We have always struggled with the waitlist in Booker. We can’t sort the list by any of the column headings, except “Customer” and “Date Added.” To us, the no brainer sort for the waitlist is by staff, but Booker has never allowed that. When an opening is created on the schedule from a cancelation, for example, waitlist dutifully jumps into action via a pop-up window and seems really helpful — until you realize it isn’t. This is because waitlist will suggest specific customers that you can immediately add to the schedule WITH NO PHONE NUMBER OR ANY OTHER WAY TO CONTACT THAT CLIENT TO CONFIRM THEY WILL TAKE IT. Really? So, we always try to remember who was suggested by the waitlist, or write the names down (as inefficient as that is) so we can contact our customer and get their permission before adding them to the waitlist.
Recently, while updating the “internal notifications,” I noticed a notification feature called, “When a time slot is available, notify.” I thought that this must be the missing piece of the waitlist when I could simply get an email anytime an opening was created on our schedule.
So, I tried it by typing my email address in the field provided. This is one of the 10 or so emails that were generated by this notification on the first day using it.
You may notice there is not much information in these emails. It does not tell me which of our 20 staff members has an opening, nor does it tell me any of the customers who might fill that opening. But wait, you say, at least there is a link in the email that must have more information. That link takes the user right back to the same old waitlist that cannot be sorted by means usable for us and looks like this. (personal data has been removed.)
Again, there is very little here in this waitlist that is helpful.
We are thinking about using a spreadsheet or a database in place of the waitlist in Booker. At least we can sort that kind of list by staff!
Honestly, I would love to write something more positive, but this blog is called Booker Problems.
Booker Scheduling Problems 