How does the waitlist work?

The waitlist under Schedule › Waitlist holds the bookings you could not fit. Each entry is a client, a pet, a service, a window of dates, a time preference (any, morning or afternoon), and optionally a preferred groomer.

Steps: add and fill

1. Add an entry from the Waitlist page, or from the booking wizard when the day the client wants has no opening (Join the waitlist). Clients can also add themselves from your booking page when nothing is open.
2. When a slot frees up on a day with waiting entries, the calendar shows a nudge ("3 waitlisted for today. Tap to view"). Open it, or the Waitlist page.
3. Click Send Offer on the entry that fits. The client gets an email and text with the slot and a link. Tapping the link books it; nothing else is needed from you.
4. Or click Book to book them yourself through the wizard; the entry is marked booked automatically.

An offer holds for the offer hold time you set (24 hours by default). If it is not taken, the entry goes back to waiting and the next match can be offered. Entries whose last wanted date passes expire; Reactivate brings one back.

Letting Woof do it

Smart Waitlist Automation on the Waitlist page is off by default. Switched on, every cancellation or new opening is offered to the first matching waiting entry, in the order they joined, with these settings:

• Delay before offering: buffer time for staff to fill the slot by hand first.
• Offer hold time: how long the client has to accept.
• Quiet hours: no offers go out overnight.

An expired offer cascades to the next match on its own. Staff are told at every step in the bell.

Seeing whether it works

Insights › Waitlist Tracking shows offers sent, slots filled, expirations and average response time.

A pet whose groom is finished shows as Ready on the calendar, so a glance at the day tells you who is waiting to go home. It stays that way until you check them out.