Buffer time between appointments — breathe between two clients
Preparation time before and tidying time after, reserved automatically and invisible to the client.
The problem
On paper an hour-long session takes an hour. In reality it takes an hour and a quarter: the client settling in, the last few minutes, your notes to write up, the room to put straight. A calendar that runs full hours back to back puts you systematically behind.
Delay only accumulates in one direction. Five minutes over at the first appointment becomes twenty by midday and forty by the end of the day. The last client waits, and it is that client who remembers the wait.
Many practitioners compensate by blocking fake appointments in their calendar. It works, but you have to remember every time, and a slot blocked by hand is never released automatically when the appointment beside it is cancelled.
Without Kagenda
A one-hour session actually takes up an hour and a quarter. By midday, you're twenty minutes behind; by the end of the day, forty.
With Kagenda
Ten minutes before, fifteen after: removed automatically from the slots on offer, invisible to the client.
How it works in Kagenda
Buffer is set per service, in two independent values: what is needed before, what is needed after.
- You state the time neededTen minutes before to prepare, say, and fifteen after to tidy and write up. A service that needs none stays at zero.
- The buffer becomes unbookableThe availability engine takes those minutes out of the slots offered. An appointment from 10 to 11 with fifteen minutes after makes the 11 o'clock slot unavailable, without the client knowing why.
- The client only sees their sessionTheir confirmation says 10 – 11. The buffer is your internal organisation; it appears neither in the email nor on the booking page.
A 10–11am appointment
- 10 min before — setup
- 10–11am — the session
- 15 min after — tidy-up
- 11:00am — unavailable for another client
In practice
- 1
Before and after, separately
Ten minutes to set up, fifteen to tidy up — two independent values per service.
10 min beforeet15 min after - 2
The client only sees their session
Their confirmation says 10–11am; the buffer stays your own internal organisation.
Seen by the client10–11am, without the buffer - 3
Released automatically
If the neighbouring appointment is cancelled, the buffer time it occupied is released with no action needed.
Neighbouring appointment cancelledBuffer released automatically
Frequently asked questions
Does the client pay for the buffer time?
No. The price and duration advertised are those of the service. The buffer appears nowhere on the client's side: it merely removes slots from the grid.
Is the buffer the same for every service?
No, it is set service by service. A long first appointment may need more preparation than a follow-up session.
What happens if the appointment is cancelled?
The slot and its buffer are released together. That is the difference from a fake appointment placed by hand, which would stay in the calendar.
Do two consecutive appointments add their buffers together?
The time after the first and the time before the second do add up, since both needs are real. If that is too much, reduce one of the two values.
