Make provider selection optional or required

Streamline the booking process for your clients by allowing them to skip the provider selection step when making a booking.

Display a "No Preference" button on the provider selection step

By default, clients are required to select a provider when booking. You can allow clients to select "No Preference" when choosing a provider, and bookings will be made with a randomly selected provider, or with the first available provider on your list. To enable the "No Preference" button, navigate to Settings > App Settings > Bookings and turn off the checkmark for Force clients to select a provider.

The button will be displayed at the bottom of the provider list by default, but you can move the button to the top of the list (above the providers) by turning on the checkmark for Make the no preference button the first option when booking, at the bottom of the page. 

Set the provider order for "No Preference" bookings

By default, when "No Preference" bookings are enabled, the provider for these bookings will be selected randomly, but you could choose instead to set these "No Preference" bookings to select the first available provider in the order of your provider list.

To set "No Preference" bookings to select a provider in order of your provider list, instead of selecting randomly, navigate to Settings > App Settings > Providers and set the dropdown for No Preference Provider Selection to Select by priority.

You can then change the order of your provider list by navigating to Manage > Providers and clicking Sort in the top right. In the image below, the providers are sorted so Jimmy is first. When a client selects No Preference, they'll be booked with Jimmy if he is available during the selected time slot. If Jimmy isn't available at that time, the booking will be made with Alice instead, and if Alice and Jimmy are both unavailable, the booking will go to Dave, and so on.

Enable the "No Preference" indicator on the schedule

You can set your schedule to show an icon on bookings where a client has selected No Preference, so that admins can tell which appointments were booked with the No Preference button, by setting the dropdown for Show No Preference Bookings to Enabled. When this setting is enabled, no preference bookings on the schedule will have a grey NP icon in the corner. In the image below, Alex has selected No Preference, whereas John specifically selected Jimmy as his provider: 

Allow or require clients to select a provider

To allow clients to select a provider when booking, navigate to Settings > App Settings > Providers and turn on the checkmark for Provider selection is allowed, set the When? dropdown to Always, and click Save to confirm your changes. Clients will still be able to select the No Preference button; to disable this button, select the Bookings tab from the left, turn on the checkmark for Force clients to select a provider, and click Save. 

Display a list of the next available time slots

You could also set your widget to show a list of your next available time slots after the client selects a service, with an option for clients to view the calendar if they want to select a specific day. To display this list on your booking widget, navigate to Settings > App Settings > Bookings  and set the dropdown for Show the next openings for clients to Enabled. You can display a message above the list by entering text in the box labeled Show a message at the top of the next openings list. Click Save to confirm your changes.