Light daytomorrow?Fill it today.
At 2pm we check tomorrow's schedule. If it's under the line you set, past customers who are due for service hear about the open times. Text goes only to people who opted in. Everyone else gets an email. It stops when the day is full enough.
Price: Quote. Priced from your numbers after the free audit. It comes inside Full Bays, or we add it to Declined Work Comes Back or Quote Closer Desk.
The bays are open, the techs are on the clock, and the phone is quiet.
You already pay for the day whether it's full or not. Meanwhile there are people in your files who are due for an oil change or a tune-up and would take a time tomorrow if someone asked.
Feast or famine. Bills don't stop in winter.Owner post in a Facebook group for trade business owners
Winter: scraping by, duct cleaning, selling filters. It's tough.Owner post on Reddit, r/HVAC
A cancellation leaves a hole in tomorrow nobody fills.
If it cancels before 2pm, the check sees the open time and offers it to customers who are due.You know who's overdue. You just don't have an hour to call down the list.
We sort who's due from your last-visit dates, so nobody has to dig through the files.You'd rather not bug people with a sale every week.
Each customer gets one slow-day note a month at most, and nothing if they were just in or already booked.The first two are paraphrased from public posts, with the place we found each one. The last three are our own description of how this usually goes. None of these are our clients.
From a light day to a fuller board.
We set up each step and keep it running. You pick the line, the open times you'll offer, and whether it waits for your YES.
First, how full is tomorrow?
If your shop system or calendar can share tomorrow's schedule, we check at setup that we can read it. If it can't, your service writer or office gets one text at 1pm: "How full is tomorrow? Reply 1 light, 2 fine, 3 full." Either way, nothing is guessed.
At 2pm we compare it to your line.
You set the line at setup, like 75% booked. Over the line, nothing happens and nobody hears from you. Under it, we work out how many open times there are and which ones you're willing to offer.
We find who's due.
From your last-visit dates and what was done: an oil change five or six months ago, a yearly tune-up coming up, brakes they put off. We leave out anyone who was in during the last 30 days, anyone with a visit already booked, anyone who got a slow-day note this month, and anyone who unsubscribed or replied STOP.
A short note with real open times.
Customers who opted in to texts get a text in the afternoon. Everyone else gets an email from your business name with an unsubscribe link. The note names the service they're due for and two or three open times. A perk is optional and yours to pick. Most notes are just the time.
They reply 1 or 2, or tap a time.
A reply of 1 or 2 books that time. The email has a link to the same open times. Anything else someone writes goes straight to your office to answer. You get a text for each booking with the name, the car or the job, and the time.
It stops at your line.
Notes go out a few at a time. When tomorrow reaches your line, the rest of the list doesn't get one. They stay due, and they're first up on the next light day. If a time gets taken twice, the second person gets the next open time or a note that it filled up.
One page, once a month.
Light days, notes sent, bookings, and the sales from those bookings. A booking counts only if it came from one of our slow-day texts or emails. Nothing else gets added in.
Run tomorrow's check yourself.
Pick a shop, a light or busy day and your line. Then run the 2pm check and watch the board fill. It stops the moment it reaches your line.
Tuesday, 2pm
Who it's for.
Shops with work people come back for on a schedule, and enough past customers that a few are always due.
A good fit if
- You do repeat service: oil changes, brakes, flushes, furnace and AC tune-ups, water heater flushes, gutter cleaning.
- You get a few light days a month, and a booked tech or bay tomorrow is worth more to you than an empty one.
- You keep a last-visit date for most customers, in your shop system, QuickBooks or a spreadsheet.
- Someone can take a short-notice booking without it wrecking the day.
Probably not if
- Your jobs are one-off installs, like a new roof, a fence or a driveway. Nobody is "due" for one. Old quotes turned into jobs is a better fit.
- You're booked two weeks out most of the year. You don't need short-notice work.
- You have only a few hundred past customers. Fewer of them are due on any given day, so the fill gets thin.
Who it's built for.
- Your customer list with last visits. Name, email, phone, the last visit date and what was done. A shop system export, QuickBooks or a spreadsheet all work. We clean it up.
- Tomorrow's schedule. We read your calendar or shop system if it can share it, and we confirm that at setup. If it can't, your office answers one text at 1pm.
- Who said yes to texts. If you don't know, everyone gets email. We add a texting consent line to your booking and check-in forms so the text list grows.
- Your line and your times. How full counts as full, and which open times you'll offer. You can change both by text.
- Your due rules. How long between oil changes or tune-ups for your customers. We start from the dates you already go by.
- The base underneath. Included in Full Bays, or added to Declined Work Comes Back or Quote Closer Desk.
What filled light days could add up to.
Keep the bookings per light day low. Most people who get the note won't book that day, and that's normal. Count your gross margin on the work, not the sale.
How it works: light days, times bookings per light day, times your average ticket and your margin. A booking counts only if it came from one of our slow-day texts or emails. Visits a customer would have booked anyway that week can show up here too, so start low. Upsells found during the visit aren't counted.
What it won't do.
So you know before the audit.
- It can't fill a day nobody is due for.If only a handful of customers are due this month, a light day may stay light. It works from your list, and a small list runs dry faster.
- It won't fill a hole that opens this morning.The check runs the afternoon before. Same-day cancellations are a different fix, Cancellations refilled, which gives the slot to people on a waitlist. Ask us about it.
- No texts to people who didn't say yes.Customers who didn't opt in to texts get email. Texts go out in the afternoon only, and anyone can reply STOP.
- No cold lists and no calls.Only your own past customers. We never buy a list and never make outbound calls.
- It won't train people to wait for a deal.The note names an open time. A perk is your choice, and each customer hears from it once a month at most.
- It won't guess your schedule.If we can't read tomorrow from your system, it waits for your office's 1pm reply. No reply, no notes.
Where it comes included, and what pairs well.
- Full BaysIncludes thisThe top auto package. A maintenance club, slow-day fill, fleet accounts and an owner brief, on top of everything in Declined Work Comes Back.
- Declined Work Comes BackAdd it onDeclined repairs followed up at 30, 90 and 180 days with the tech's photo. A light day is a good time to offer those brakes again.
- Quote Closer DeskAdd it onThe trades package for shops with a lot of open quotes. Add slow-day fill if you also run tune-ups or service calls.
- Members who pay monthlyPairs wellMembers can get first pick of open times on a light day. The visit is already part of their plan, so they tend to say yes.
- Every unit on filePairs wellFor heating and plumbing: every furnace, heat pump and water heater with its install date. That's where the trades "due" dates come from.
Related fixes without their own page yet: Cancellations refilled (same-day holes, from a waitlist) and Winter booked in fall (an early-booking offer before the slow season). See all fixes.
Fair questions.
Ask us anything else by text.
Who gets the slow-day texts?
Past customers who said texts are fine, who are due for service and who haven't heard from you in the last 30 days. Everyone else who's due gets an email. Anyone can reply STOP, and texts go out only in the afternoon.
Will customers get sick of hearing from us?
We cap it. A customer gets at most one slow-day message a month, and none if they've been in recently or have a visit booked. The fill stops as soon as the board reaches the line you set.
Does it send on its own, or wait for me?
Your choice at setup. Some owners want a YES text each time. Others let it run and read the bookings as they come in. You can switch by text any time.
What if two people want the same time?
The first reply gets it. The second person gets the next open time, or a note that tomorrow filled up and an offer to book another day.
Does a computer write back to my customers?
Only to confirm a 1 or 2 reply with the time they picked. Anything else they write goes to your office for a person to answer.
Will it work with my shop software?
We check at the free audit. If we can read tomorrow's schedule and the last-visit dates from it, great. If not, a daily export or the 1pm text to your office covers it. We won't promise a hookup we haven't tested with your system.
What does it cost?
It's quoted because I put together the best setup for each business, based on its size and what it actually needs. I price it from your numbers after the free audit. It comes inside Full Bays, or as an add-on to Declined Work Comes Back or Quote Closer Desk. Same terms as everything else: 3-month minimum, then month to month, and you own your contacts and your number.
How many light days did you have last month?
Text Chase the number and roughly how many customers you see a year. We'll run the free audit with you and tell you if slow-day fill is worth it for your shop.