Fill cancelled slots with your waitlist and the Fill panel

The waitlist is the list of clients who want an appointment but could not get one. When a slot frees up, Zelun offers it to the best-matching person on the list, so you do not have to work through a phone list by hand.

Clients get onto the list in two ways. Your team can add them in the Fill panel of the appointment book, or a client can add themselves from your booking page when the day they want is full.

A slot is offered when an appointment is cancelled or marked as a no-show, whether your team did it, the client cancelled from their own link, or a deposit hold expired. It is also offered when time becomes bookable without a cancellation: a team member's hours are extended, a time-off or block entry is removed or shortened, or an appointment is moved to another time. In every case the offer goes to the client who has been waiting longest among those who match the service and, if they named one, the staff member. Only one offer is live for a slot at a time. If that client does not answer before the offer runs out, or says no, the slot passes to the next match.

1. The services your clients wait for must be assigned to at least one team member, and that person needs working hours. Otherwise the panel tells you there is nothing to match.
2. A client can only be reached if they have given you a way to message them. A client who joins from your booking page ticks the WhatsApp permission themselves. For a client you add yourself, make sure their record has the right appointment-message permissions. The offer travels like your other appointment notices, so what is included in your plan and what uses credits is explained in the article on what messaging your plan includes.
3. The Fill panel is part of each location's day diary, so open the location you want first.

Add a client to the waitlist

1. Open Book and choose your location. Scroll below the diary to the Fill panel. Its heading shows how many people are waiting and how many match an open gap today.
2. If nobody is waiting yet, the panel explains the waitlist and shows the form straight away. Otherwise press Add to waitlist.
3. Choose the Client, the Service and, if the client wants one person, the Preferred staff (optional). Leave it on Any otherwise.
4. Press Add to waitlist.

Work the waitlist for the day you are viewing

1. Each waiting client appears as a row with their name, the service, the preferred staff member if any, and a label that says whether a gap on the viewed day fits.
2. If a gap fits, the row shows the time and the team member, and a Claim button. Pressing it books that client into that gap right away, on the same diary as every other appointment.
3. If nothing fits, the row says why: that no staff member here offers that service, or that there is no free gap long enough for it that day. A Notify button appears instead. It sends the client a notice and records the time as Notified, but it does not book anything and the client stays on the list. The screen tells you whether a notice was sent, or that it was recorded but no channel accepted it.

Follow the offers

1. When the automatic offer goes out, a Slot offers list appears under the waitlist. Each line shows the client, service, staff member, time and the time the offer lasts until.
2. The line ends with the result: waiting for reply, claimed, declined or lapsed. When an offer lapses and passes on, you see the first one as lapsed and the new one as waiting for reply.

• On your booking page. When the day they pick is full, a card in the When step offers the waitlist next to the nearest day with openings. They choose the times that work for them, Any time, Morning, Afternoon or Evening, and up to a limited number of days to wait for. They enter Your name and WhatsApp phone, tick Message me on WhatsApp when a slot opens, and press Join the waitlist. They then see You're on the waitlist with their days and times, and a way to leave. Joining does not book anything. The button does not appear when the day has times. Joining the same service and day twice does not create two entries, and a client can only wait on a limited number of days at one location.
• When a slot opens. They receive a message with a link. It opens a page on your booking page showing the service, the team member, the location, the time and the deadline to answer.
• Claiming. Pressing Book this slot books the appointment and the page confirms it. If the slot is no longer valid, nothing is booked.
• Saying no. Pressing No thanks, keep me on the list passes on that slot, which is offered to the next person, and keeps the client on the waitlist for the next opening. To leave the waitlist for good they press Leave the waitlist or use the link in a message.
• Too late. If the link has expired, was already used or is not valid, the page says the offer is no longer available, books nothing and says the client is still on the waitlist unless they left.
• The appointment a client claims is marked as coming from a fill, on your normal diary.

• Expecting the Notify button to book the client. It only sends a notice. Use Claim when a gap fits.
• Waiting clients who never match. Check that the service is assigned to someone who works that day, and that the gap is as long as the service.
• Cancelling without a reason. A cancel or no-show needs a reason, and the slot is only treated as free after it is recorded.
• Expecting a slot to be offered when only a few minutes opened. A freed time shorter than the service never creates an offer.
• Assuming the client was reached. If the client has no permission or channel that accepts the message, the Notify result says so and nothing was delivered. Reach them another way.
• Using the Fill panel for other days. It matches gaps on the day you are viewing in the diary.

The appointment book, the booking page and the notification article cover the screens and messages used here.