How to capture flexible dates on a venue inquiry

Capturing flexible dates means learning, in the first conversation, whether a visitor's event date can move and where it could move to. These six steps work for any venue that takes inquiries through its website, such as a barn, a hall, a private dining room, or a function space.

Who is this guide for?#

This is for a venue owner or events manager who answers website inquiries and has dates that are hard to sell. A Saturday in June books itself. A Thursday in February often sits empty.

It assumes you already ask for the event date, the guest count, and the type of event. In Qualiform, the Event or wedding venue template asks those three, and room fit counts most in its scoring. If you are starting there, read the venue page first.

The steps below add one thing on top. They help you find the people who would happily take an open date, and they help you see those people before the dates pass.

Why is a single date box not enough for a venue?#

A date box gets you one date. It does not tell you whether that date is the only one that works.

Many forms add a "My dates are flexible" checkbox. That leaves three gaps:

1. It says nothing about where the date could move. "Flexible" might mean another Saturday in June. It might mean any day next winter. Only the second helps you fill an empty Thursday.
2. It does not change who you reply to first. A ticked box is one more detail in the inquiry. Someone still has to read every message to find the flexible ones.
3. It does not tell the visitor what is open. A couple who would take a Friday in March may never ask, because nobody said Fridays in March were free.

1. Which dates do you want to fill?#

Write the list down before you touch the form. Be specific. For example:

• Fridays and Sundays from January to March
• Any weekday in November
• The first two weekends of September this year

Then write down what you would offer for those dates, if anything. A lower room hire or a free extra hour are common. Only list offers you would honor for anyone who asks.

This list does two jobs. It gives the AI something to answer from. It also tells you which answers should score well. If you cannot write the list down, the form cannot ask about it.

Check the list every month. Take a date off the list the day it books.

2. How do you tell the AI about your open dates?#

Put the list in About the business, on the Setup tab. The AI uses that box to answer visitors' questions and to judge what is out of scope. A form started from a template shows an example paragraph there in grey. The example is not saved, so write your own.

Keep it short and plain. For example:

Our main hall holds up to 150 guests. Saturdays from May to September book a year ahead. We still have Fridays and Sundays open from January to March, and any weekday in November. Room hire on those dates is lower.

The AI is told to answer anything a visitor asks, in plain words. So when someone asks "Do you have anything cheaper?" or "What about a Friday?", it can answer from this paragraph.

Visitors never see this box as you wrote it. The AI answers from it in its own words. Press Save at the top of the page to keep your changes.

3. How do you ask whether their date can move?#

Add a question of your own with a list of answers. When you add it, say the answer is one of a list. That makes it a Pick one question, so you can write Answers people can pick. In Qualiform, the list shows as buttons above the typing box when it has two to six answers of 60 characters or fewer.

An example question:

Is your date fixed, or could it move?

With answers people can pick:

1. My date is fixed
2. Another day in the same month
3. Open to another day or month
4. Not sure yet

Set When to ask to Ask if you can. The AI then asks it if there is a natural opening, and drops it if not. Set Asks up to to one, so nobody is asked twice.

Use How to ask, or when not to (Optional), on the Advanced tab, to steer it. For example: "Ask after they give a date. Do not ask if they already said the date cannot move." The AI is told to read answers out of what visitors already said. A visitor who wrote "we're flexible" in their first message should not be asked again.

4. What should you ask a visitor whose dates are flexible?#

Ask which months would work. Ask only the people who said their date could move.

Open the flexibility question. Under Answers people can pick, use the Add question under "Open to another day or month." Only visitors who pick that answer are asked the new question. It never counts for or against anyone else.

An example follow-up:

Which months could work for you?

With answers people can pick:

1. January to March
2. April to June
3. July to September
4. October to December
5. Any month

This follow-up cannot have questions added under its own answers. Only one level is allowed.

Leave Allow answers outside the list off on the flexibility question. Questions added under the answers are not asked after an answer outside the list.

5. How should flexible dates count in the score?#

Flexibility should help a lead, never sink one. A couple with a fixed Saturday in June is still a good lead if that Saturday is open.

On the flexibility question's Scoring tab, use A grade for each answer. You grade each answer from Best fit down to Not a fit. For example, grade "Open to another day or month" as Best fit. Grade "My date is fixed" a step or two lower, but not Not a fit.

On the months follow-up, grade the months on your open list as Best fit.

Set How much it counts to Low or Minimal on both. Minimal barely moves the score. It separates two leads that are otherwise level. That is the job here: between two weddings of the right size, the flexible one ranks higher.

The flexibility answer also counts when the date itself cannot be scored. The event date can use the scoring option How soon they want it, set so later dates score best, because a venue booked a year out is a good lead. Skipping a question never lowers a score.

6. What happens to a lead with flexible dates?#

The flexibility grade is part of the lead score. The score decides which of the five rules on your Routing tab the lead lands on. Each rule has a cut-off and a priority label, such as Hot or Warm. A flexible lead just under your Warm cut-off can now reach it. The guide to lead routing rules covers setting those cut-offs.

Each answer is saved with the exact words it came from. So "Spring or fall, maybe a Friday" is kept as the visitor said it, not only as a grade.

Before you send people to the form, set who gets told about new leads. That is on the Routing tab, under Who hears about new leads. A flexible lead for a date eight weeks away is worth a same-day reply.

What does a full set of venue questions look like?#

This table is an example, not a template default. Change the questions and levels to fit your venue.

A conversation has room for about eleven questions asked out loud at the most. Each visitor here is asked five or six, so there is room for your own.

Here is an example of how the date part of a conversation can go. The AI's words will differ each time.

Visitor: We're planning a wedding for about 90 guests next year. Saturdays in June, ideally.

The AI: Thanks. Is your date fixed, or could it move?

Visitor: (presses "Open to another day or month")

The AI: Which months could work for you?

Visitor: Spring or fall, maybe a Friday. Do you have any Fridays open?

The AI: Fridays from January to March are still open, and room hire on those dates is lower. What is the best way to reach you?

What are the common mistakes?#

1. Setting flexibility to Infer only. Anything the AI works out for an Infer only question is left out of the score. If you want flexibility to count, the question has to be asked.
2. Making it count too much. At High or Critical, a flexible lead for 300 guests can outrank a fixed-date lead your room fits. Keep it Low or Minimal.
3. Grading "My date is fixed" as Not a fit. A fixed date that is open is a booking. Grade it lower, not out.
4. Turning anyone away on dates. Leave Turn away anyone who picks a Not a fit answer unchecked on both date questions. A date can be talked about. It is not a reason to say no.
5. Letting the open dates go stale. If About the business lists a Friday you sold last week, the AI may tell a visitor it is free. Update it the day a date books.
6. Asking about flexibility twice. Write in How to ask, or when not to (Optional) that it should be skipped once a visitor has said.

When is this not worth doing?#

Skip it if your dates sell without help. A venue that books every weekend a year out, and does not open on weekdays, has nothing to fill. The extra question would cost a visitor a round of back and forth for no gain.

Skip it if you have only one or two open dates a year. Reading the inquiries yourself is quicker than setting up two questions and their grades.

A plain date question is also fine if most inquiries are corporate events tied to a fixed conference or launch. Those dates rarely move, and asking can feel like you did not listen.

It also does not replace your calendar. The AI answers from what you write, so you still keep the list of open dates true.

How do you know it is working?#

Press Preview and walk the form twice. First, be a couple with a fixed June Saturday. Then be a couple who picks "Open to another day or month" and "January to March," and asks about Fridays. Check that only the second couple is asked about months, and that the AI answers from your list of open dates. Preview saves nothing, so put the form on your own site and try it once more to see a real lead and its score.

After a month, read every lead that picked a flexible answer next to your calendar. Count how many open off-peak dates you offered them and how many booked. If flexible leads arrive but none book, check that About the business still matches what is free. For how a score and its reasons fit together, see lead scoring.