A rescheduling and cancellation policy defines the terms and conditions for customers who need to change or cancel their appointments. This policy typically outlines the acceptable notice period, any associated fees or penalties, and the process customers should follow when requesting such changes. The aim of this policy is to provide clarity and fairness for both customers and the business. For the customer, it gives freedom to change plans before a certain period of time; for a business, it gives an assurance that there will be no last minute changes. This insures smooth operations by minimizing potential disruptions.

Use case

Let's assume that you work as an IT consultant and your client John has booked an appointment to discuss his product requirement. Due to unforeseen circumstances, John wasn't able to attend. He cancels the appointment within the cancellation window (which was mentioned on the booking page) and gets a refund as per your policy. This policy not only ensured John had the option to get his money back, but also freed up your time slot, allowing you to allocate that time for another appointment.

Zoho Bookings lets you set and customize this policy. You can either restrict the customer from rescheduling or canceling, or allow them to reschedule or cancel within a certain period of time.

Steps to set the rescheduling and cancellation policy

1. Navigate to Services > Required Service > Service Preferences.

2. With the Cancellations & Reschedules toggle, you can perform the following actions:

1. Restrict customers from cancelling and rescheduling: You can set the toggle to the Disabled state, which means the customer cannot make changes to their bookings.
   
   
   
   

2. Allow customers to make changes before a certain period of time: You can set the toggle to the Enabled state and enter within how many days, hours, and minutes an appointment can be canceled or rescheduled.
   For example, if you set it as two days and an appointment is scheduled for April 10, then customers can only reschedule or cancel before April 8.
   
   
   

Best practices

➤ Include information about the reschedule/cancellation period in email notifications and/or booking page.

➤ You can mention your policy on the booking page by utilizing the space for page elements. This can be accessed under Settings  > Workspaces > Booking Page Themes > Page Elements > Description. Please note that all the services under a workspace should have the same policy as the workspace booking page is common for all the services.

➤ Make sure you edit the email notifications and remove any reschedule and cancel links that will be triggered when an appointment is booked. This can be accessed under Services > Service Notifications > For Customers > Booked > Customize.

➤ In both the above cases, you can specify the window when an appointment can be rescheduled or canceled. Remember to specify the complete details about the refund or charges, if any. This ensures transparent and effective communication. 



➤ This settings doesn't restrict the staff from rescheduling or cancelling the appointment from the admin interface. 

We hope you find this tip helpful. Please leave a comment if you have any questions, or send your inquiries to support@zohobookings.com.

Happy scheduling!