If your appointment based business already has a business website then you already have what you need to accept online bookings. Thanks to online acim authors systems your customers can book and pay for your services online right on your existing website.
Online booking systems come in two varieties – those that redirect your customers to a separate site to complete their booking, and those that let your customers book directly on your site. Whichever booking software you choose it’s very easy to setup and begin taking bookings online.
Reservation software that works on your website is usually preferred, since it causes less confusion for customers and looks more professional. To begin taking bookings online you first need to select an online booking system.
When choosing an online reservation system it’s important to choose one that’s both easy to setup and easy for your customers to use. Make sure you try out a demo of what the software will look like on your website. You’ll want your customers to be able to book with minimal effort to reduce the chances of customers giving up mid booking.
When your setting up your online booking software you will need to enter some information about your business. The online booking system must know what services you want your customers to book, your staff and resources that provide those services, when your staff are available for bookings, and other information that will determine what and when your customers can book. This is a once-off setup process that should be as easy as possible. If any of these details change you’ll be able to log into your account and modify the settings.
If you already use Google calendar in your business then make sure you choose a booking system that integrates with Google calendar. The software you choose should allow two way integration, so that bookings made by your customers online appear instantly on your Google calendar, whilst giving you the flexibility of shifting bookings around without having to log into the booking software.
Other features to look for in an online booking system include PayPal integration to allow our customers to pay online, email and SMS text reminders to reduce no-shows, and full flexibility to let you handle staff leave etc.
Once your account is setup with your chosen reservation system you’ll need to plug it into your website. This is done by copying and pasting some HTML code onto the page you want the booking calendar to appear, and you’re ready to start taking bookings online.