Diary — appointments, reminders, no-shows
The role that runs the appointment book: takes what comes in from the site and from messages, reminds people, handles the cancellation, and tells you about the no-show before you notice the empty chair.
It never double-books. Where two of your rules disagree it stops and asks which one wins, rather than picking.
Monday to Friday,
in specifics rather than verbs.
Invented and generic on purpose — there are no clients yet, so nothing below describes a real business. What it does describe accurately is what the role would do and where it would stop.
Four bookings arrived over the weekend. All four fit the rules; all four are in the calendar with the right gap after them.
A fifth asks for a slot only one of your staff can cover, on their day off. It is offered the two nearest alternatives instead.
Tomorrow's reminders go out, far enough ahead that somebody can still move it.
A cancellation inside your notice period. Your rule is applied, the slot is freed, and the person at the top of the waiting list is offered it.
Somebody does not turn up. You are told, and it is recorded — a no-show that nobody writes down happens again.
Next week is full except Tuesday morning. You know that on Friday rather than on Tuesday.
What you actually do,
and how long each part takes.
"Easy onboarding" is not a claim anybody believes. This is the list, with a duration on every line, and the longest line is the fortnight where it does nothing.
Connect the calendar you already live in. Two-way, so your private appointments block slots without you copying anything.
The rules: services and durations, who can do what and where, the gaps, how far ahead and how late.
Your cancellation rule, in the words you would say to a customer.
Two weeks of watching: it proposes and you confirm, so the rules get corrected against real bookings.
It books directly within the rules. Anything outside them still comes to you.
Three ways this role fails,
and what happens then.
It will be wrong. The design assumption is not that it will not be — it is that when it is, the item stops, says so and waits, and that you find out from the system rather than from a customer.
Two of your rules contradict each other.
It stops and asks which wins, then writes the answer into the brief. Most businesses discover two or three of these in the first fortnight.
Somebody books something you cannot actually do.
That is a missing rule, not a mistake. It is added, and the same booking is impossible from then on.
The calendar sync drops.
It stops taking bookings rather than taking them into a calendar it cannot see. A double-booking is worse than a slow reply.
It never double-books. Where two of your rules disagree, it stops and asks which one wins.
What this role does not touch.
A role that claims to take everything is a role nobody with a real business believes. Naming what stays with you is what makes the rest of the page worth reading.
Three questions
this one gets and the others do not.
How is this different from the booking system build?
The build is the software your customers use, once, at a fixed price. This role is a person's job done every week: watching what comes in, handling the awkward ones, chasing the waiting list. You can have either without the other, and plenty of businesses only need the build.
Can it phone people?
No. It writes — mail and messages. A voice on the phone claiming to be your business is exactly the line this shop does not cross.
What about several locations?
Supported, and it is where the rules get genuinely complicated. Say so on the call, because it changes how long the setup takes rather than what it costs monthly.
Watches the inbox so you can stop refreshing it.
Turns an enquiry into a priced offer, ready to send.
Issues them, chases the quiet ones, matches the payments.
Reads what arrives as a PDF and files it where it belongs.
One message a week: what came in, what went out, what needs you.