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Sending after a booking

A booking service can send questionnaires on its own, so the details you always need arrive without you asking.

Set these up on the service, in Bookings → Services, under Follow-up questionnaires. It's one of the numbered steps down the service page, and it's there on direct booking and mini session services. Inquiry services don't have it. There's no booking to schedule around until you make one.

Adding one​

Add questionnaire creates an entry. Each entry has:

  • A switch to turn it on
  • Add questions, or Edit once it has some, which opens the builder. Start from template copies a saved set in
  • When to send, and a days field where the timing needs one
  • Remove, in its three-dot menu

The three timings​

When to send offers three:

After booking is confirmed. Sent as soon as the booking confirms. Good for anything you need early: contact details for the day, an address, dietary requirements.

Before service. A Days before field appears, defaulting to 7. This is the one that earns its keep. A wedding questionnaire that sends itself two weeks before every wedding is a job you never do again.

After service. A Days after field, again defaulting to 7. For feedback, a testimonial, or delivery preferences.

The gap has to be between 1 and 365 days.

Choosing the gap​

Before service: far enough out that you can act on the answers, close enough that the client knows the details. For weddings, two to four weeks. For portraits, a few days.

After service: long enough that they've seen their photos, soon enough that they still feel it. About a week after delivery works well.

Too early and they can't answer. Too late and it's an interruption.

How many​

Up to 10 per service. Two or three is plenty: one on booking, one before, one after.

What happens on the day​

A questionnaire set to send on confirmation goes out the moment the booking confirms. The other two wait until their date and go out then.

A scheduled send is skipped if the booking is cancelled before the date arrives. It also can't go anywhere if the contact has no email address.

You can move an individual send: open the request and use Edit send schedule to pick a new Send on date. That changes only that one request, not the service.

Each one is its own copy​

A questionnaire on a service holds its own copy of the questions. Starting from a template copies the content once, and it doesn't stay linked.

So editing the template later changes nothing on the service. To change what a service sends, edit it on the service.

This surprises people, so it's worth checking the service itself whenever you update a form you thought was shared.

The intake questions are different​

Separate from these are the intake questions. A client answers those during booking, rather than being sent them afterwards. Same idea, different moment. See The booking flow.

Rule of thumb: ask during booking only what you need to accept the booking. Everything else can be scheduled for later, where a longer form is fine.

Seeing what came back​

Scheduled sends don't appear on the Questionnaires page, which lists the requests you sent by hand. Find them on the booking, or on the contact's Questionnaires tab where the Source column reads Post-booking.

See Viewing answers.

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