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How Customers Book

Understanding what your customers see when they book helps you optimize the experience and reduce drop-off. Here's the complete journey from start to finish.

Step 1: Land on the page

Customers reach a booking page through a shared link, a Book Now button on your website, or an inline embed. The page loads with that page's branding — logo, colors, heading, and intro — plus your star rating and any certification badges you've turned on, so it reads as an extension of your business rather than a scheduling tool.

Step 2: Answer the page's questions

What comes next depends on how you built the page:

  • A service list — the visitor sees your services as cards with icons and short descriptions, and picks one.
  • A routing form — the visitor answers a question, and their answer decides the next question or the service they land on. They may never see a list of services at all; the routing rules handle it.
  • A single-service page — there are no questions, so this step doesn't exist. The visitor goes straight to the contact form for that one service.

Questions are asked one at a time, and an answer can also send the visitor to a page outside Driive if that's where you routed it.

If the customer arrived through a direct appointment type link, this step is skipped entirely.

Step 3: Enter contact information

The customer fills in their details. Name is always asked; whether they're asked for phone, email, and a description of the job is up to the page's contact field settings. If the phone field is showing, an SMS consent checkbox appears with it.

The moment they continue, Driive creates a service request — so even if they drop off later, you know who they are and what they were looking for. If a customer with matching details already exists in Driive, the request is linked to that existing customer automatically.

Note: These fields can be pre-filled via URL parameters so customers don't have to enter information you already have.

Step 4: Answer the service's questions

Next comes the guided flow — the booking questions configured on the appointment type they landed on, asked one at a time. These can include:

  • Text fields — "Describe the issue you're experiencing"
  • Select and multi-select — "What type of property is this?"
  • Photo uploads — "Upload a photo of the area that needs work"
  • Preferred technician — pick from your eligible users

Customers can step back to change an earlier answer, and progress saves as they go.

Anything already answered on the booking page isn't asked twice — if you've set up answer forwarding, those answers arrive prefilled.

Tip: Keep questions focused on what you truly need before showing up. Every extra question costs you completions.

Step 5: Confirm the service address

The customer enters the address where the work is needed. Driive uses it to check the location against your service area and to plan drive time for your team.

Step 6: Driive checks the request

With everything gathered, Driive finalizes the request. Two paths from here:

  • Everything checks out — the customer moves straight to time selection (Step 7).
  • A human is needed — the appointment type requires approval, the lead didn't meet your qualification threshold, or the address is outside your service area. The request lands in your Issues list with a reason explaining why, and the customer sees the page's thank-you message. Your team picks it up from there.

Step 7: Pick a time

Qualified customers see a calendar of your real availability. The slots respect your:

  • Business hours and per-user availability
  • Existing appointments (booked slots are removed)
  • Connected calendar events (Google Calendar or Outlook blocks are accounted for)
  • Buffer times and booking window settings

The times aren't in a raw list — the calendar leads with a short set of recommended times and opens on the first date that has any availability. Which times come first is the appointment type's slot ranking setting: Speed to lead surfaces the earliest opening, Route density surfaces the one that fits your existing route best.

The customer picks a date and time, reviews their selections, and confirms. Driive creates the appointment as Scheduled — start to finish without a phone call.

Booking by arrival window: If the appointment type books by arrival window, this step looks a little different — instead of a grid of exact times, the customer picks a window card like "Arrive between 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM." Driive only shows windows it can actually staff, and books the appointment without assigning a technician yet. Your team assigns it afterward on the Dispatch board.

Step 8: Confirmation and self-service

After confirming, the customer lands on their own confirmation page and receives a confirmation message based on the type's notification settings. From that page they can:

  • Add to calendar — Google Calendar or Outlook, pre-filled.
  • Reschedule — pick a new time from current availability.
  • Cancel — cancel with a reason.

These self-service options cut inbound calls and give customers control. See Customer Confirmation Portal.

If the page has a redirect configured, the customer is sent to your own thank-you page instead — with UTM parameters and custom fields carried across for attribution.

The experience at a glance

StepWhat happens
1. LandCustomer opens your booking page — link, button, or embed
2. Page questionsService cards, a routing questionnaire, or nothing at all
3. Contact infoName plus whatever the page collects — Driive creates the request
4. Service questionsThe appointment type's own questions, one at a time
5. AddressConfirm where the work is needed
6. Driive checksQualified requests continue; the rest land in your Issues list
7. Pick timeRecommended times or arrival windows, then confirm
8. Self-serviceAdd to calendar, reschedule, or cancel

What's next