Online booking and client reminders
A public booking page with no sign-up: which services to show, who accepts bookings, the minimum lead time, the booking horizon and the per-IP limit. Plus SMS reminders 24 hours and 2 hours ahead.
Online booking is a public page where the client picks a time themselves: service → day → time → contact details. No sign-in, works from a phone, at any hour. Every booking creates both an appointment in the calendar and a lead in the CRM, so it is worked like any other lead afterwards.
#Page settings
Online booking parameters
Which services to showlistrequireda trial lesson belongs on the site; a 16-lesson course does not — that one is sold by voice
Who accepts bookingsresourcesrequirednot every teacher works with walk-ins
No sooner than N hourshoursnobody can process a booking made for five minutes from now
Horizondayshow far ahead free time is visible
Per-IP limitnumberso a script cannot fill the calendar in a minute
Free time on the page is the same computation as in the calendar: the resource's schedule minus exceptions, minus existing appointments with the service buffers. See service mode.
#What the page reveals about other clients
Nothing. A busy slot is only visible as the absence of a free one: no names, no headcount, no group titles. That is deliberate — the page is public to anyone who knows the address.
#If the slot is taken while the form is being filled in
The client sees that the time has just been taken and can pick another one. The lead is created either way: the person wanted to book, and losing them is worse than having an extra row for the administrator to handle.
#Reminders
| To whom | When | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| Client | 24 hours ahead | a reminder about the class (the interval is configurable) |
| Client | 2 hours ahead | the same plus the resource's online room link |
| Resource | on change | a CRM notification when a class is moved or cancelled |
#Before publishing the page
- Only the services worth selling without a conversation are on the page.
- The minimum lead time gives the administrator room to react.
- The horizon does not exceed the period schedules are actually filled in for.
- Reminders are on and resources have their online rooms filled in.
- There is a dedicated status for online bookings so they are visible in the pipeline.
- It has been tested on a phone: the page has to work on a mobile screen.