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Staff

Letting customers choose a staff member

What changes when customers pick their own team member, and why turning it off makes your week look fuller.

One setting decides whether customers pick who they see, or whether BookerFlow assigns someone. It changes both the booking flow and how full your week looks, so it is worth understanding before you switch it.

The setting

Let customers choose a specific staff member, on Settings → Booking. On by default. Covered alongside the other rules in Booking rules: notice, cancellation, and how far ahead.

With staff choice on

Customers pick a person, then see only that person's free times. Photos and bios appear, so the choice is a real one rather than a list of names.

The trade-off is that availability looks thinner. A customer set on one stylist sees only their diary, so a week that is objectively half empty can appear fully booked to them.

With staff choice off

The step disappears. Customers choose a service, a date, and a time, and BookerFlow assigns whoever can do that service and is free.

A time is offered if anyone qualified is available, so the same week looks considerably fuller and the work spreads more evenly across the team.

This is the fastest fix for a thin-looking calendar

If customers say there is nothing available while your diary has space, turning staff choice off often solves it outright. See Why a time slot isn't showing to customers.

Which to choose

SettingWhat it does
Choice onWhere the relationship is with the person — salons, barbers, therapists. Customers return to their regular and expect to pick them.
Choice offWhere the service is the same whoever provides it, or you want the diary to fill evenly. Also useful when one person is always full and others are quiet.

It is not permanent. If you are unsure, try it for a fortnight and compare the workload split in Insights.

Still stuck?

Send us the details and we will take a look. Including your booking link and the date and time you are asking about gets you a faster answer.

Last reviewed July 30, 2026.