Bookings that come in at night
Customers book when they see the forecast, not when you pick up.
The daily friction
What actually goes wrong in a tyre shop
The same afternoon, twice. The first customer arrives 15 minutes late.
Back to back
Every customer after him waits 15 minutes
With 15 minutes of margin
The margin absorbs the delay, the next car goes in on time
The first frost brings everyone at once
Fitting, alignment and a puncture are not the same job
Bookings made weeks ahead get forgotten
Details
- The first frost brings everyone at once
- For most of the year a tyre shop runs at a steady pace. Then the forecast turns, and for two weeks everyone wants winter tyres at once. The phone rings all day, cars queue at the gate, and the customers who could not get through simply go to whoever answered first.
- Fitting, alignment and a puncture are not the same job
- Four tyres fitted and balanced, a set of wheels swapped, a single puncture, a low-profile set on a large SUV: each takes a different amount of time. When the diary treats them all as one slot, a forty-minute job lands in a twenty-minute gap and the queue grows behind it.
- Bookings made weeks ahead get forgotten
- In the rush, customers book a slot two or three weeks out, then forget it as soon as the weather turns mild again. Every one of those no-shows is an hour that a customer in the queue would have taken, and you only find out when the bay is already empty.
How it works here
A full calendar, not a queue at the gate
Let customers book themselves at any hour, give every job its real length and keep the reminders going. That is most of what a tyre shop needs in the rush.
Details
- Bookings that come in at night
- Most people remember their tyres in the evening, when the forecast mentions frost. Your link takes the booking then, on a free slot, and holds it, so the next morning starts with a calendar instead of a full voicemail.
- Duration per job, not per appointment
- Tyre fitting, balancing, a wheel swap, a puncture, alignment: each has its own length and price, and a large SUV set can be its own service. The calendar only offers a slot long enough for the job the customer picked.
- Reminders for bookings made weeks ahead
- A confirmation when the booking is made and a reminder before the visit, with the option to move it from the message. Customers who cannot make it free the slot in time instead of simply not turning up.
- Cancellations go to the waitlist
- In the rush, a cancelled slot is worth more than at any other time of year. Customers who wanted an earlier date wait on a list, and the freed time is offered to them by email: the first to confirm takes it.
An illustration
What four no-shows a week cost over a year
One fitter, forty-minute jobs, four no-shows in an average week and more during the seasonal rush.
~3h
hours of bay time lost each week
~200
tyre jobs not done over a year
most
of that recoverable with reminders and a waitlist
An illustration, not a measurement. Your own numbers depend on your job lengths, how far ahead customers book and how consistently reminders are used.
Questions