Filling a last-minute opening

How to create a pikcup, let it fill itself, and close the loop when it does. About two minutes to read, or watch the whole thing below.

1. 1

   Start a new pikcup0:09

   From your dashboard, press New Pikcup.

   Pick the service or services the open slot could be used for, then set the day and the window it sits in. Every pikcup can be offered as more than one service , a freed hour might go out as a cut or a beard trim, and whoever books first takes the chair.

   The defaults are the fastest way through. You can change any of it later.

2. 2

   Send it, then leave it alone0:19

   Check the details, then send. The pikcup runs on our servers, so you can close the tab, lock your phone, go back to the chair.

   You'll get an email the moment somebody books, with a code they'll show you at the door. If you've turned on text notifications in Settings, you'll get a text too.

3. 3

   What happens while it runs0:30

   The opening goes two places at once. It lists on the pikcup marketplace, where people nearby are already looking for something today. And it goes privately to your own clients, one at a time.

   For the private half, pikcup works out who is actually likely to want that service at that hour , someone overdue for a trim, someone who always books Tuesday evenings , and AI writes each of them their own message. It is never a blast to your whole list.

   If your client list is still small, pikcup tops it up with nearby people who have asked to hear about openings like yours.

4. 4

   How the price moves0:39

   You give pikcup two numbers: the smallest discount you'd accept and the deepest you'd ever go.

   The offer opens at the smallest and only steps deeper as the appointment gets closer, so most chairs fill nearer the top of that range than the bottom. It stops dead at your number and never goes past it.

   It goes out in waves rather than all at once, starting with the people most likely to say yes at the shallowest discount. If someone who already heard from you hasn't booked by the last wave, they get one short note that the price dropped , one, not a stream of them.

5. 5

   Letting cancellations start it for you0:48

   On Bookup, a cancellation is detected the moment it happens and the pikcup is built for you , services, timing, pricing, the lot. It waits on your dashboard so you can look before it goes out. Turn on Auto-Send in Settings if you'd rather it left without asking.

   On Fresha, Vagaro, Square and most other software, you forward the appointment notification emails you already receive to your own pikcup address. We read them and build the same thing. Settings → Cancellation detection has the setup steps for your software.

6. 6

   When it fills1:06

   If you run Bookup, the slot is blocked on your calendar automatically. There is nothing for you to do.

   On any other software, block it yourself as soon as the notification arrives , pikcup can see your cancellations by email, but it cannot write back into someone else's calendar. The notification says so when that applies to you.

   Check the service and time against the pikcup you sent, and you're done.

7. 7

   If you want the simplest setup1:17

   Bookup is our own booking calendar and it's free, on its own, forever. It's the least setup: cancellations are detected instantly, filled slots block themselves, and there's nothing to forward.

   You don't have to switch. pikcup works alongside whatever you already run.