Appreciation post: That time an AI scheduling tool booked two customers at once in my shop in Austin

Back in March, I was running my small repair shop and thought I'd be smart. I set up this AI scheduling bot to handle bookings for phone and laptop fixes. First week was smooth. Then on a Tuesday, it double booked Mrs. Garcia and a guy named Tom both for 10am. She shows up with a cracked screen, he walks in with a dead battery. I'm standing there with one workbench and two confused people. Mrs. Garcia starts tapping her watch. Tom's scrolling his phone, sighing loud. I had to freeze and just tell them straight up, 'Hey, the system messed up, your repairs are free today.' They both calmed down and ended up chatting while I worked. Cost me $80 in parts but saved the reputation. Has anyone else had a booking AI just fall apart on them mid-day?

3 comments

3 Comments

brookeellis14d ago

That 'system messed up' move was smart though... I read somewhere that most people just want the problem acknowledged before they even care about the fix. Sounds like you turned a bad situation around by being honest.

rodriguez.mia14d ago

Did you find that owning up to it right away made the awkwardness dissolve faster than trying to explain the AI glitch? I had a similar thing happen with a lawn care booking app last summer, and just telling the two clients "the software failed, not you" turned them from annoyed to almost sympathetic.

simonk9813d agoOG Member

The opposite worked for me actually. I tried the full honesty route and people just got more annoyed because they felt like I was making excuses even when I wasn't. @brookeellis I think you can overdo the "system messed up" thing to the point where it sounds like you're just trying to dodge blame. Sometimes a quick sorry and a fix without all the explanation is the faster way to kill the awkwardness.