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Showing posts with label Online Booking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Online Booking. Show all posts

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Online Booking

Online Booking is an easy way for you to allow your customers to schedule jobs themselves.
  • The Online Booking Widget appears on your business website
  • No extra charge to you and your customers
  • Completely optional
The idea is to enable your customers to book jobs themselves via an Online Booking Widget that WorkWell Software provides you.

To add the Online Booking Widget to your website, you must place a code snippet - a single line of 'HTML' code - on your website on the page you want the Online Booking Widget to appear. This code snippet is provided in the configuration set up under the 'Admin' menu (described in 'How Do I Add Online Booking to My Website?'). Whenever anyone visits the page on your website that contains this code snippet, the Online Booking Widget appears (it is immediately downloaded from the WorkWell Software server).
You may configure several details of the Calendar (described in 'Configuring the Online Booking Widget').
  • Enable/Disable the Online Booking Widget
  • Setup a service radius (driving miles) from your home base
  • Allow prices to be shown and optionally a minimum price
Whenever a visitor to your website wants to schedule a job for themselves, they enter their information on the Online Booking Widget. This includes the services they want to buy, the date and available timeslot they want you to do the work and their contact information - Name, Phone, and Address are required.

You receive notification within the WorkWell Command Center whenever a visitor schedules a job. You will see a red circle with a number in it next to the 'bell' icon:    at left. (This is described in 'Notification of Job Requests') You may want to contact this new customer to confirm the job.

Click on the 'bell' icon:   to manage the incoming job requests. This will open the Job Request Manager.


Carefully review Job Requests. To accept a job, you must click the 'Create a New Job' button to convert the Job Request into a new Customer (if the customer doesn't already exist in your customer database) and a new Job.

The Online Booking Page (on your website)

Below is an example of the Online Booking widget that visitors to your website will see.



To book jobs, visitors must do the following:

  1. Select the services they wish to purchase.
  2. Select a Date for the work to get done.
  3. Select a Timeslot on that date.
  4. Enter Contact Information - Name, Address & Phone are required.
  5. After all the information is entered, click 'Finished'.
The information in the form is then checked for errors and the Address is looked up on Google Maps to determine how far it is to drive to. If the Address is outside your company's service area, a warning message is produced (the Job Request is still accepted).

After the checks are completed, the visitor is presented with a Thank You Message and the information is sent to your WorkWell Command Center. You will receive a notification - the 'Bell'   on the Command Center will be colored red and will increment its Job Requests count. Click on the 'Bell'   to open the 'Job Request Manager' page. Review the Job Request and we recommend you contact the customer. To accept the Job Request, click the 'Create a New Job' button.


How To Get the Online Booking Page on Your Website?


To add Online Booking to your website, you must place a snippet of code (a single line of 'HTML') on your website on the page you want Online Booking to appear on. Whenever anyone visits that page, the code snippet automatically downloads the Online Booking widget from the WorkWell Software server.

You will find the snippet on the Setup Info form. Open this form by selecting 'Setup Info' from the   'Admin' pull-down menu at the top.


Then go to the 'Online Booking' section. Within the textbox labeled 'Code that you copy into your website' (it will look like the example below), you will see a short snippet of HTML code. Copy this to the page of your company website that you would like the Online Booking widget to appear. If you don't know how to do this, ask your website manager to do this for you.



You will also want to place a prominent button near the top of your website's main page (and perhaps on every page). When clicked, the button must take your visitors to your Online Booking page. A button that looks, for example, like the following is typically used.




You Manage Which Jobs Appear on your OnLine Schedule

You create, view and manage 'Available Job Timeslots' on the Command Center Scheduler along with your jobs and reminders. They are time periods that, when you create them on the Scheduler, are automatically displayed on the Online Booking Widget on your website. Typically they are gaps in your schedule that you hope visitors to your website may select and 'Self Book' jobs they would like your company to do.



Available Job Timeslots have a Start Date & Time and an End Date & Time. To display and manage them, choose Event Type 'Available Job Slots' or 'Jobs & Available Slots'. The first will display only the Available Job Timeslots you have created. The later will also display regular Jobs - but you will be able to distinguish between them by their color. Displaying Available Job Timeslots and regular Jobs together is helpful because it shows when you are already scheduled (the regular jobs) along with when you would like to be scheduled (the Available Job Timeslots).
  • To create a new 'Available Job Timeslot', just double click on the Scheduler at any date & time. An 'Available Job Timeslot' event will appear.
  • To modify or delete a particular 'Available Job Timeslot', double click on it. Within the 'Available Job' form that pops up, you can change the start date & time and end date & time. Or click the form's 'Delete' button to remove it.
  • You can also change an 'Available Job Timeslot' date & time by just dragging it around the calendar.



Your Customers Schedule Themselves

To book jobs, visitors to your website Online Booking Widget must do the following:
  1. Select the services they wish to purchase.
  2. Select a Date for the work to get done.
  3. Select a Timeslot on that date.
  4. Enter Contact Information - Name, Address & Phone are required.
  5. After all the information is entered, click 'Finished'.

Customer Selects One or More Services 

The top section of the Online Booking Widget lists the services your company sells and optionally the prices. These are the services you have defined via the Command Center Services Table, and are the same services you choose from when you create line items for jobs you create.




Your website visitors can choose one or more of these services to buy from you using the 'Select One or More Services' menu at the top. Each service they select is listed along with its price and the total price if they select more than one service.

You may configure the Online Booking Widget to omit prices. You may also configure your Online Booking Widget to show a minimum job price. Do this on the 'Setup Info' form available under the 'Admin' menu at the top of the Command Center.



Customer Chooses a Timeslot

The sections labeled 'Step 2' and 'Step 3' show when you are available to do jobs. You decide when (date and timeslot) visitors to your website can schedule jobs. You do this by adding, modifying and deleting 'Available Job Timeslots' on the Command Center Scheduler. 'Available Job Timeslots' automatically appear on the Online Booking Widget on your website after you create them on the Scheduler.

Your website visitors choose the day they want the work done - they just click on a date on the calendar. A list of available job timeslots for that day appears below the calendar. They then choose a timeslot by clicking on it. If no timeslot is suitable for them, or none are listed, then the visitor must choose a different date.

You must be diligent to manage the Online Booking Widget so that Timeslots are available for your visitors to choose from. Use the Scheduler to add 'Available Job Timeslots'. Review 'Manage What Jobs Appear on the Online Booking Widget' if you are unclear how to do this.




Customer Enters their Contact Information

In the 'Contact Information' portion of the Online Booking Widget, your visitor provides Name, Address, Phone, and Email and indicates if the Phone Number can be texted to.

Name, Address, and Phone are required - the Job Request cannot be submitted if they are not provided.



Customer Submits - Clicks 'Finished'

When your prospective customer is finished filling in the information, he/she clicks 'Finished'.

If any required information was not provided, they are prompted to finish the form. Required information includes Name, Address, Phone, and a Timeslot.

If the address entered into the Contact Info section is outside your service area, then a warning is presented. You might decide to reject the job or to charge an extra travel fee. This is an optional feature that you enable when you configure Online Booking. Estimated road driving distance (WorkWell consults Google Maps in the background) is used when determining if the address is within your service area.



Jobs From your Online Calendar Appear as Job Requests in the WorkWell Command Center

Open the Command Center 'Job Request Manager' by clicking on the   icon.

Job Requests are displayed - these are the job requests that visitors to your website submitted from the Online Booking Widget.
  • If there are multiple Job Requests, you can cycle through them by clicking the 'Next' button.
  • If you approve of the job request, click 'Create a New Job' - a new Customer & Job will be created from the Job Request information.
  • If you do not approve, you can remove the Job Request - click the 'Remove' button. Be sure to contact the customer to let them know.
  • Whether you approve or not, it is good practice to contact the customer to confirm.