Take the phone the person at the desk uses, search your own shop in Maps and open the site. Look at what is on the screen before you scroll. Two buttons, same size, same colour, sit side by side: Book an appointment and Message us on WhatsApp. Or Get a quote and Come in for a coffee, waiting for someone to pick.
It shows up in workshops and opticians, and in any shop that has been answering properly for years and finally got the website sorted. The second button was not put there one Tuesday to confuse anyone. It went up to give people a choice. A choice in what you see before you scroll is what costs you the booking.
The person from Maps already decided
They did not open your site to get to know you. They looked at the photos, the reviews and the distance, and they had already said yes. What they want from the homepage is how the next step is done. If that is not obvious in three seconds they go back to the map, which has four more names the same distance away.
They are not weighing up whether they would rather type or ring. They are standing on a pavement, or on the sofa at eleven at night, thumb over the screen, waiting to see what to press.
Two of the same size read as a question
Having two buttons looks like the fair thing: some people would rather write, some would rather walk in, so each can take the one that suits them. A button at the top of the page does not read as a door you may or may not open. It reads as what you are supposed to do now, and two of those, same size and same colour, do not come across as two routes. They come across as a doubt.
That is where the person who was going to book stops, to work out which one is theirs. If I message, does anyone answer today? If I book, am I committing to something? That pause is enough to close the tab, and from your side there is nothing to see: no unread message, no missed call. They left and you never hear about it.
There is a three-button version, more common than it sounds: book, WhatsApp and phone in a row, all in the same green. The restaurant in the Axarquía that puts the portal’s reserve button next to them is already at four.
Where the second button came from
Nobody chose them in one sitting. The theme came with two slots and both got filled because both were there. Or the first was put in by whoever built the site and you asked for the second on a Thursday, after a week in which three people complained that the phone never got answered. Or one is left over from last year’s fair and never came down.
Each button arrived for a reasonable reason, in a different month. What nobody has done is look at them together and decide which one you want tapped.
One button on the first screen
The first screen carries the one you actually want used: Book if you sell hours in a diary, Get a quote if you sell jobs that have to be looked at before they get a price. One button, large enough to see on a normal phone without scrolling.
WhatsApp does not come off. It drops to a line of ordinary text under the button, for anyone who would rather write. The phone stays in the header and the footer, because the people who always ring go looking for it. The coffee, if you offer one, sits on the contact page instead of competing with the appointment at the top.
The change is to stop treating every way of getting in touch as if they all weigh the same in the same place. They all count, but not at once and not at the same weight.
Do it in a spare minute
Do it on a phone that is not yours, the one at the counter. Open the homepage and do not scroll. Look at what is there and ask which is the main button. If you have to think about it, and you own the place, so does the person who came in from Maps.
Then press it. It has to land on a page where a service, a day and a slot get picked, with the free hours in view. If it lands on a form asking for a preferred time, or on a number ringing in the office upstairs, the button is in the right place and the hole is exactly as open as it was. A clear button with nothing behind it is the same leak, only easier to read.
WhatsApp stays
You do not need a redesign, or new colours, or new photos. The chat is still where the quick things get said. The problem is smaller and more stubborn than any of that: two things in the first screen are asking for the same tap, and the person who had already decided stops between them. Leave one button at the top and the rest underneath, with a page behind it that actually takes the hour.
Presence (€3,450) gets the listing, the site and the door telling one story, with one clear button at the top. Bookings (€5,450) puts a real diary behind that button, on your own domain. Operator (€7,950) is the larger size, when there is already a flow of messages for someone to answer. Care (€149/month) is who takes down the button that went up for the September fair and stayed; it travels with the work, not an extra you drop to save money.
Web & eCommerce packages. A person writes back within 24 hours.
Frequently asked questions
What if my customers prefer WhatsApp?
Plenty of them do, and it stays. What changes is the weight. WhatsApp drops to a line of ordinary text under the button: if you would rather write, here we are. It stops competing for the same tap and goes back to being the fallback, which is what it is good at.
Won't I lose calls if the phone number is not a button?
The number stays in the header and the footer, which is where the people who always ring go looking. Anyone who was never going to ring does not need it the size of a button.
Book or Get a quote?
Depends what you sell. If what you sell is hours in a diary, book. If it is jobs that have to be looked at before they get a price, quote. One of the two, not both.