Two good windows are not one long window.
Design a repair appointment offer, then carry its price and confirmation deadline through a customer's plans and two possible service enquiries.
The appointment your ad is selling
Two good windows are not one long window.
“Save $20. Keep your gap. Let us choose the appointment later.”
There could be a deal here.
You run paid search for a repair service. A fixed appointment costs $200. You want to try a $180 offer that lets the business choose between two acceptable short windows. Start with a fictional customer who has accepted it; whether she should have is still open.
Lea has put $200 aside for the repair. Keeping $20 would cover her return train fare to see her sister on Saturday. She wants to make that trip.
She also wants to see a friend on Thursday morning. The friend needs a firm reply by Tuesday at five. The cheaper repair offers one thing Lea wants; waiting for its time may cost her another.
Starting Tuesday · 4 pm
To start, put Lea in the route.
Her repair is on Thursday. She can offer 9–11 or 3–5, but she is out from 11–3. Each one-hour repair must finish inside its block. The technician has only Noor at noon so far. Put Lea in the afternoon and watch both calendars.
Lea’s calendar
The technician’s route
Replay the alternative enquiry from the same earlier decisions. Later moves, confirmations and acceptances are rewound.
Why two visits cannot share one block
Two one-hour visits plus 45 minutes between Lea’s home in the east and either enquirer’s home in the west need 2 hours 45 minutes. Inside 9–11 or 3–5, the second visit would finish 45 minutes late. Reversing their order does not help.
Either outer home is 30 minutes from Noor in the centre. A feasible route visits one home 9–10, travels 30 minutes, waits, serves Noor 12–1, travels 30 minutes, waits, and visits the other home 3–4. Those are planned service times inside the promised blocks, not extra precision promised to customers.
The technician starts at the first home. Travel back to base is outside the example. Durations and travel times are constant; waiting is visible. A real operation must allow for variation, breaks, skills, equipment and the return journey. One extra feasible booking establishes neither profit nor typical capacity.
The research—and what this example cannot tell us
Burian and colleagues’ study of attended grocery delivery includes customers selecting several suitable short windows and learning the final one later. Computational experiments in two Austrian regions test booking rules; they do not establish demand for this repair offer. The multiple-window method is not a universal winner. Read the study, especially §3.3.2 and §4.
Strauss, Gülpınar and Zheng describe flexible slots made from windows that need not be adjacent, including customer-selected combinations. Their pricing research makes flexibility’s value dependent on future demand and routing costs. It does not supply this business’s discount or this customer’s preference. Read the pricing formulation.
All people, prices and plans here are invented, including the $20 train fare. Lea’s offer is assumed accepted on Tuesday at 9 am. The repair is Thursday; the business closes bookings on Wednesday at 4 pm. Arun and Mina are alternative enquiries, without probabilities. Neither tells us how often a request will arrive, how Lea weighs the two visits she wants to make, or whether this offer earns a profit. The no-fee release is an invented service policy, not a claim about law.
Now decide what to sell
What would make this offer worth choosing?
The $20 can pay for Saturday’s train. A fixed afternoon protects Thursday with her friend. An early answer might leave her both. Try terms the business can keep, then ask whether Lea would choose them.
Changing these fields prepares another offer. Trying it restarts Tuesday’s decisions.
For the ad and the booking team
The promise for this booking.
Lea’s side
The business’s side
The draft follows the terms you tried and any answer you sent. Edit it for a booking conversation; your edits stay in this browser until another calendar action replaces the draft.
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