Increase your earnings by quickly filling last-minute cancellations. Take complete control over how you set your waitlist rules and maximize your appointment schedule with Vagaro's automated Waitlist feature.
You specifically have four options to choose from:
- You Pick: This allows you to manually select a client from a waitlist and add them to an opening slot on the calendar from your Notifications Panel when your schedule is full and a customer cancels.
- Money Maker: An automatic notification is sent to the customer with the highest paid appointment on the waitlist. If a customer does not respond within the time frame you set, the opening is offered to the next highest paid appointment.
- First in Line: An automatic notification is sent to the first client on the waitlist. If the customer does not respond within the time frame you set, a notification is sent to the client who is next in line.
- Instant Book: An automatic notification is sent to all clients on the waitlist. The first to book gets the appointment.
You can also allow customers to add themselves to a waitlist when they schedule appointments on your booking page. Click this link to see how clients can do this online: How to Add Yourself to a Waitlist in Vagaro (For Clients of a Vagaro Business)
To create a Waitlist in Vagaro using the Vagaro Pro App, follow these steps:
- Tap More at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Settings.
- Select Online Appointment Rules.
- Select the Waitlist Type you prefer. To allow customers to add themselves to a waitlist when they book online, select Customers Can Add to Waitlist.
- Once you're finished, tap Save.
Related Article: How to Create a Waitlist in Vagaro on the Desktop Version.
Let's get started!
1. Tap More at the bottom of the screen.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select Online Appointment Rules.
4. You'll be able to choose from four Waitlist Types:
- You Pick: This allows you to manually select a client 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.
- Money Maker: An automatic notification is sent to the customer with the highest paid appointment on the waitlist. If a customer does not respond within the time frame (Time to Respond) you set, the opening is offered to the next highest paid appointment.
- First in Line: An automatic notification is sent to the first client on the waitlist. If the customer does not respond within the time frame you set, a notification is sent to the client who is next in line.
- Instant Book: An automatic notification is sent to all clients on the waitlist. The first to book gets the appointment.
Let's explore all the Waitlist options in more detail.
You Pick
In this case, you'll be able to manually select the client from the waitlist and add them to an opening slot on the calendar.
Example: Let's say, Sara, one of your employees, gets an account notification that there are five waitlist appointments that can fill a 120-minute slot.
In this case, Sara would manually add the customer by selecting the Add Now button in the Notifications panel. This prompts the system to send a notification to the customer, confirming they got the appointment. Let's explore manually adding a client to a waitlist further.
Manually Adding a Customer to a Waitlist on the Calendar
1. Once you access your Calendar and go to the preferred day, tap the white space next to a time slot that is taken.
2. Tap Add to Waitlist.
3. Select the Customer. Select the Service. You can add up to three services. Select the Multiple Dates option to select the dates you prefer.
4. Tap Select Date Time.
5. Once you've selected a date on the calendar, tap Done at the bottom of the screen.
6. Select the time frames you prefer. Once you're finished, tap Done.
7. Tap Select Date Time to select additional times. When you're finished, tap Done at the bottom of the screen.
8. Once you're finished, tap Book Waitlist. Once you add a customer to a waitlist, you'll be able to view it on your Notifications Panel. Let's look at this option in more detail.
Viewing Waitlisted Customers in the Notifications Panel
1. You'll be able to view all waitlisted customers in the Notifications Panel in your account. To get started, tap the Notifications option at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap the Waitlist option. In the example below, we have 11 notifications, meaning we have 11 waitlisted customers.
3. Once you get to the Waitlist notifications page, you'll be able to see all your Waitlisted customers. There are two types of Waitlisted appointments.
- Ready Appointments - these are appointments that are booked by the business when a time slot is not available or has been taken by another customer. You'll be able to see the details of the appointment.
- Customers on Waitlist - these are appointments that are waiting to be approved by the business. Again, you'll be able to see the details of the appointment.
Ready Appointments
You'll be able to see details of the appointment. A bell icon next to the Available status means a notification has been sent to the client.
Tap Remove to remove the customer from the Waitlist. Tap the customer's phone number to contact them directly about any updates. Tap Browse Availability to check for any openings in your schedule and to add a waitlisted customer to an appointment.
Customers on Waitlist
You'll be able to see details of the appointment. Tap Remove to remove the customer from the Waitlist. Tap the customer's phone number to contact the client directly. Tap Browse Availability to check for any openings in your schedule and to add a waitlisted customer to an appointment.
Money Maker
In this instance, 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 time frame you set (Time to Respond), the opening is offered to the next highest paid appointment.
You can set the time frame in the fields under Time to Respond. This allows you to set a time in which the customer must respond before the slot is offered to the next highest paid appointment. You can set it by day, hour and/or minute.
Example: Let's say we have these 5 waitlisted appointments:
- Wendy- $30 haircut / 30 minutes
- Helen- $40 haircut / 30 minutes
- Doris- $285 haircut / 150 minutes
- Jodi- $40 haircut / 30 minutes
- Gretchen- $85 haircut / 60 minutes
In this case, the earliest available time would go to Gretchen because she has the highest paid appointment and fits within the time slot.
Even though Doris has the highest paid appointment, the duration of her service is too long and does not fit within the available time slot.
First in Line
In this case, an automatic notification is sent to the first client on the waitlist. If the customer does not respond within the time frame you set, a notification is sent to the client who is next in line.
You can set the time frame in the fields under Time to Respond. This allows you to set a time in which the customer must respond before the slot is offered to the next person in line. You can set it by day, hour and/or minute.
Example: Let's say Wendy is the first one to get added to the waitlist. A notification will be sent to this client first. If Wendy does not respond within the time frame you set, the appointment will be offered to the second client in line. At this point, both Wendy and the second customer can book the appointment.
Instant Book
In this case, an automatic notification is sent to all clients on the waitlist. The first client who books the appointment gets it. The customer will receive a push, email, and text notification with a link to your booking page.
Once you're finished, tap Save.
Select Customers Can Add to Waitlist to allow customers to add themselves to the waitlist when they book online. Once you're finished, tap Save.
How to Restrict Employees from Using the Waitlist Feature
1. To restrict an employee's access to the waitlist feature on the notification panel, follow these steps:
- Tap More at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Settings.
- Select Access Levels under Employees.
Once you get to the Access Levels page and access the specific access level, tap Modify for these options:
- Ability to accept their own appointment requests and waitlists.
- Ability to accept other's appointment requests and waitlists.
A green color means that the option has been enabled for the employee. To learn more about access levels, click this link: How to Set Access Levels in Vagaro.
2. Tap Save at the bottom of the screen when you're finished.
Comments
8 comments
How can you tell if there are any customers who booked online wanting to be waitlisted? And how do you tell them to wait list themselves for online booking?
Jaymie - The wait list can only be setup internally by someone at the business. Customers don't have an option to be wait listed online.
How do you access the wait list if you just wanted to look if there is anyone on the wait list?
All Wait List appointments are colored Pink on the calendar screen. When you hover over the appointment it will also display a pop-up "On Waiting List".
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
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