Increase your earnings by quickly filling in last-minute cancellations. Take complete control over setting your waitlist rules and maximize your appointment schedule with Vagaro's expanded and automated Waitlist feature.
You have four waitlist options to choose from:
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You Pick: Select a customer from the waitlist and book them into an open slot
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Money Maker: Automatically notify the customer who has the highest-paid appointment
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First in Line: Automatically notify the first customer on the waitlist
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Instant Book: Automatically notify all customers on the waitlist. The first to book gets the appointment
This article will cover the following:
Related Article: Create a Waitlist - Web Version
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Tap More and then navigate to → → .
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Scroll down to the Waitlist section.
You'll be able to choose from four Waitlist types:
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You Pick: Manually select a customer from a waitlist and add them to an opening slot on the calendar from your Notification Panel when your schedule is full, and a customer cancels.
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Money Maker: An automatic notification is sent to the customer with the highest-paid appointment on the waitlist. If that customer does not respond within your set period, the opening is offered to the next highest-paid appointment.
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First in Line: An automatic notification is sent to the first customer on the waitlist. If that customer doesn't respond within the period you set, a notification goes to the customer who is next in line.
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Instant Book: An automatic notification is sent to all wait-list customers. The first to book gets the appointment.
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Note
You can set Customers Can Add to Waitlist on or off for any waitlist type. When turned on (green), customers using your online booking page can add themselves to a waitlist if they can't find the appointment time they want.
Manually select a customer from the waitlist and add them to an open slot on the calendar.
Example: Let's say Sara, one of your employees, gets an account notification that five waitlist appointments can fill a 120-minute slot.
Sara would manually add the customer by selecting the Add Now button from the Notification Panel. This prompts the system to notify the customer, confirming they got the appointment.
To set You Pick as your waitlist type, tap it in the Waitlist section and then tap Save.
The customer with the highest-paid appointment on the waitlist is automatically offered the opening slot first. If a customer does not respond within the period you set (Time to Respond), the opening is offered to the next highest-paid appointment.
You can set the response period in the fields under Time to Respond for days, hours, and minutes.
Example: Let's say we have these five waitlisted appointments for a 60-minute opening in the calendar:
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Wendy - $30 haircut / 30 minutes
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Helen - $40 haircut / 30 minutes
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Doris - $285 haircut / 150 minutes
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Jodi - $40 haircut / 30 minutes
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Gretchen - $85 haircut / 60 minutes
The earliest available time goes to Gretchen because she has the highest-paid appointment that fits into the time slot.
Although Doris has the highest-paid appointment, the duration of her service is too long and does not fit within the available time.
To set up Money Maker as your waitlist type:
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Select Money Maker.
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In Time to Respond, set how long the customer has to respond before the appointment is offered to the next customer on the list.
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Tap Save.
With First in Line, an automatic notification is sent to the first customer on the waitlist. If a customer does not respond within the period you set (Time to Respond), the opening is offered to the next customer in line.
You can set the response period in the fields under Time to Respond for days, hours, and minutes.
Example: Let's say Wendy was the first to be added to the waitlist. She receives the first notification. If Wendy does not respond within the period you set, the appointment will be offered to the next customer in line. At this point, both Wendy and the second customer can book the appointment.
To set up First in Line as your waitlist type:
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Tap First in Line.
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In Time to Respond, set how long the customer has to respond before the appointment is offered to the next customer on the list.
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Tap Save.
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Navigate to your Calendar page.
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Tap any empty spot on the day you want, and then tap Add to Waitlist.
On the Add to Waitlist screen, fill in the following as needed:
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Select the Customer to add to the waitlist.
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Select the Service.
You can add up to 3 services here. Once you've added the first, tap +Add Service to add more.
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Select Employee.
The default is the employee whose calendar you are showing, but you can select additional employees or use Select All to include all employees who offer the selected service.
Note
If multiple services are selected, you must make individual employee selections for each.
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Select up to 5 dates.
You can remove additional services and date/time entries by tapping the minus symbol next to an entry.
Tap Select Date Time to add more.
Select a date from the pop-up calendar and then a time range (Anytime, Morning, Afternoon, or Evening). Tap Done on each to save the selections.
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Add an Appointment Note, if wanted.
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Tap Add to Waitlist when you've configured the entries as needed.
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Tap the bell icon for Notifications.
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Find and tap the Waitlist notification option.
There are two types of Waitlisted Appointments:
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Ready Appointments: when Waitlisted appointments become available, they will be listed here.
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Customers on Waitlist: these are appointment requests made for days without employee/service availability.
The blue bell icon with a customer's name shows that a notification has been sent to the customer and the date and time sent.
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There are three options for each waitlist entry: Remove, Call the customer, and Browse Availability.
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Tap Remove to remove the customer from the Waitlist.
Confirm in the dialog that displays.
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Tap the customer's phone number to contact them directly.
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Tap Browse Availability to check for any openings in your schedule and add the waitlisted customer to an appointment.
You can change the service (or add more services), employee, and date.
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Tap Search to view available appointments for the selected day.
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Select a Time.
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Make any changes to the New Appointment screen, and then tap Book.
You can see that the waitlisted customer has been added to the Calendar.
To restrict an employee's access to the waitlist feature on the notification panel, follow these steps:
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Tap More and navigate to → → .
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Select an employee type, tap the More (3 vertical dots) menu, and tap Edit.
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Scroll down to the following settings:
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Accept Appointment Requests and Waitlists
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Accept Other Employee Appointment Requests and Waitlist
Each has a button marked Modify. Toggle it on or off. Green means that the option has been enabled for the employee.
See Setting Access Levels - Vagaro Pro app to learn more about access levels.
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Tap Save.
Comments
5 comments
Is there a way to put a customer on the wait list when I am pre-booking them after checkout? Or when they ask to move an appointment?
Is there a report that can be generated in order to visualize which clients are on the waiting list?
Hello Annie & Rachel,
The system will not track pre-booking with the wait list function. This can only be done by clicking on the previous appointment and selecting "Rebook" or it is done from the checkout screen.
There are no reports that can be generated in order visualize how many or which clients are on the waiting list at this time either.
We have been looking over our functions in Vagaro and reassessing our feature requests recently and I felt this link to another forum would be a good place to address some of the things you are looking for - https://support.vagaro.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/202408540
Is there a way to make the waitlist not be set for a specific day? Can you make an option where it is just a wait list in general for a month or week or day? I am booked out almost 3 months, and its impossible to have someone put a specific day- Its hard for me to track everyone who wants on the waitlist if there is a cancellation. I love this service, this is the only issue I have with it.
Cecilia - we have a feature request page (https://feedback.vagaro.com/forums/915991-feature-requests) where you can submit a request like this. There's a Search option (lower right) where you could search for "waitlist" and see if any existing suggestions match what you'd like to see and then add your vote. We've made improvements to the waitlist functions based on past suggestions, just not this one, so take a look or add a new suggestion.
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