How can my customers request dates or date and times for my services?

Customer portal scheduling mode

When customers are requesting a service online (other than daycare or boarding) you can give them the option to request a scheduled service themselves.

For your customers to be able to schedule a service, at least one staff member must be enabled to be assigned to this service (Settings>User Management, see here). This will enable your customers to use the “Date Picker”, “Date Picker with time slot”, “Date Picker with timeslots and staff picker, “Date picker with pooled availability” or “Date picker with pooled availability and staff picker”.

Here is a breakdown of each type of scheduling mode:

Date Picker:

The date picker allows the customer to request a date that they would prefer their service to take place. In order to generate the available dates, the software looks at the following details:

• Hours of operation for the service type
• Which staff can complete the service
• What are the staff’s regular work hours and holiday hours
• What is already taking up time on the staffs day
• Can the duration of the service fit between other requested and confirmed bookings?

Click here to see how to set up the Date Picker, Date Picker with Time Slots, and Date Picker with Time Slots and Staff Picker. 

Date Picker with Time Slots:

This will allow clients to request both a date and a time for their service. In order to generate the available time slots, the software looks at the following details:

• Hours of operation for the service type
• Which staff can complete the service
• What are the staff’s regular work hours and holiday hours
• What is already taking up time on the staffs day
• Can the duration of the service fit between other requested and confirmed bookings?

Once this is calculated, the available time slots are generated for the client to request. 

With this type of scheduling mode, it’s important that the duration of the services be as accurate as possible. You have 2 places where you can adjust the duration of the service, User Management and the rate itself.

The duration set in the rate should always be the approximate time to complete the service. However, the “Time slot duration (minutes)” in User Management allows you to customize the duration per Staff Member (optional). You can find this in the User Management > Edit User > Services Tab > Select the service > “Time slot duration (minutes). There are 2 ways in which adjusting the time here can be beneficial.

1. 1. 1. You can add a buffer time between when one service ends and another one begins. For example, if you have a 30min bath service and you want to leave a 10min buffer time between when the first time slot ends and the next slot can begin, simply adjust the “Time slot duration (minutes)” to 40min. You can then choose whether you want the client to see the booking duration (30min) or the time slot duration (40min).

      2. You can adjust the amount of time it would take a particular staff member to complete the service. For example, if you have a new groomer who you want to allocate a little extra time to complete the service.

For the “Time Slots” option, the slot times must be bigger than 10 minutes (Settings>User Management)

Click here to see how to set up the Date Picker, Date Picker with Time Slots, and Date Picker with Time Slots and Staff Picker. 

Date Picker with Time Slot and Staff Picker:

This is identical to the date picker with time slot, other than the customer can view and filter the available timeslots by their preferred staff member. 

Click here to see how to set up the Date Picker, Date Picker with Time Slots, and Date Picker with Time Slots and Staff Picker. 

Pooled Availability:

Pooled availability enables facilities to fit in as many services within the users working hours as possible without requiring each reservation to have its own independent start time.

In order to generate the available dates, the system looks at the following details:

• total work hours per day of the staff member(s)
• any special hours
• the duration of services already assigned to the staff member
• the duration of the requested service to see if there is enough time remaining to complete the service.

Once this is calculated, then the system will generate available dates. The customer can then choose the start time based on your preferred drop-off times (Settings > Grooming Options > Prefered Entry Times).

Click here to see how to set up the Pooled Availability.