Arrival Windows Updated March 26, 2024 17:47

Overview

Arrival windows are a way to communicate to your clients that you'll be arriving within a window of time, rather than an exact start time. In Jobber, the arrival window style and duration is set up in your work settings to apply to all jobs that are active, but can also be edited on the individual job level. 

Arrival windows in your settings

Arrival window settings are found in your work settings. You can navigate there by going to the Gear Icon > Settings > Work Settings. Learn more about work settings. Until you edit your settings, your default arrival windows is set to "none".

First select your Default arrival window. This is the duration of the arrival window. The options are:

• None (no arrival window at all)
• 15 minutes
• 30 minutes
• 1 hour
• 2 hours
• 3 hours
• 4 hours

Next select your Arrival window style. There are two options:

• Add window after start time - With this style, if a job has a scheduled start time at 9AM, the arrival window will start at 9AM.
• Center window after start time - With this style, the arrival window will center around the job's start time. This means that a job with an arrival window of two hours and a start time at 9AM would have an arrival window from 8AM until 10AM.

To turn your arrival windows off, navigate to the Gear Icon > Settings > Work Settings then set your arrival window default to "none". This will turn arrival windows off for all future jobs, however any jobs that were set up with arrival windows will need to be edited so their arrival window is also set to "none". 

Arrival windows on a job

Arrival windows can also be customized on the job level. By default, the arrival window on the job will follow the default from your settings. However since some jobs may different needs where you will arrive within a different window, that can be customized while creating or editing the job. 

To set the arrival window on a job, start by creating a new job or click Edit on an existing job.

Scroll to the Schedule section of the job and enter the job start and end dates as well as the times. Once these fields are filled out, you'll see the arrival windows appear with the duration that was set in your settings.

Click Edit to make changes to the arrival window for this job.

Note: Arrival windows are set up on the job level, not on the visit level. This arrival window will apply to all visits for the job. Even if the visits have different durations or start times, the arrival window will apply to them. 

From the arrival window edit screen, update the arrival window duration for this job. Once you've made your selections, click Set Arrival Window. Then from the job, Update job. 

Viewing arrival windows on the schedule 

Visits on the schedule will show the scheduled start time for the visit and do not account visually for arrival windows. However, the arrival window shows when viewing the visit details. 

To see the arrival time, navigate to your favourite schedule view. Then click the visit and select View details. 

Templates

If you are sending notifications about jobs such as booking confirmations or visit reminders, there are variables for your message templates to account for the arrival window. If you have been using older or customized versions of our templates from prior to the launch of arrival windows, you may need to review your templates to make sure you are using a variable or your own custom messaging that mentions arrival windows so that you don't catch your clients off guard. You may see a prompt to edit your templates if this is the case. 

To edit your templates, navigate to the Gear Icon > Settings > Emails and Text Messages. To edit each template type (booking confirmations and visit reminders), click Edit. Learn more about emails and text messages settings. 

Note: Arrival windows are not available for assessments, so no need to edit your assessment reminder template. 

The variables that include arrival windows (for both emails and text message templates) are:

• For booking confirmations:
  • {{JOB_DETAILS}}
  • {{ARRIVAL_WINDOW}}
• For visit reminders: 
  • {{WORK_DETAILS}}
  • {{ARRIVAL_WINDOW}}

These variables can be added to your message template to auto-populate the arrival window or job details. Type your own message in the template, or click Reset to set the template back to the default setting which includes a variable that accounts for arrival windows. 

To the right of the template is a preview where you can see what the variables will look like when populated. Learn more about variables. 

If you are have a job set up to be anytime (no start time) or you selected "schedule later" these variables will automatically hide the arrival window since the job does not have a start time. If you do not have arrival windows set up (default arrival window set to "none") then these variables will instead populate the visit or job start time.

What do your clients see?

Arrival windows are visible to your clients in places that are customer facing, including:

• Appointments in client hub
• Booking confirmation emails and text messages
• Visit reminder emails and text messages

Your clients will see the arrival window when viewing the appointment in client hub: 

In their booking confirmation (both emails and text messages):

And in their appointment reminders (both emails and text messages):

Arrival windows in the app

Arrival windows are also available on jobs in the Jobber App.

To add an arrival window, when creating or editing a job, select a start and end date then add a start and end time for the visits for the job. Once start and end times are added, a field for arrival windows will become available. The arrival window length will follow the default arrival window duration set up on jobber.com in your work settings, however it can be edited for that specific job in the app.

Tap Arrival window to adjust the arrival window for the job, then tap Set Arrival Window to save your selection. 

Arrival windows appear on your Schedule in the Jobber App in the heading of a visit below the visit start and end times.