Letting clients choose their practitioner

Some clients will only see one person. Others just want the earliest time. A good booking page handles both without making either kind of client work for it. Here is how to think about letting clients choose their practitioner, and how BookAndGo handles it.

Why choice matters

In many service businesses the relationship is the product. A massage client knows exactly how their therapist works on a sore shoulder. A hair client trusts one stylist with their colour. A physio patient wants the person who knows their history. For those clients, being able to book their person by name is the difference between booking online and ringing you.

Other clients care about time, not who. A new client looking for a quick appointment, or someone fitting a session around work, will happily take whoever is available. Forcing them to pick a name slows them down and can leave them staring at a full diary for one person when another has space.

Any available, or a person by name

When a service is run by more than one person, BookAndGo lets clients either pick any available time or choose a person by name. With any available, the booking page shows every time when at least one person who runs that service is working and not already booked, and the booking goes to someone who is.

When a client chooses a person, they only see that person's times. Each person's working week and days off apply, so a client choosing a part-timer sees only the days that person works.

What happens when that person is busy

This is the part that matters most. If a client chooses someone by name and that person is booked or not working, the booking does not go ahead. It is never quietly swapped to a colleague. The client who wanted Sarah gets Sarah, or they choose another time, and nobody turns up expecting one person and finds another.

If the time they wanted is gone, a waitlist on that service lets them ask for it anyway. If it frees up, you can accept them into it.

Which to encourage

For most businesses, offering both is right. Regulars choose their person; new clients take any available and often find a favourite. If your team members are genuinely interchangeable for a service, such as a group class, any available is simplest. If the relationship is the reason people come back, make sure each person's name is clear and their hours are accurate, so choosing by name actually works.

Keep service lengths and buffers honest too, so the times shown for each person are times they can really keep.

A worked example

A Wellington barbershop has three barbers. Most regulars have their barber; walk-ins and new clients want the next chair. Skin fades and beard trims are run by all three, while one barber does the longer hot towel shave.

The shop sets each barber's working week on their own calendar and adds the hot towel shave only to the barber who does it. A regular picks their barber by name and sees only that barber's times. A new client picks any available and sees every time a barber is working and not already booked. When a regular's barber is fully booked on Saturday, the regular either picks another day with the same barber, books someone else by choice, or joins the waitlist. The booking is never moved to another chair without them choosing it.

Making names useful

Choice only helps if clients know who they are choosing. Use the name your clients call each person, and make sure each person's services are right, so nobody can book a service with someone who does not do it.