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Slot swap (Booking auction)

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Translated from the Italian guide. Narciso itself is in Italian, so the names of buttons, menus and fields are shown exactly as they appear on screen, with a translation in brackets where it helps.

The slot swap is a feature of the chat assistant (The chat assistant): when a client is in a hurry for a time that is already taken, the assistant offers to have them pay €5 more and asks whoever occupies that slot to move, offering the latter a €2 voucher. The salon presents it like this: «Ogni slot non è più fisso: viene venduto al miglior offerente, cioè a chi è più urgente.» (Each slot is no longer fixed: it is sold to the highest bidder, that is, to whoever is most urgent.)

Contents
  1. How to turn it on
  2. The urgency
  3. The path
  4. At the Cassa
  5. What is seen in the Calendario
  6. Limits to be aware of
  7. Related entries

How to turn it on#

Only the Titolare can turn the Asta prenotazioni on or off (other roles see «Operazione riservata al Titolare.» (Operation reserved to the Titolare.) and the switch goes back). From the chat: Impostazioni ▸ Abilita Assistente AI, row Asta prenotazioni (see Comunicazioni settings). It is a setting per salon. It applies only to clients who are already registered (How the assistant recognises or registers a client) and only on the channels where the assistant replies.

The urgency#

When the client confirms a booking in chat, the assistant works out the urgency from their words: low, medium or high. Appointments made from the Calendario or from the website count as medium.

The path#

  1. The slot the client wants is taken and their urgency is medium or high. The assistant asks whether they would pay €5 more, explaining that they pay nothing if the slot does not become free. With low urgency the request does not start.

  2. The program looks for who occupies the slot. A client can be moved if their appointment:

    • is on the same day and at the same location and is pending or confirmed;
    • starts in more than 2 hours;
    • has a lower urgency than the requester's (medium moves only low; high moves low, medium and no urgency);
    • has not already been contacted or involved in another swap;
    • and, by freeing it, the slot really becomes bookable.

    It starts from the least urgent.

  3. For the person being moved a new slot is found: the first free time within 14 days from today, with the same operator, not earlier than 24 hours from now and outside the time band that is being freed.

  4. A message is written to that client on their channel. WhatsApp Personale (personal WhatsApp) is always reachable; WhatsApp Business, Instagram and Facebook only if they wrote in the last 24 hours; Telegram and email are excluded. The message is:

    Ciao Nome, ho un favore da chiederti: potresti spostare il tuo appuntamento (servizi) di giorno alle HH:MM a giorno alle HH:MM? Per scusarmi del disagio ti offro un buono di 2 € che viene applicato in cassa automaticamente. Se per te va bene scrivimi «sì» e lo sposto io; se preferisci restare dove sei dimmi «no» e non cambia nulla. Mi basta saperlo entro giorno alle HH:MM.

    (Hi Name, I have a favour to ask: could you move your appointment (services) on day at HH:MM to day at HH:MM? To apologise for the inconvenience I am offering you a €2 voucher that is applied automatically at the cash desk. If that suits you, write «sì» (yes) and I will move it myself; if you prefer to stay where you are, tell me «no» and nothing changes. I just need to know by day at HH:MM.)

    The assistant does not reveal who asked for the slot or the surcharge.

  5. The requester is told that the assistant has written to whoever occupies the slot, that they have 24 hours to reply and that, if they cannot, it moves on to another.

  6. If the occupant replies no (or time runs out: 24 hours, and in any case not beyond the start of their appointment), it moves on to the next candidate. The check runs every 15 minutes.

  7. If they reply yes, the program moves the occupant and books the requester into the freed slot (initial status: pending), with the urgency and the €5 surcharge, and creates a €2 voucher for the occupant. If the slot proposed to the occupant is no longer free in the meantime, another time is proposed to them; if the booking fails, the occupant stays where they were.

  8. The requester receives the outcome.

    If it succeeded: «Buone notizie Nome: il posto si è liberato e l'ho prenotato per te. Servizi, giorno alle HH:MM. Il supplemento di 5 € che hai accettato si paga in cassa insieme al servizio. A presto!» (Good news Name: the slot has become free and I have booked it for you. Services, day at HH:MM. The €5 surcharge you accepted is paid at the cash desk together with the service. See you soon!)

    If nobody can move: «Ciao Nome, purtroppo non sono riuscito a liberare il posto che volevi: nessuno dei clienti che lo occupano ha potuto spostarsi. Non hai nulla da pagare. Se vuoi, scrivimi qui e cerco un altro giorno o un altro orario.» (Hi Name, unfortunately I was not able to free the slot you wanted: none of the clients occupying it was able to move. You have nothing to pay. If you like, write to me here and I will look for another day or another time.)

If a message is not sent, the staff receive a notification in the program, Scambio del posto: cliente non avvisato (Slot swap: client not notified), with the text to send by hand. If a swap is left half-done, Scambio del posto rimasto a metà (Slot swap left half-done) arrives and it must be checked by hand.

Requests have four statuses: waiting for the occupant, in progress, concluded, without outcome. A client can have only one open request at a time.

At the Cassa#

  • When checking in an appointment that came from a swap, the Cassa adds by itself to the cart the manual item Supplemento urgenza (Urgency surcharge) of €5. If it cannot read it, «Non riesco a leggere il supplemento di urgenza di questo appuntamento: se ce n'è uno, aggiungilo a mano prima di incassare.» (I can't read the urgency surcharge of this appointment: if there is one, add it by hand before collecting payment.) appears.
  • The program does not let you close the sale without that item: «Questo appuntamento ha un supplemento di urgenza di €5.00 da incassare: aggiungi la voce "Supplemento urgenza" di quell'importo (se vuoi rinunciarvi usa lo sconto).» (This appointment has an urgency surcharge of €5.00 to collect: add the item "Supplemento urgenza" for that amount (if you want to waive it, use the discount).)
  • In Riscuoti (Collect) mode, with the client selected, the client's vouchers are taken off the total, oldest first, as long as they fit whole: the summary shows Buono spostamento −€X (Moving voucher −€X). The voucher is used up only once with the sale; if the sale is deleted, it goes back to the client.
  • The voucher has no expiry, is valid at any location of the salon and does not count towards the Operatore's discount cap.
  • In Prima nota (cash book) the surcharge is an ordinary item of the sale (Taking payment, Cash desk).

What is seen in the Calendario#

No sign of urgency or surcharge. In the Appointment card the booking method appears with the raw label SCAMBIO_POSTO, and the same in the «Metodo di prenotazione» (Booking method) column of the client records.

Limits to be aware of#

  • If you turn the switch off with open requests, the check every 15 minutes can still write to the next candidate, but the occupant can no longer reply because the flow is off.
  • If sending the message to the requester fails after it has been queued (for example the 24-hour window of the Meta channels is closed), the staff do not receive a warning.
  • Occupants with no reachable channel, no name or no new slot are excluded.

Related entries#

Bot and automations