Nearly every customer has a preference. Very few have a requirement. The business that can tell the difference keeps its flexibility.
Why it matters
A preference costs nothing to record and can usually be honoured when it is known early, because the account can be placed in a lane that already runs at that time. The same wish, converted into a hard commitment at the moment of booking, costs route flexibility every single visit for as long as the customer stays.
How you notice it slipping
Preferences are entered as commitments because the booking screen offers no middle setting. “Mornings” in a note becomes a firm nine-to-eleven in practice, because nobody dares test it. The share of appointments with a hard time rises while the number of genuinely time-critical customers stays flat.
What to do
Ask one more question at booking: what is the real boundary behind the wish? “Mornings” often means “not during the school run” or “before my shift”, which is a far wider opening than mornings. Then place recurring preference-heavy accounts into a lane that naturally fits, so the preference is solved once rather than negotiated every visit.