For a pet sitter --- nothing can throw a wrench in your plans like a last minute request. Let's say your client Suzy Jones just got called out of town this evening but you were planning on checking out a few minutes early for a relaxing night. If Suzy submitted her request through the Portal, there is a chance you don't see it or get around to approving it til it's too late. How do you ensure your client's last minute requests get special treatment? You can set up a Client Service Request Limit!
Client Service Request Limits allow you to create specific rules that prevent your clients from submitting a last minute request that may fall through the cracks. You can set these up right in the Scheduler Settings section:
There are four options for your Client Service Requests Limit. First is "No Limit". This means that you are not enforcing any limits on when your clients can request services. Next is "No Requests For Same Day After". This means you can prevent clients from submitting requests for the same day after a certain time. Want to allow clients to request service up until 8am that day? Then this option is for you.
Next is "No Requests For Tomorrow After". This will prevent your clients from submitting a request for tomorrow after a time you've selected. Let's say you end your day at 5pm and you don't want a client to sneak in a request for tomorrow morning? Use this option:
And lastly is "No Requests Earlier Than". This allows you to actually set a number of hours in advance that you require for service requests. Want at least 24 hours? This is your best option.
So that leaves two final questions. What do your clients see when they do attempt to request a service with not enough advanced notice? And how do they contact you to see if you can squeeze their last minute request in?
Time To Pet provides you with the ability to create a custom message that is shown to your client when they submit the last minute request. This can be found right in the Language Customization section. Just look for the Portal Service Request Cut-Off message.
Most Time To Pet companies will add something here that informs the client that they can not accept requests with such short notice through the portal, asks them to contact them directly using their preferred method (like email or phone), and they may also mention something about their last minute request fee. What you want to tell your client is entirely up to you though!
