Let clients choose their person first

Let clients choose their person first

By default your booking page asks for a service, then who the client wants to see. If your regulars book a person rather than a treatment, you can swap those two steps around.

The one big idea: only the first two steps change. Everything after them, the times, the details, the deposit, the confirmation email, works exactly as it does now.

Is this right for your business?

It usually suits you if clients ring up and ask for a person by name, if your team have their own followings, or if the same treatment costs a different amount depending on who does it.

It usually does not suit you if clients care about the treatment and not who performs it, if everyone charges the same and offers the same list, or if you work alone. With one bookable person the picker still appears, showing a single card, which is a step your clients do not need.

Turn it on

1. Open Settings from the sidebar, then the Booking Settings tab.
2. Scroll to Optional Booking features.
3. Turn on Staff-first booking. It saves on its own.
4. Open your booking page in a new tab to see it.

Who can do this: admin only. If your sidebar shows Account rather than Settings, ask an admin.

You can turn it off again at any time, and your page goes straight back to asking for a service first. Bookings already in your diary are not affected either way.

What your clients see

Instead of a list of services, they land on Who would you like to see? with a card for each bookable person. Once they pick someone, the rest of the booking is about that person:

• The service list shows only what that person offers, at their own prices. If Ada charges £30 for a cut and Ben charges £45, each client sees the right number instead of a "from" price.
• A small Booking with Ada banner sits at the top of every step until they reach the times, so nobody loses track of who they picked.
• Back on the service list returns them to the people, so changing their mind is one tap.

Make the picker worth looking at

Each card is a photo and a name, nothing more. The photo comes from the profile you have already written under Settings, then Booking Page, then Meet the team. Without one, clients see the person's initial in a circle.

Adding photos is the one job worth doing before you switch this on. A row of grey initials asks clients to choose between strangers. A row of faces does not.

Bios and specialties stay on your Meet the team tab, where a client who wants to read about someone can go and read about them. Keeping them off the picker keeps it a quick choice rather than a page of reading.

Good to know: anyone you have hidden from Meet the team still appears in the picker, because they are still bookable. They show as an initial rather than their photo, which is what hiding them asked for.

When someone is fully booked

This is the one place the new order can frustrate a client, because they have committed to a person before finding out that person has nothing free. So when there are no times, a See someone else button appears under the message.

It takes them back to the people, remembering what they were trying to book. The next person's list pins that service at the top, tagged You were booking this, with that person's own price beside it. If the person they pick does not do it at all, a line says so and their normal list follows.

If you use "Any available"

When Any available practitioner is also on, an Any available card sits at the top of the picker. Clients who do not mind who they see can take it and get the first free time across the team, exactly as before.

Group bookings

Group bookings work the same way, one guest at a time. For each person in the group you are asked who they are seeing, then what they are having.

Taking bookings yourself

Your dashboard booking form follows the same setting, so the order your team works in matches the order your clients see.

Two situations still ask for the service first, because the person is already settled:

• You clicked an empty slot on someone's calendar column, so the date, the time and the person all came with the click.
• You are rebooking a client from a past appointment, which already knows who they saw.

Walk-ins do ask who first. Someone standing at your desk is as likely to want a particular person as a particular treatment.

What does not change

• Each person's own booking link, for example .../book/your-salon/dave, already starts with the person decided, so it opens on their services as it always has.
• Clients changing an existing booking from their confirmation email keep the person they booked.
• Links that already name a service, such as a waitlist invitation, open on that service. The client has already chosen the what, so they are not sent back a step.

If you host a combined page

A combined page follows the host venue's setting, because it is presented to clients as one business. Turn it on at the host venue and the combined page swaps over too. Cards there are a photo and a name, the same as anywhere else. Where two people across the venues share a name, the venue is added after it so clients can tell them apart.

Common problems & fixes

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
I cannot find Staff-first booking	You are not an admin, or you are on the wrong tab	Sign in as an admin and open Settings, then Booking Settings
My booking page still asks for a service first	The page was open before you switched it on	Reload the page
My dashboard form still asks for a service first	You opened it from a calendar slot, or from a rebook	This is expected, the person is already decided. Use New Booking in the sidebar to start from the picker
The cards are all grey initials	No Meet the team profiles are filled in	Add photos under Settings, then Booking Page, then Meet the team
A hidden team member still shows	Hiding affects your Meet the team tab, not who is bookable	Nothing to fix. To stop them being booked, make their calendar inactive under Calendar Availability
Only one card appears	You have one bookable calendar	Turn the setting off, or add a calendar per person
A client says a service vanished	They picked someone who does not offer it	Ask them to go back and pick someone else, or check that service is ticked against the right calendars
Prices look different to before	Clients now see one person's price, not the lowest across the team	This is expected. Check each person's prices under Services
My combined page did not change	The setting follows the host venue	Turn it on at the host venue

Next steps

• Your public booking page and embed
• Set up your services
• Add and manage your team