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Online booking allows you to accept bookings from your clients online at a time convenient to them.
Once you have set up online booking, you will have a unique link that you can then add to your website or social pages. This link when clicked will open up your branded online booking pages, your client (or new client!) can select the type of appointment they're after, select a team member and then select a booking time that suits the client. They then simply add some personal details like Name, email, phone and confirm the booking.
You as the account owner will receive an email & in-app notification of the new booking.
The booking won't be confirmed until you have manually accepted the booking and you do this from within your account.
This gives you the chance to modify the booking, decline or accept. When you do, the client will get automatic confirmation by SMS, Email or both (as you select).
Setting Up Online Booking
There is some initial information we need to set up online booking.
Go here
Or go to Settings > Online Booking
Select your Online Booking URL. This is unique to you and will form the unique URL for your online booking link. What about trying your business name, a term unique to your business or something memorable & inspirational to your team members, clients or you!
Select Business: Select your online booking business if you have more than one business connected to your Better HQ account.
Select Location: Select your location from the dropdown menu if you have more than one business connected to your Better HQ account.
Set online booking intervals: Select the time intervals that will be shown to clients when they are selecting appointment times when booking online. E.g. if you want bookings on the hour only, select ‘On the hour’.
Gap between bookings: Select the time gap between bookings. If you want no gaps between bookings (back-to-back), select ‘No Gap (0 min)’. Once selected, the booking options shown to clients will be your latest appointment finish time + the gap selected. E.g if you have scheduled appointment with a 1:00pm finish time and a ‘5 min Gap’ set, the next available booking option for the client would be 1:05pm.
Choose a brand colour: Choose a colour that reflects your brand - you can change this at any time.
Minimum scheduling notice: Use this setting to prevent last minute bookings. By selecting a minimum scheduling notice period you'd be able to set a minimum buffer between the current time and the next available online booking. The maximum is 72 hours.
New Booking Notification: Add an email address. When a new online booking is made by a client an email will be sent to this email address. Comma seperate email addresses if you want the notification to be sent to multiple addresses.
Hide Team Member selection: Assign new bookings to team members randomly. If you don't mind which team member gets booked by the client, you can hide team member selection from online booking for clients, and the booking will be automatically assigned to team members randomly.
Upload logo: this logo will appear in the header of your online booking pages - this is a great branding opportunity
Label for location: Change the location label to suit your business, your clients will see this when they make an online booking. Click '+Add' to edit or delete custom labels.
Label for team member: Change the team member label to suit your business, your clients will see this when they make an online booking. Click '+Add' to edit or delete custom labels.
Save
Set Your Team Availability with Rosters
Now that your opening hours are set up, you need to set your team availability. Like opening hours, you only want clients to book appointments when your staff are available and working. Learn how to set up your Rosters here >
Select Appointments Available for Online Booking
Before you limit appointment types to each team member you need to select which appointments you want available for clients to book online. You might not want them all.
Go here
Or go to Settings > Online Booking > Products.
You will see a list of products for selection. Select which appointments you want
Save
OR
Go to the Product details screen
In the 'Assign to Team Members' box, select the online booking toggle for each team member.
Save. The product will now be available to book online.
Modify Appointment Name for Online Booking
If you would like your clients to see a different product name when booking online, you can adjust the name and description of your appointments. This feature allows you to have an internally referenced name and a friendlier client product name for online booking.
Go here
Or go to Settings > Products
Select the product/appointment you would like to re-name for online bookings.
In the 'Online Booking' box, choose your desired online booking product name and description by writing in the appropriate text-boxes.
Save
Determine the order of your Online Booking Products
Better HQ allows you to order your products as you want them to appear to a client on the online booking pages.
Go here
Or go to Settings > Online Booking > Products
On the top right hand side of the page click 'Reorder'. A list of your products available for online booking will be listed here.
Use the dropdown menu in the top left hand corner to determine if you would like to order the bookings for 'First Time Client', 'Returning Client' or 'Both/.
Drag the appointments into your desired order for online booking.
Save.
Select Appointments Available By Team Member for Online Booking
Now that you have set your online booking appointments you need to set available appointments up for each team member. You don't want your Physio booked in for a massage appointment or vice versa.
Once a team member has been added to your Better HQ account - go to Settings > Team > Team Members. Select the team member you would like to assign products to.
Once selected, in the banner click 'Products'.
Using the toggle below 'Online Bookings', select the appointments that clients can book online for the team member.
Save
Set Appointments for First Time or Returning Clients
Determine which Appointments can be selected for First time or Returning clients. For example, If you only want an 'Initial Appointment' to be viewable for a First Time Client when Booking Online.
Go here
Or go to Settings > Products
In the Online Booking box, Go to 'Set appointment for First Time or Returning Clients'
Select the applicable toggle (First Time and/or Returning Client) to display an appointment based on the client's selection.
Save
Get Your Unique Online Booking Link
By now you have successfully configured your online booking settings, confirmation page, opening hours, team availability, your online booking appointment types and allocated each team member's appointment types.
To get your online booking link:
Go here
Or go to Settings > Online Booking
'Preview' your online booking pages using button 'Preview' top right
'Get Booking Link' is next to the 'Preview' and you will see a booking link within the pop up. You can copy this link to add to your website or social pages. You can also copy the button code and paste it into your website as HTML. We find linking from a website button or image is best.
Set up Online Booking payments with BetterHQ Stripe Integration
Streamline the online booking process for clients and ensure cash flow by setting up payments for appointments booked online. Set up Stripe Integration for Online Bookings >
Add Fields to Online Booking Form
For new clients, you can add custom booking form fields. This allows capture of important client information like Date of Birth, or pre existing injuries. Create a custom booking form:
Go here
Or go to Settings > Online Booking > Manage > Messaging
Click the 'Customise Booking Form' button in the first box under the heading 'Customise booking form'.
This will launch the online booking field options. The first box includes default fields to include. The following boxes display additional fields to include on your online booking form. The last box gives you the option to add custom database fields for your business. To edit or add more custom fields click the pencil icon/manage button on the far right hand side of the box. You can add more categories and edit the current default fields.
On the online booking field options page, to include the suggested field select the tick box on the left hand side, a green tick will appear. To make the field mandatory to complete by clients when booking online, select the tick box on the far right hand side.
Click 'Next'
Order the fields as you want them to appear on the online booking screen. Drag the fields to order.
Save.
Once saved, this form will be included on the Online Booking page and will be completed by clients.
When clients complete the form, the data they enter will be saved against the new client's details record.
Add a Product image to your Online Booking pages
You can add an image against each appointment type so that this then displays in the client online booking pages when they select that appointment.
Go here
Or go to Settings > Product List
Select an appointment product to add an image to
Down the bottom of the page there is setting labeled 'Display product image in Online Booking'.
Select this setting to display an image. Or deselect if you don't want an image to display to clients.
Confirmed Bookings
To view a list of all your confirmed online bookings:
Click the 'Online Booking' button from the Calendar page.
Use the dropdown menu to change the list of booking's from 'Pending' to 'Confirmed'
For each client booking, the date the appointment was booked and confirmed will be displayed. Click the booking button on the far right hand side to launch the appointment pop-up.
Business is now open 24/7. All the best with your client online booking.
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Tags: Online Booking, Booking Link, Online Payment, Team Availability