Take a deposit upfront

Deposits are the single best lever against no-shows, but they aren't free:

• They reduce booking volume. Some percentage of callers will hesitate at the payment step and take details for callback instead. That's not necessarily bad — those are the lowest-intent callers — but factor it in.
• They require a short onboarding explanation. The AI will say “I'll text you a secure link to hold your slot” — no surprises, but callers can and do push back.

Deposits are worth it when:

• Your no-show rate is over ~5%
• Services are high-value (above ~$80) or high-effort (long prep, bookings-only-slots)
• You've already tried SMS reminders and it's not enough

Deposits use your Stripe account directly — the money lands in your bank, not ours. If you haven't connected Stripe yet:

1. Open Settings → Billing → Stripe Connect
2. Click Connect Stripe account
3. Either create a new Stripe account or connect your existing one
4. Return to Vervox once Stripe confirms the connection

We take no cut of deposits — you pay Stripe's standard card-processing fee (around 1.75% + 30¢ in Australia) and nothing else.

Deposits are configured per service, not globally — some services (e.g. quick consultations) may not warrant a deposit while others (e.g. full-day photoshoots) do.

1. Open Settings → Smart Booking → Services
2. Click the service you want to require a deposit
3. Expand Deposit settings
4. Toggle Require deposit on and set the amount
5. Save

The change is live on the next call. Existing bookings for that service are unaffected.

Typical deposit structures:

• Flat deposit — e.g. $30 across all services. Simple and fair.
• Percentage of service — e.g. 25% of a $200 service = $50. Scales naturally.
• Full prepayment — for sessions under $100 that have no variable cost.

Whatever you pick, write your refund policy into the service's custom instructions so the AI can answer "is it refundable?" consistently. Common policies:

• Refundable up to 24h before the appointment
• Refundable as credit (not cash) for reschedules
• Non-refundable but transferable to another date

Here's the exact mechanic:

1. Caller picks a slot and agrees to the deposit.
2. The AI books the slot in pending_deposit state — it's held, not confirmed.
3. The AI texts the caller a Stripe checkout link.
4. The caller has up to 2 hours to complete payment.
5. If payment clears within the window → the booking flips to confirmed, calendar is written, the slot is locked in.
6. If the 2 hours elapse without payment → the slot is released, the booking is cancelled, and the caller gets an SMS that says so.

This prevents opportunistic holds: someone can't tie up all your prime slots by refusing to pay, while still giving a busy caller enough time to find their card.

Sometimes legitimate callers fail the first payment attempt — card declined, browser closed, bounced SMS. They'll usually call back within a few minutes. When that happens:

• The AI checks if the slot is still available. If yes, it re-holds it and sends a fresh link.
• If the slot has been taken by someone else, the AI offers the next available slot.

You don't need to do anything manually — Stripe sends failure-reason metadata back and the AI handles the recovery. If you want to intervene, the failed hold is visible in Appointments with status pending_deposit and the conversation log shows what went wrong.

The Appointments page shows every booking status:

• confirmed — fully booked, payment received.
• pending_deposit — slot held, waiting on payment (max 2 hours).
• cancelled — caller cancelled or deposit timed out.
• completed — appointment happened.
• no_show — marked as no-show (keeps the deposit if your policy says so).

Filter the Appointments list by status to see what needs attention. Most of the time you won't need to — the flow self-heals.