Have you ever been in a situation when you’ve double-booked two (or more) of your clients in your schedule?

For businesses that rely on client appointments like beauty therapists, salons, or spas, just to name a few, double-booking can be a serious issue that will not only hurt your business financially but can also ruin your long-term reputation.

Yet, double booking is a very common issue in service businesses, and sometimes, it is unavoidable, especially if you have multiple employees handling appointments. Yet, it’s still very important for your business to minimize double bookings from happening, and when they do happen, take the right steps to quickly resolve them.

In this guide, we will discuss double-booking appointments in more detail, and in this guide, you’ll find:

• What are double bookings?
• When is double-booking acceptable? When is it not?
• How to resolve unintentional double-booking?
• How to effectively prevent double-booking issues?

And more.

Without further ado, let us begin.

What Actually Is Double-Booking?

Double-booking, in scheduling client appointments, refers to the situation in which two or more clients are given the same appointment time.

In most cases, double booking appointments is unintentional and undesirable. Meaning, when double-bookings happen, it means there was a mistake along the way, which can lead to various problems.

However, there are also cases when double-bookings are done intentionally when multiple clients are handled at the same time (to maximize profitability and cost-efficiency).

However, for businesses that can’t handle clients in parallel, for example, a massage therapist with only one therapist, then double-bookings are undesirable and may result in one of the clients waiting in the waiting room, which can potentially delay the rest of the clients for the day as well.

Double-Booking Appointments: When Is It Acceptable?

Besides the example we’ve discussed above, double-bookings can be desired and may be beneficial for the business in certain situations, including but not limited to:

1. Group appointment situations

Obviously, when you are running a group appointment, you can book multiple people in the same group into a single time slot, which is technically a double-booking situation.

However, if you are doing this practice, you still need to take several things into account, especially if you are still planning to take appointments from other clients outside the group during the day.

First, make sure you have enough space to accommodate the group, since they’ll need to wait their turn (and some of them may stay to wait for others in the group even after they’ve received service.)

Next, make sure to have enough staffing both to ensure a timely and satisfactory level of service for everyone in the group, as well as to attend to their needs when they wait for their turn.

2. Multiple staff members working in turns

Another scenario where double-booking appointments are acceptable is when you have multiple employees available to service your clients in series.

For example, in a physiotherapist practice, a patient may book an appointment with an acute pain or emergency situation, and in such cases, this patient may be scheduled around another patient if you have another physiotherapist available, technically creating a double-booking situation.

However, such situations should not be treated as a customary occurrence and should be managed properly at all times.

Unintentional Double-Booking: Resolving The Issue

While double-bookings can be intentional and can be beneficial for the business, just like the scenarios we’ve discussed above, unintentional double-booking appointments can happen, creating scheduling conflicts and other issues.

When it does happen, however, it’s important not to panic. Instead, carefully assess the situation so we can resolve it quickly and effectively.

While the actual steps you should take will vary depending on the unique situation you may face, here is a general step-by-step guide you can follow to resolve unintentional double-booking appointments:

Step 1: Assess the situation

Again, it’s very important to keep calm. Yes, you may feel annoyed, frustrated, or even afraid, but don’t let emotions get to you.

Carefully assess the situation: what went wrong? Who made a mistake? How bad is the potential resulting conflict going to be?

Gather as much information as you can, and your focus here is to try to come up with the best possible solution for the situation.

Step 2: Talk to the clients

Sometimes, all it takes to resolve the situation is to simply call the clients (at least one of the clients), explain the situation, and ask them whether they are willing to reschedule.

Even if the situation looks bad, it’s still your responsibility to inform the client about the situation.

Let them know as soon as possible when you double-book them with another client. Make sure to be polite and admit your mistakes. Clearly explain the situation that they’ll need to wait or reschedule and answer any questions they may have.

If you don’t have any solution at the moment (i.e., if you’re fully booked), then inform them you’ll figure out the solution soon. Don’t give any promise you can’t deliver, but be sure to tend to their needs and don’t make them feel neglected.

Step 3: Identifying a solution

Assuming you have a team of staff, then review your staff availability chart and check who’s available. Ask them whether they can take care of the double-booked client.

If necessary, you may also reach out to other people outside your team and ask if they can cover for you.

You may want to offer incentives to employees so they will be more willing to help out. However, if they can’t cover it, then you’ll have to accept it.

If you can’t get anyone to cover the other client, and both of them won’t reschedule, then the only option (unfortunately) is to cancel one of the appointments.

You’ll have to make the hard choice, and you may want to consider the following factors when prioritizing between the two (or more) double-booked appointments:

• If one of them is a VIP client that you absolutely have to attend
• Evaluate your relationship with the clients involved in the double-booked appointments. Which relationship you’ll need to prioritize at the moment?
• You may want to prioritize recurring/regular appointments rather than a one-time appointment from a new client
• If one of the appointments is less urgent and is easier to reschedule, then you may want to reschedule it
• Prioritize the appointment in which you’ll need to make a critical decision
• Although this can be a hard decision to make, you’ll need to make your decision and inform the client ASAP.

Step 4: Inform the clients involved

After making the difficult decision, you’ll need to inform the customer whose appointment you’ve decided to cancel or reschedule. Use their preferred method of communication and inform them as soon as possible. If the client isn’t reachable, leave a voice message or an email.

How to apologize for double booking?

Don’t hesitate to admit your mistakes and say sorry, and explain the situation as clearly as possible. Ask them to confirm the cancellation or reschedule to avoid further misunderstanding.

It’s best, to be honest with the situation. If your client thinks something is fishy, it may hurt their trust in your business. Communicate that the quality of the service you offer won’t be affected by this issue. So, don’t try to hide your mistakes and don’t make excuses. Be straightforward that you are working on finding the best possible solution for the client.

You may want to offer an incentive to keep them happy (i.e., a discount if they decide to reschedule). Offer your available dates or times so they can easily reschedule over the phone or email.

Using an Appointment Scheduling Software To Prevent Double Booking Appointments

The likelihood of unintentional double bookings will increase if your business relies on manual, phone-based, or email-based appointment taking.

While for smaller businesses, a staff member may be adequate for managing your appointments via the traditional pen-and-paper booking system, it will be increasingly challenging the bigger the business.

With that being said, there are appointment scheduling tools like Bookeo that can help you prevent double-booking appointments and avoid other scheduling issues while making the whole appointment-taking process easier and smoother for both your business and your clients.

You can easily integrate Bookeo with your website, and your client can then access the intuitive but robust appointment booking interface from your website. With its interactive calendar that is constantly updated in real-time, you can effectively prevent unintentional double-booking from happening ever again.

When a time slot is booked, it will automatically become unavailable for other prospective clients looking to book your service via Bookeo’s interactive calendar. On the other hand, when a client cancels or reschedules their appointments, the time slot will instantly become available again for other clients.

The whole process of booking an appointment is very easy and should only take a few clicks for your prospective clients. Bookeo’s booking software is also integrated with popular payment gateway options like Stripe, Square, or PayPal, so you can start accepting payments for the appointments easily. This also means you can ask your clients to pay (partially or fully) in advance before they book appointments to minimize no-shows.

No-shows are another common and critical issue in client appointments besides double-booking, and with Bookeo, you can even send automated email notifications and SMS notifications, which have been proven effective in minimizing no-shows.

You can also use Bookeo’s powerful analytics and reporting features to check and analyze relevant data related to bookings to help you make better decisions in the future.

To test Bookeo for yourself, you can explore one of the live demos right away, or use Bookeo’s free trial offer to try Bookeo for 30-days.

Wrapping Up

While in some situations, double-booking can be beneficial for your business; we’d want to avoid schedule conflicts created by unintentional double-booking appointments as much as possible.

However, sometimes mistakes can happen, and it’s important for service business owners and managers to understand how to effectively handle double booking scheduling mistakes to keep your clients happy.

Don’t hesitate to communicate the problem immediately in case you double-book clients by mistake, apologize, and try to find the best possible solution.

However, investing in the right appointment scheduling software like Bookeo can be very effective in preventing double-booking scenarios, so you no longer have to worry about potential scheduling conflicts and other issues.