When a group session is full, customers can join its waiting list so they are first in line if a place opens up. Most of the work is done for you: a freed place is offered by itself. This article shows where you can see who is waiting, what happens by itself, and what you can do about each person.
Where to Find This
You can see a session's waiting list in two places:
- In the session, on the Waiting tab, next to Booked. Open the session from Home, from the Today list or Calendar on Bookings, or from Sessions by day on Customers. See Taking the Session Register.
- In Needs you. When someone is waiting, a row says Sam is waiting for a place (or Sam and 2 others are waiting for a place) with the session and when it runs. Its See the waiting list button opens the session. See Needs You.
Both are for a role that can look at bookings. Changing the list (offering a place, skipping or removing someone) needs permission to change bookings.
What the Waiting Tab Shows
Each person waiting, or holding an offer, is a row. A row shows:
- a round mark with their initials, and their name
- how many places they want, if it is more than one
- for an offer that is out, how long is left, for example offer expires in 12 min or offer expires in 3h 0m, counting down while you watch. An offer that has run out says offer expired.
- where they stand and when they joined, for example Next in line, joined 3 days ago or 3rd in line, joined 3 days ago. Someone who holds an offer is out of the line, so their row says only Joined 3 days ago.
- a label, Spot offered, for someone who has been offered a place and has not answered yet. Someone who is still in the queue has no label
The list shows twenty people at a time, with Previous and Next under it when there is more than one page. With more than twenty waiting, a search box (Search by name) appears.
Above the rows, a line explains that a place that opens up when a booking is cancelled is offered by itself, to the people waiting in the order they joined. With nobody waiting, the tab says No one is waiting for a place. If it could not be read, it says The waiting list could not be loaded just now. Try Refresh.
Press a person's row to open their own pane (see A Person's Pane below).
What Happens by Itself
When a place frees up, whether you cancel a booking, a customer cancels theirs or you move a booking to another session, the next person in the queue is offered it. They are emailed a link to claim it. If the place needs paying for, the link takes them to checkout first. If they decline, or the offer runs out, the place goes to the next person.
An offer is held for 12 hours unless you have set another time. You set it for a plan with Waiting list hold: tick Set how long a freed place is held and choose the hours, in the plan's rules under What you sell. It does not apply to a plan that books whole seasons.
What your customer sees is in Joining a Waitlist.
Offering a Place Early
You do not have to wait for a cancellation. If you add room to a session, or decide to let the next person in, offer the place yourself. There are three ways in, and all of them offer the place the same way.
From the session. Under the list, a group headed Waiting list appears whenever someone is waiting or holds an offer, for a role that can use it. Offer the next place offers it to the first person waiting. Under it, it says for example Offer a place to Sam. Held for 12 hours. When the session is full it says This session is full. You are asked before it is overbooked. When everyone on the list already has an offer, the row is dimmed and says Everyone on the list has been offered a place. See Offering the Place below for what follows.
For one person. Open their row and press Offer a place (see A Person's Pane). This is the way to offer a place to someone who is not first in line.
From Needs you.
- Open Home. In Needs you, press See who on the row about people waiting for a place, or press See the details to open the whole list. See Needs You.
- Find the row Sam is waiting for a place. It is the person at the front of that session's queue, and the detail under it names the session and when it runs.
- Press Offer the place.
The row lists only the person at the front of each session's queue, and one row for each session, so Offer the place here always offers the place to whoever has waited longest.
Offering the Place
A message confirms the offer and the person is emailed their claim link. From Needs you it reads Offered Sam a place: followed by the session, and Held for 12 hours. From the session it reads Offered Sam a place, held for 12 hours. In the session their label changes to Spot offered and the countdown begins.
If the session does not have the places, Bizzly asks first: Not enough places, with how many are free and how many they need, and a warning that offering anyway can overbook the session. If it cannot check how many places the session has, it says so. Choose Offer anyway or Don't offer.
A session that has run, or that is no longer on your calendar, has no places to give, so the offer rows are dimmed and say so.
A Person's Pane
Press a person's row on the Waiting tab. A pane opens over the session, headed with their name and the session they are waiting for, for example Saturday Beginners, Sat 7 Nov at 10:00. A Summary says:
Under the summary are the things you can do, and they depend on whether the person is waiting or holds an offer.
Someone who is waiting
- Offer a place offers them the place now. Under it, it says how long the place is held and that they get an email with a link to claim it. If they are not first in line it begins Offering out of turn: and says how many people joined before them, for example 2 people joined before them.
- Offer a different session is for when this session will not do for them. It says Choose any day and session for them. They come off this list once they are booked. It opens the Add someone sheet with their account, the service and who it is for already chosen, so you choose the day and session. Once something is booked for them they are taken off this waiting list, and the message says so, for example Booked Sam into Sat 14 Nov. Taken off this waiting list. The row is there only if your role can also open customers.
- Remove from list, the quiet button at the foot, takes them off. It says You are asked first. They are not told. A question, Remove Sam from the waiting list?, has Remove and Keep them.
Someone who holds an offer
- Book them in now books the place for them straight away, the same as if they had pressed the link in their email. It says If their plan cannot cover it, the place goes to the next person. Use it for a customer who rings to say yes. If the place has to be paid for, the button is replaced by the line This place is paid for. They pay from the link in their email.
- Offer a different session, as above.
- Skip gives the place to the next person, for someone who has not answered or has said no. It says They have not answered, or said no. The place goes to the next person. They are not told, and the link in their email stops working.
- Remove from list, as above. Their offered place goes to the next person and their email link stops working.
Each of these says what happened in a message, such as Skipped Sam., Booked Sam into Sat 7 Nov. or Removed Sam from the waiting list., and the session reads again. If a place cannot be given because the offer had run out or their plan could not cover it, the place goes to the next person and the message says why. If the person has left the list while the pane was open (the offer rolled on, or someone else removed them), the pane closes and says Sam is no longer on this waiting list.
Offer a place, Book them in now and Offer a different session are dimmed, with the reason under them, for a session that has run (This session has run) or that is no longer on your calendar. Skip and Remove from list still work, so a session that has run can be tidied. A role that cannot change bookings sees the summary and the note You can look at this, but your role cannot change it. Ask an administrator.
Emailing the People Waiting
In the Waiting list group, Email people waiting opens your email app with everyone waiting in the BCC line, so nobody sees anyone else's address. Under it, it says Opens your email app with everyone waiting in BCC, so nobody sees anyone else's address. Bizzly sends nothing itself. The screen says how many people were skipped for having no usable email address, and, if the list is too long for one email link, copies the addresses for you to paste into the BCC box. It needs permission to look at both bookings and customers.
Putting Someone on the Waiting List Yourself
When you book a customer into a full session with Add a booking, the session is marked Full, waitlist open. Choosing it makes the button read Join the waiting list, and the line above says The session is full, so they join its waiting list. See Booking Someone Into a Session. The result shows the label Waitlist beside that session. Once they are on the list, their row on the Waiting tab shows where they stand.
Switching It On
The waiting list is a setting of each class:
- In the class's sheet under What you sell, tick Offer a waiting list when it is full. It is on by default for a new group class, and one-to-one services do not use it.
- If your Bizzly plan does not include a waiting list, the class shows a card headed Not in your plan yet (The waiting list is part of a higher plan.) with a See plans button. The Waiting tab in a session shows the same card to an administrator, and other roles see a note that the waiting list is not in the plan.
- A season sold as an ongoing subscription has no waiting list.
What Your Role Sees
You need the Bookings and the calendar permission to look at the waiting list in Needs you and in the session. Offering a place, Book them in now, Skip and Remove from list need permission to change bookings. Offer a different session and Email people waiting also need access to customers. A team member who can see an item in Needs you but is not allowed to act on it sees An administrator can act on this on the row.
Related Articles
- Needs You - Where waiting-list items appear, and the emails that tell you when you are away
- Taking the Session Register - The session and its Waiting tab
- Cancelling Bookings - A cancel frees a place and offers it on
- Joining a Waitlist - What your customer sees