Ten in the morning in one town, eleven in the next county
Survey bookings go in as the calls come in. Someone looks at the surveyor's calendar, sees a gap at eleven, and books it. It does not show that the ten o'clock is forty minutes away in the other direction, or that there is already a visit in the same village on Thursday.
The surveyor spends the day driving, arrives late at half the visits, and fits the quotes in at night. Now and then they arrive to a locked door because the customer forgot, and the morning is gone.
Why the diary works against you
A calendar shows time. It does not show place, and survey days are really a routing problem with appointments attached.
- Slots are offered by time only, not by where the surveyor already is.
- Office staff do not know the patch well enough to judge travel.
- Video surveys and home visits share a diary even though one needs no travel.
- Reminders are not sent, or are sent by hand when someone remembers.
- Cancellations free a slot that nobody notices until the next day.
The cost of a badly booked day
Fewer surveys per day means fewer quotes per week, and quotes are what bring in moves. Travel time and fuel are the obvious waste. A missed visit is worse: a lost slot and often a lost customer, who books whoever can come quickest.
Surveyors who end every day typing quotes late tend not to stay surveyors for long, and good ones are hard to replace.
How we book surveys around the map
- We connect to the surveyors' calendars in Microsoft 365 or Google, and to your enquiry records, so each booking carries the property postcode.
- When a survey needs booking, the system offers slots that fit around existing visits, using travel time between postcodes rather than straight-line guesses.
- Areas can be given preferred days, so the coastal villages cluster on a Tuesday rather than being scattered.
- Video surveys are booked into their own slots, which can fill the gaps a home-visit day leaves.
- Customers get a confirmation with the time window and what to have ready, and a reminder the day before with an easy way to rearrange.
- Cancellations go straight back into the available slots, and the office sees who is waiting for an earlier visit in that area.
| Booking question | Answered by |
|---|---|
| Is there a slot today? | Calendar and travel between postcodes |
| Should this be a video survey? | Property size and your rules |
| Will the customer be in? | Reminder with a rearrange link |
| Who can fill a cancelled slot? | Waiting list for that area |
Staff can still book anything by hand. The system shows them the sensible options first.
What the surveyor's day looks like
Visits grouped by area, realistic gaps between them, and fewer wasted journeys. The office can offer customers a slot on the phone without a guess about whether it works.
Combined with a survey form that builds the quote draft, the surveyor can finish the working day with the day's quotes already waiting for review.
Recognise your survey diary?
- Surveys are booked into a calendar with no thought for location.
- Surveyors spend a large part of the day driving between visits.
- Customers forget appointments and are out when you arrive.
- Video and home surveys share a diary with no distinction.
- Cancelled slots stay empty.