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CENTILIO BOOK / SELL · EMBER
Six things about taking bookings, whichever tool you buy.
Book is not out yet, so this is not a manual for it. It is what we would tell any business that takes appointments: how to put a booking page up in an afternoon, how to cut no-shows without nagging anybody, whether to take a deposit, how three people share one diary without double-booking, how to move off a per-seat tool, and what to do about the customer who always cancels. None of it needs Book and most of it needs no software at all.
6 guidesuseful before Book shipsno sign-up needed
Product design preview · Book has not shipped. All plans, integrations and screens are proposals.
Book has not shipped yet.
Book is not available yet. These are proposed screens, features and prices—not a beta or a live booking service. The interactive diary uses fictional data; no appointment, message, deposit or customer record leaves this page.
Guides
The six things people ask first.
Already on Centilio?
Bill is planned for the next wave; Book deposits would be handled there. Relate is the record every booking lands on.
Want to shape it?
Tell us how many people share a diary at your place and what your no-show rate is. Those two numbers are what this product is being designed around.
How to put a booking page on your website in an afternoon
It is four decisions and about two hours. The software is the easy part; writing down what you actually sell is the work.
- Connect the calendars. Every person’s own calendar, two-way, including the personal one. Without that the page is guessing.
- Write down the services. With their real durations, including the ten minutes afterwards that you never count but always take.
- Set a buffer. Fifteen minutes for notes, or the drive time if you travel. Appointments that touch each other fall apart by eleven.
- Decide about deposits. Which services need one and which do not. A free fifteen-minute call should never ask for money.
- Put the link where people are. Your website, your email signature, and the profile customers actually find you on.
How to cut no-shows without nagging your customers
Four messages is not four times better than one. The ladder below is what works, and the last step is the only one that reliably moves the number.
- One confirmation. The time, the address and what to bring. Not three emails about the same appointment.
- One reminder the day before. In the evening, with a one-tap link to move it. Most no-shows are people who cannot face phoning you.
- A two-hour reminder for first appointments only. That is where the no-shows are. Regulars do not need it and resent it.
- A deposit where it is normal. Say on the page what happens if they cancel, then honour it exactly.
- Measure your own rate. Before and after, from your own diary. Ignore any industry average a vendor quotes you.
Should you take a deposit? The honest answer
A deposit is the only lever that reliably changes a no-show rate, and it also costs you bookings. Both of those are true and the arithmetic decides.
- Work out what a no-show costs. The empty hour, not the whole day. Most people overestimate this and then over-correct.
- Compare it with your no-show rate. Under a few per cent and a deposit will lose you more careful customers than it saves you empty hours.
- Hold rather than charge. A held deposit changes behaviour without feeling like a fine. A full prepayment feels like distrust.
- State the rule on the page. In one sentence, before they book, and then honour it even when it costs you.
- Apply it to the invoice. A deposit that becomes a separate payment to reconcile is a deposit that creates admin.
Sharing one diary between three people without double-booking
This is the failure that makes people abandon booking pages, and it is almost always the same five causes.
- Connect every calendar, two-way. Including the personal one. A school run in a private calendar is still an hour that is gone.
- Check as the page is drawn. A page that syncs overnight is a page selling yesterday’s availability.
- Give each person their own hours. Not the business’s. The part-timer who works Tuesdays should not be offered a Thursday.
- Default to “anyone”. It sells the first genuinely free slot instead of making the customer guess who is quiet.
- Put lunch in the diary. A tool that sells your lunch hour is worse than the paper book you replaced.
How to move off a per-seat scheduling tool
A fortnight, done in this order, and nothing is booked in a diary nobody is watching.
- Export the future appointments first. They are the only irreplaceable thing. Name, email, phone and time on every one.
- Rebuild the services before the diary. Durations, buffers, who can do what, which need a deposit. Get these right and the rest imports cleanly.
- Run both for a fortnight. With the old booking link redirecting to the new page.
- Move the future appointments last. Once the new page is taking bookings cleanly on its own.
- Revoke calendar access deliberately. On each account, not just by cancelling the plan, or the old tool keeps writing to your diary.
What to do about the customer who always cancels
Before you fire a customer, check whether they are actually a problem. Three cancellations in a year is not a pattern.
- Look at the record first. Most “always cancels” customers have cancelled twice and been fine eleven times.
- Ask that one person for a deposit. Per customer, not a new policy for everybody because of one person.
- Offer them the slot nobody wants. A cancellation in a dead hour costs you nothing.
- Use the waiting list. Their slot gets offered to someone else the moment it frees up.
- Say something. Most repeat cancellers genuinely have not noticed they are doing it.
Every vendor in this category has a number on its home page for how much it cuts no-shows, and none of those numbers came from your business. What Book will do is show you your own rate, from your own diary, before and after — and be plain that the one lever which reliably moves it is a deposit, not a third reminder. The same honesty applies to messages: SMS and WhatsApp delivery depend on the country, the carrier and the messaging rules that apply to your sender, and email is the fallback that always works.
Questions
Quick ones.
How long does it take to set up?
An afternoon for one person: connect a calendar, write down your services with their real durations, put the link on your website. A three-person clinic takes longer because working out who does what is the actual work, and no software shortens it.
What is the most common mistake?
Not setting a buffer. Appointments that touch each other look efficient in a diary and fall apart by eleven o'clock, because nobody writes their notes in zero minutes.
Should I take a deposit?
If you have a no-show problem, yes, but its effect varies by business. If you do not, a deposit costs you bookings from people who are simply careful with money. The guide walks through both.
How do I move off my current tool?
Export your services and customers, import them, run both for a fortnight with the old link redirecting to the new page, then turn the old one off. The guide is written for exactly that fortnight.
Next for you
What people add after Book.
What the booking touches on its way through: the record, the deposit, the reminder and the room.
The proposed shared record connects these products as they launch. Follow each product page for its current stage.
Be told when Book opens.
Wave 2 is the next build after the live tools. Leave your name and you will hear before the announcement — and tell us what your no-show rate is today, because that is the number we intend to move.