Stop asking customers to type dates as numbers. Use a calendar picker, show the month as a word, and repeat the booked date in words, with the weekday, in the confirmation, so a mix-up surfaces early.

Eleven twelve

A customer types 11/12 into a booking form for an office party. The business reads November 12. The customer meant December 11.

Nobody notices. The confirmation repeats the same numbers back, and each side reads its own meaning into them.

Canada has no single habit here. Some people write the day first, as in Britain; others write the month first, as in the United States; and forms from banks, schools and employers do not agree.

Any date where the day is twelve or less can be read two ways, except the twelve where day and month match. That is 132 days of the year.

Where the guess gets in

The fifth is the one that lets the mistake survive. A reply saying your booking for 11/12 is confirmed reassures both sides, and each is wrong about the other.

Take the typing away

The simplest fix is a date picker: a small calendar that opens when the field is tapped, with the month named at the top. The customer chooses a day, and nothing has to be typed or interpreted.

Phones already offer one. On an iPhone or an Android phone, a field marked as a date opens the phone's own date wheel or calendar.

Computers are less consistent. Chrome shows its own calendar for date fields, but Firefox, Safari on a Mac and Internet Explorer 11 still show a plain text box. A picker built into the page, tested in each, covers the gap.

Whatever the screen shows, a proper date field sends the date to the website in one fixed order, year first. The business receives a date, not a puzzle.

Show the month as a word

Once a day is chosen, show it back in words beside the field: Friday, December 11, 2015. That one line lets the customer check what they picked before they press send.

The weekday is the most useful part. People remember that they wanted a Friday far more readily than they remember a number, so a wrong weekday jumps out.

Where a form must still accept typed dates, ask for the month by name from a list rather than as a number.

Close the days you cannot take

A picker can also refuse dates that make no sense for your business: days you are closed, dates already fully booked, and anything in the past.

That removes a second kind of error, the request for a Monday when you never open on Mondays, which otherwise ends in a phone call to rearrange.

A worked example

An urban winery in a converted warehouse in an industrial area makes wine from grapes trucked in from the Okanagan, and hosts private tastings and holiday parties in its barrel room.

Its booking request form had a text box labelled preferred date. Last autumn an office organiser typed 11/12/14 and asked for an evening for twenty-four people.

The winery read November 12 and booked the room. Its reply said the booking for 11/12 was confirmed, which the organiser read as December 11.

It came out in early November, when the winery phoned to confirm numbers and heard that the party was still a month away. By then the December evening had gone to another group.

The form now uses a calendar picker that greys out Mondays and evenings already booked, and shows the chosen date in words beside the field.

The confirmation email and the winery's own calendar use the same wording, along the lines of Friday, December 11, 2015, 6 pm to 9 pm, barrel room, twenty-four guests.

Say it back in words

The confirmation is the last chance to catch a mix-up before the day. Write the date out in full, with the weekday, the month as a word and the year.

Give the time with am or pm, and the place if you have more than one room or location.

Then ask the customer to reply if anything is wrong. It is one sentence, and it turns the confirmation from a receipt into a check.

Times have the same problem

Dates are not the only numbers people read differently. A time of 7:00 can mean breakfast or dinner, and 12 am and 12 pm confuse almost everyone.

Offer times as a list of slots with am and pm attached, and write noon and midnight in words. Twenty-four-hour times suit some customers and baffle others, so keep them out of anything customers read.

Dates that leave the form

The date keeps travelling after the form: into an email, a calendar, a spreadsheet of bookings.

A list exported with numeric dates can be read differently on a computer set to another region, swapping day and month again without anyone noticing. Export dates with the month as a word, or with the year first.

And make sure the email the business receives shows the date in words too, since that is what staff copy from.

The counter-case

Some businesses rarely meet the problem. A clinic that confirms every appointment by phone the day before will catch most swapped dates in that call.

A form that asks only for a preferred day of the week, or for this week or next, avoids numeric dates altogether.

Even so, a picker and a worded confirmation cost little and remove the guess from every booking. Take the typing away, and say the date back in words.

Before the holiday bookings

  1. Book a test date such as 11/12 yourself.
  2. Replace the text box with a calendar picker.
  3. Test the picker in Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.
  4. Write the confirmed date in words, with the weekday.
  5. Grey out days you are closed or full.
  6. Attach am or pm to every time.
  7. Export bookings with month names or year first.

Step four is the one that catches whatever the others miss. A customer reading Thursday, November 12 when they planned a Friday in December will reply before anyone sets a table.

Forms that refuse what customers type are covered in name fields that reject accents and apostrophes.

Frequently asked questions

Why is 11/12 a problem on a booking form?

Some customers write the day first and others the month first. The same numbers mean November 12 to one person and December 11 to another, and a text box cannot tell which.

How many dates can be read both ways?

Every date where the day is twelve or lower and differs from the month: 132 days a year, more than a third of the calendar.

Does a date picker solve it?

Mostly. The customer chooses a day on a calendar with the month named, so nothing is typed or guessed. Test it in every browser, since some still show a plain box.

What should the confirmation email say?

The date in words with the weekday and year, the time with am or pm, and the place. Then ask the customer to reply if anything is wrong.

Why include the day of the week?

People remember that they wanted a Friday more readily than a number. A weekday that does not match their plan is the quickest way to spot a swapped date.

Can spreadsheets swap dates too?

Yes. Bookings exported with numeric dates can be read differently on a computer set to another region. Export dates with the month as a word, or with the year first.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Booking form still taking typed dates?

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