Fill cancelled slots with your waitlist and the Fill panel

The waitlist is the list of clients who want an appointment but could not get one. When a slot frees up, Zelun offers it to the best-matching person on the list, so you do not have to work through a phone list by hand.

Clients get onto the list in two ways. Your team can add them in the Fill panel of the appointment book, or a client can add themselves from your booking page when the day they want is full.

A slot is offered when an appointment is cancelled or marked as a no-show, whether your team did it, the client cancelled from their own link, or a deposit hold expired. It is also offered when time becomes bookable without a cancellation: a team member's hours are extended, a time-off or block entry is removed or shortened, or an appointment is moved to another time. In every case the offer goes to the best match among the clients who fit the service, the staff member if they named one, and the time windows they chose. Zelun scores the matches: a client who favorited that team member scores well above the rest, each earlier completed visit with that person adds a little, each full day of waiting adds a little (with a low ceiling, so a long wait cannot outweigh a favorite), and a no-show at that location in the last 90 days lowers the score without removing the client. When scores tie, the client who has been waiting longest goes first. Each offer records a plain-language reason, for example that the client favorited the team member. Only one offer is live for a slot at a time, and a client who already holds an offer for that slot, or who already said no to it, is skipped. If that client does not answer before the offer runs out, or says no, the slot passes to the next match.

1. The services your clients wait for must be assigned to at least one team member, and that person needs working hours. Otherwise the panel tells you there is nothing to match.
2. A client can only be reached if they have given you a way to message them. A client who joins from your booking page ticks the WhatsApp permission themselves. For a client you add yourself, make sure their record has the right appointment-message permissions. The offer travels like your other appointment notices, so what is included in your plan and what uses credits is explained in the article on what messaging your plan includes.
3. The Fill panel is part of each location's day diary, so open the location you want first.

Add a client to the waitlist

1. Open Book and choose your location. Scroll below the diary to the Fill panel. Its heading shows how many people are waiting and how many match an open gap today.
2. If nobody is waiting yet, the panel explains the waitlist and shows the form straight away. Otherwise press Add to waitlist.
3. Choose the Client, the Service and, if the client wants one person, the Preferred staff (optional). Leave it on Any otherwise.
4. Press Add to waitlist.

Work the waitlist for the day you are viewing

1. Each waiting client appears as a row with their name, the service, the preferred staff member if any, and a label that says whether a gap on the viewed day fits.
2. If a gap fits, the row shows the time and the team member, and a Claim button. Pressing it books that client into that gap right away, on the same diary as every other appointment.
3. If nothing fits, the row says why: that no staff member here offers that service, or that there is no free gap long enough for it that day. A Notify button appears instead. It sends the client a notice and records the time as Notified, but it does not book anything and the client stays on the list. The screen tells you whether a notice was sent, or that it was recorded but no channel accepted it.

Follow the offers

1. When the automatic offer goes out, a Slot offers list appears under the waitlist. Each line shows the client, service, staff member, time and the time the offer lasts until.
2. The line ends with the result: waiting for reply, claimed, declined or lapsed. When an offer lapses and passes on, you see the first one as lapsed and the new one as waiting for reply.

• On your booking page. When the day they pick is full, a card in the When step offers the waitlist next to the nearest day with openings. They choose the days to wait for (up to five) and the times that work for them, Any time, Morning (before 12:00), Afternoon (before 17:00) or Evening, going by the location's local clock. An offer is only made for a slot that falls inside the times they chose, so someone waiting for Friday afternoon is not offered Friday at 10:00. They enter Your name and WhatsApp phone, tick Message me on WhatsApp when a slot opens, and press Join the waitlist. They then see You're on the waitlist with their days and times, a How it works note (they get 30 minutes to confirm an offer, and saying no thanks keeps their place), and Book another day if they prefer. The booking page does not have a leave button at that point. It tells them to use the link in any message you send them. Joining does not book anything. The button does not appear when the day has times. Joining the same service and day twice does not create two entries, and a client can wait on at most five days at one location, and a join that would go past that is refused as a whole.
• When a slot opens. They receive a message with a link. It opens a page on your booking page showing the service, the team member, the location, the time and the deadline to answer.
• Claiming. Pressing Book this slot books the appointment and the page confirms it. If the slot is no longer valid, nothing is booked.
• Saying no. Pressing No thanks, keep me on the list passes on that slot, which is offered to the next person, and keeps the client on the waitlist for the next opening. That same slot is not offered to them again. To leave the waitlist for good they press Leave the waitlist or use the link in a message.
• Too late. If the link has expired, was already used or is not valid, the page says the offer is no longer available, books nothing and says the client is still on the waitlist unless they left.
• In the mobile app. A signed-in Client can use the waitlist from the Zelun mobile app too, using their own account, with no phone number to type. When the day they pick is full, a card says so, lets them choose Anyone or a particular team member, and has Join the waitlist. A Waiting tab under their appointments lists their waitlists, each with Leave waitlist, and pins any open offer on top with a countdown, Claim this spot and No thanks. No thanks tells them they keep their place. A push notification tells them as soon as an offer opens and takes them to that card, and the WhatsApp message is still sent. If the spot needs a deposit and the app cannot take the payment, the card tells them to open the link you sent them to claim it. A client who is signed in but has no visit with you yet has to book first before joining.
• The appointment a client claims is marked as coming from a fill, on your normal diary.

• Expecting the Notify button to book the client. It only sends a notice. Use Claim when a gap fits.
• Waiting clients who never match. Check that the service is assigned to someone who works that day, and that the gap is as long as the service.
• Cancelling without a reason. A cancel or no-show needs a reason, and the slot is only treated as free after it is recorded.
• Expecting a slot to be offered when only a few minutes opened. A freed time shorter than the service never creates an offer.
• Assuming the client was reached. If the client has no permission or channel that accepts the message, the Notify result says so and nothing was delivered. Reach them another way.
• Using the Fill panel for other days. It matches gaps on the day you are viewing in the diary.

The appointment book, the booking page and the notification article cover the screens and messages used here.