my service times in the schedule are every 45 minutes. when booking a new appointment, the offerings are on every 30 minutes. it is not ideal for maximizing my schedule.

At present this scenario results in booking 25 min, then 5 min gap, then 5 min addon for a total duration of 35 min and prevents booking anything in the next 30 min interval due to the 5 min addon taking the next interval

I'm not certain what would be the best execution of a new algorithm that would satisfy most Blvd clients rather than just some. Brainstorming on it I can think of the following:

Strict interval adherence up until gaps are less than but not equal to 2 intervals. Once less than 2 intervals of a gap (in my example above 1.5 intervals), then open booking for the gap.

OR

Strict adherence to intervals, but when the gap is less to OR equal to 2 intervals that the gap is "sticky" to the top for appt starting and now follows intervals based on the termination of the previous appt prior to the gap.

OR

Booking intervals respected, but all terminations of appts are now a beginning to new interval beginning. This essentially is a top-down booking availability beginning every ending of an appt. If 12pm is the first 30 min slot and it is booked for 45 min on a 30 min interval service provider, the next appt available for 30 min slots would now be 12:45, 1:15, 1:45... (this could get messy but technically would be ideal for 30 min interval service providers)

THOUGHTS

In pondering my last solution, I surmise that booking logic actually could be based on specific algorithmic planning for each type of interval. It is much more logical that a 30 min interval service provider with 90% of their appts being 30 min and 10% being 45 min would have the same needs as a 60 min interval service provider with 90% being 60min and 10% being 45min. Conversely, a 45 min interval service provider with 90% of their appts being 45 min and 10% being 30 min would have a different algorithm in preferred use.

Generally I think there are purpose driven empirical types of algortihms or logics that businesses and staff would want used:

1) Pack as many in - this one would allow for fuzzy matching as the schedule gets more packed so that every little nook and cranny is filled if possible.

2) Strict interval adherence - this one is for staff that need to only know that every interval there is a chance they are going to have another appt, nothing squeezing anywhere is good for them, if they have a gap they would rather chill out rather than add a client in that spot.

3) Perfect days only - book things only so that no gaps are made, appts will stack top to bottom or bottom to top so that blvd only is showing availability that doesn't create unknowns that will potentially lead to gaps. This is for the busiest of staff that would rather tell their clients when to come in than the other way around. For a service provider that is nearly 100% booked always this wouldn't be harmful to them but may piss off clients. "look over and over and a different appt will open up for you!"

4) No algorithm or logic usage - this is probably best for new service providers which should be taking whatever they can get. Once they have enough clients or traction, then we can work on creating efficiency.

The system should start looking to fill open appointments from the time that that business opens and not from 12:00am. If a business opens at 9:00am then the system should start from there to populate open appointments for online booking. That way they won't miss out on appointments because they aren't showing online even though there are openings.

We have been having issues with Boulevard's booking technology when our employees have breaks on their schedule. Instead of letting the clients self book at times that makes sense, boulevard lets them choose anywhere on the schedule so other appointment's can't fit on the schedule until we manually change them around. It causes serious issues with how we look as a business constantly changing people's appointment's around.