives you more control over your schedule and ensures that you only work with clients that you feel comfortable with.

#6 Arrival window

Sometimes delays are inevitable and especially if you’re a mobile groomer, traffic is and will always be a factor, so having arrival windows offer flexibility to account for traffic or delays of any kind.

#7 New/returning clients' treatment 

You can also use online booking to differentiate between new and returning clients. For example, for existing clients, once they enter their phone number, all of their pet's information and past appointment information will be accessible making it easy for them to rebook with you. For new clients, it will require them to fill in any necessary information you need. 

#8 Certain areas, certain days 

If you work in different locations on different days, you can use online booking to specify which areas you'll be working in on specific days. This helps clients choose the location that's most convenient for them and ensures that you don't double book appointments in different locations. For example, if you only service North Hollywood on Mondays and Wednesdays, clients within those zip codes will only be able to see availability on Mondays and Wednesdays. 

# 9 Fake it filter

While you want to make sure your days are booked, you don’t want your days to be overbooked. Having back to back to back appointments isn’t always ideal for you or your business. With the fake it filter, you are able to block off a certain percentage of your calendar to your customers. This gives you more free time and breathing room in between appointments. 

# 10 Minimize booking gaps

Last but not least, you can use online booking to minimize gaps in your schedule. You can set up your online booking availability so it only shows the next available appointment for each groomer. This can help you maximize your time and ensure that you're making the most of your schedule and don’t have multiple-hour gaps in between appointments. 

Overall, Online Booking is an excellent tool for staying in control of your calendar and optimizing your time by managing requests quickly and easily.

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