How far ahead should clients be able to book?

Most booking pages let people book twelve months ahead because that was the default and nobody changed it. It is worth changing. The booking window is one of the few settings that quietly decides your no show rate, how painful your next price rise is and how much of the week you spend rescheduling.

Long windows raise no shows

The further out an appointment is made, the more likely life gets in the way. Someone booking six weeks ahead has six weeks to change jobs, book a holiday, move house or simply forget why they booked in the first place. Someone booking on Tuesday for Thursday has two days.

That is not an argument for a two day window. It is an argument for noticing that a twelve month window and a six week window produce measurably different diaries.

Long windows lock in old prices

Every appointment sitting in your diary at last year's price is a small hole in this year's revenue. If you raise prices in March and honour bookings made before the change, a twelve month window means you are still doing March work at February prices the following January.

A shorter window makes an annual price rise painless. A long one turns it into a spreadsheet exercise you will put off.

What to actually set

• Repeat appointments such as a cut, a groom or a nail infill work well at six to eight weeks. Long enough for a client on a monthly cycle to book the next two, short enough that most of them turn up.
• Seasonal and event work needs longer. A wedding makeup artist or a marquee hire business has to take bookings a year out, because a year out is when the decision gets made.
• Vehicle work follows the MOT and service cycle, so a garage wants at least three months and usually twelve, because customers book the moment the reminder lands.
• Anything carrying a real deposit can safely take a longer window. The deposit is already doing the job the short window was doing.

Minimum notice matters more than maximum

Almost everybody tunes the maximum and ignores the minimum. Minimum notice is the setting that stops somebody booking a two hour colour for eleven minutes' time while you are mid appointment with your phone in the back room.

Set it to the shortest period in which you would genuinely be ready. For most businesses that is two to four hours. For anything needing preparation, stock or travel it is a day. Setting it to zero and hoping is how you end up apologising to somebody who did nothing wrong.

A rule of thumb

Set the window to roughly twice your typical rebooking cycle, then let deposits handle anything longer. A barber on a four week cycle wants eight weeks. A dog groomer on an eight week cycle wants sixteen. A garage on an annual cycle wants twelve months and a reminder.

Then measure it. Break your no show rate down by how far ahead each booking was made. If appointments booked more than six weeks out fail twice as often as the rest, you have just found your window and it is shorter than the one you have.