The waitlist turns a cancellation into a rebooking without anyone picking up the phone. Open it from Schedule → Waitlist.
Add someone
Click Add to waitlist and fill in the client's name and phone, an optional service and provider, the earliest date they can come, an optional latest date, the times of day they accept (early morning, morning, afternoon, evening, or any), a priority (Normal or Urgent), and notes.
The AI can add callers itself when it cannot find a time that suits them.
What happens when a visit is cancelled
- A cancellation frees a slot still to come: from a client's text reply, the portal, the AI on the phone, web chat, an EHR sync, or your team (cancelling on the calendar, marking a visit declined on Confirmations, or deleting a future appointment). Each slot is offered once. Group sessions and blocked time aren't offered; to choose someone yourself, right-click the open slot and choose Fill from waitlist.
- FrontDesk finds waiting clients whose dates, times of day, service, and provider fit that slot, ordered urgent first, then by how long they have waited.
- Up to three of them are texted: "an appointment has opened up at {practice} on {day} at {time} … Reply YES to claim this spot", with a two-hour window. Their rows show Offered. Nobody is texted between 9pm and 8am their time: a client whose night it is gets the offer at 8am instead, if the time is still free then, and their two hours start when the text goes. Until then their row shows Held until 8am (with their time zone when it isn't yours; hover for the opening). If the opening is before their 8am, the next client is offered instead.
- The first YES books the visit as confirmed and texts them the details. The other offers for that time close and those clients stay on the list; they aren't texted unless they reply YES, in which case they're told the opening was just taken. A client who sends a second YES after being booked (or who staff already booked) gets no second text. NO keeps them waiting for the next one. Staff get a notification that the slot was claimed.
- Offers nobody answers expire on their own, and the clients return to Waiting.
Matching is by calendar day, so a request for "Tuesday" matches any Tuesday opening in the client's date range.
Find a match yourself
Find matches (or right-click an empty slot on the calendar and choose Fill from waitlist) takes a date, an optional time and service, and ranks the waiting clients by fit: urgency, how long they have waited, and whether the time of day and provider match. Offer from a result with one click; the search needs a time for that, because the text names it.
Row actions
- Offer slot texts the client the day and time you pick; a YES within two hours books it. Untick Text this offer to only record an offer made by phone (the button then reads Record offer).
- Book appears on an accepted row that has no visit yet and opens a pre-filled booking. Once a client is booked (by their YES or from this page) the row shows Booked and the date, and a second booking of the same entry is refused.
- Offer history lists every offer with when it was made, when it expires, and the outcome.
- Edit, call, text, or remove the entry. Select several rows for a bulk offer or removal.
Filters: All, Waiting, Offered, Urgent; a date filter (any dates, this week, within 30 days); and a search by name or phone. The ⋯ menu exports the list to CSV.
On a phone
The mobile view groups entries into Ready to offer, Waiting for a slot, and Offer sent, shows how many upcoming openings match each client, and lets you text them one of the nearest openings, with the same two-hour window (one at a time, because a reply can only answer the newest offer).
Good to know
- Offers and replies are texts, so the practice needs texting set up and the client a mobile number.
- A client who replies STOP is opted out of texts and cannot be offered by text. Automatic offers skip anyone who can't be texted (STOP, do-not-contact, no texts, or no mobile number) and offer the next match instead, still up to three texts.
- Waitlist offers, and FrontDesk's answer to the client's reply, appear in the client's thread in the Inbox, marked as automated. See Send and receive SMS.
- With Answer replies automatically off (Settings → Client Notifications → Reminder reply responses), a reply to an offer still books or declines it, but nothing is texted back. A YES then lands in the Inbox as needing a reply, so your team can tell the client whether they got the time. The same happens when the answer to a YES can't be texted.
- The Dashboard has a Waitlist widget with the current count.