When a customer sends a request from your booking page, Run a Call saves it as a lead, attaches everything they typed, and alerts your office. Nothing is scheduled on its own — here's how to find the request and turn it into a booked job.
What Run a Call does with a request
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| A lead in Contacts | A new contact with the status Lead and the source Website. The name they typed is split into first name (first word) and last name (the rest). |
| Matched to an existing customer | If the phone number matches a contact you already have, the request is added to that contact instead of creating a duplicate. Their status isn't changed. |
| A property | If they entered a service address, it's added to the contact's Properties (unless that street address is already there). A brand-new contact also gets it as their billing address. |
| A pinned note | On the contact's Notes tab: Online booking request (URGENT), then the service, their details, and the address. |
| A notification | Owners, admins, and dispatchers get a bell notification such as New EMERGENCY booking request with the customer's name, service, and phone, and the same alert as a push notification on the Run a Call app on their phone. |
The customer sees your confirmation message on screen. They don't get a text or email about the request itself; they get one when the booking is confirmed (see When the booking is confirmed).
Open the request
Click the notification in the bell (top right). It opens the contact's profile.
No notification handy? Go to Contacts and set the Lead status filter to Lead — new web requests are at the top, since the list is sorted newest first.
Read the pinned note
Open the Notes tab. The pinned note tells you what they need, how urgent it is, and where. See Urgency on booking requests.
Call the customer back
Use Call or Text in the profile header. Confirm the problem, the address, and a time that works.
Book the job
Click Book a job in the profile header. The customer is already filled in — add the job details, time, and tech as usual. See How to create your first job.
Tidy up the record
- If the request matched the wrong person or has a typo in the name, use Edit customer from the ⋯ menu.
- If it turns out to be spam or a duplicate, see Deleting a customer.
When the booking is confirmed
A booking is confirmed when you click Confirm booking on the request in the Bookings inbox, or straight away when Book instantly is on in Settings → Online Booking. The request then becomes a scheduled job, and the customer can get two messages with the final day and arrival window:
| On the Automations page | What the customer gets |
|---|---|
| Text a booking confirmation (Texting folder) | The same booking confirmation text a job you schedule yourself sends. Needs business texting. |
| Email a confirmation when an online booking is confirmed (Scheduling folder) | A Confirmed email with the day, arrival window and service address, and a line to call you if they need to change it. |
Both start off. Turn them on in Automations. Each booking is confirmed to the customer once, even if the job is rescheduled later. You can change the wording of both; see Changing the wording of a built-in message.
Get a text or an email for every online booking
The bell and the phone push go to everyone in the office. If you'd rather have a text on your cell or an email in a shared inbox the moment a booking lands, build an automation on the trigger When an online booking comes in with a Send SMS step (to a custom phone number) and a Send email step. See Automation triggers for the steps.
Good to know
- Calendar isn't blocked. A request doesn't hold a time slot — two customers can ask for the same morning. Your office decides when to book each one.
- Repeat customers. An existing customer's matched request doesn't create a new contact; you'll find the pinned note on their profile alongside their history.
- Phone matching is exact. If the customer types a different number than the one on file — or the number on file was saved in an unusual format, such as with a +1 — you'll get a new lead. Check for possible duplicates on the Contacts page.
- Spam protection. The booking page limits repeated submissions from the same place and blocks most automated bot submissions.