Allowing your customers to book in with you online can feel like you’re giving away your control but in this section, we’ll guide you through how to get your business online and keep control of your bookings. You can start taking online bookings from Instagram and your website and understand online payments for deposits and gift vouchers.
- Taking online bookings.
- Controlling online bookings.
- Taking payments online.
- Customising your online booking.
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Taking online bookings
How online booking works
Allowing your customers to book with you online means that you can get new appointments day or night, and best of all you've still got full control over how your customers book online, so you can set it all up and we'll take care of the rest.
To get started go to “Setup” and click “Online Bookings” under Your Business, next you can set your online booking options, choosing things like:
- Whether to use pencilled in bookings so you can accept or decline them
- Whether to show potential clients all your available times
- When clients can make bookings
Once you’ve set all these, hit save and you’re ready to go! The client simply chooses the services they would like, and a date and time that suits them and they’re booked!
Additional Information:
- It’s a good idea just to check the services you want online are available to be booked online in the individual service settings
- As well as a privacy policy available for your clients to read and agree to in your online booking section, it would be good practice to have your cancellation terms and conditions too, you can find this under Online Payments
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Online bookings
For more information see our help guide: Getting started with Online bookings
Cancellations & Changes
You can also control if and when clients can cancel or change their appointments online. To set this up head to “Setup” and select “Online Payments” from the Your Business section.
Here you will see:
- An option to allow your clients to change or cancel their bookings. If this is enabled, a link will be included in their reminder or confirmation email (this will only send for single service or service group bookings), which allows them to change their appointment online.
- An option to control how much notice you require for cancellations and changes online. Setting this between 24 and 48 hours is a common option. We will then create a basic cancellation policy based on those settings, but you can add any additional cancellation terms
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Online payments
For more information see our help guide: Set cancellation and online booking policies
Adding booking buttons to your website & social media
Now that you’ve got your online booking set up you can add your online booking to your website and all your social media to make it super easy for your clients to get booked in!
- Social Media - You can also add your booking button to your Facebook and Instagram accounts to make it easier for them to book with you.
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Social Media
- Website - If you would like to add Timely to your own website, you have a couple of options. You can choose from a button or widget and directly link to a specific service or category.
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Booking buttons
- Mini Website - Even if you don’t have a website, Timely actually provides you with a mini website of your very own. This shows all your services, online booking and contact information.
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Mini website
Additional Information:
- If you wish to, you can send a booking link in your emails, messages and any other communications with clients, like Facebook posts. This can be a great way to give them a direct link to your online booking site.
- You can also include a link in your appointment reminder emails for your client to reschedule their appointments themselves - this can save you a large amount of time usually held up by client/appointment admin
Controlling online bookings
Nervous about online bookings? Allowing your customers to book with you online can feel like you’re giving away your control but in this section, we’ll guide you through how to get your business online and keep control of your bookings. 51% of bookings are made outside of salon opening hours and we are here to get your online booking in tip-top shape and help you save time and improve efficiency, provide a brilliant client experience
Pencilled in appointments
Using pencilled-in appointments for online bookings will give you more control of your appointments, you can choose to accept or decline and if you chose to leave it in your calendar as pencilled in your client has the choice of confirming the appointment when they receive their reminder text by replying “Y” or “N”. This will update the status of the appointment depending on what they reply with.
To do this you will need to enable sending reminders to pencilled-in appointments within your SMS/Email Customer Reminder but be aware that clients will not receive any confirmation of their booking until either you or they confirm.
Minimise gaps
Occasionally letting your clients choose the time of their appointments can leave you with gaps in your calendar. You can choose the "Minimise Gaps" setting for online bookings, so your clients only see the time slots that will fill up your calendar without the awkward gaps giving you better time management and making you more money!
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Online bookings
Taking online payments
Selling gift vouchers
Being able to sell gift vouchers online is a fantastic and easy way to get sales! You can add a gift voucher widget to your website or you can post a direct link on social media posts for clients!
First, go to “Setup” and then “Gift Vouchers” and make sure the “allow custom amount vouchers can be purchased online” is ticked and if you have fixed amount vouchers click “Edit” and tick “gift voucher can be purchased online” for the ones you want to be available
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Gift vouchers
For more information see our help guide: Sell Gift Vouchers Online
Taking deposits
Online deposits are a great way that you can get real commitment from your client and ensure that you are paid for your time. To get this set up, go to “Setup” and “Online Payments” here you will see options to allow clients to make changes to their bookings online, your cancellation terms, and if you use TimelyPay, to enable card capture.
Under the Online Payment Terms section, you can decide how much of a deposit you would like to take, it is quite common within the industry to take 50% at the time of booking. You can also provide an option for the client to pay later - but be aware that the client will be able to book without paying the deposit if you give them this option
You can also set certain amounts per treatment, for more help setting this up see our guide: Deposits for services
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Online payments
For more information see our help guide: Online booking deposits
Customising your online booking
Customising your online booking can really help to keep it consistent with your own company branding and you can choose to personalise as much or as little as you want!
Go to “Setup” and “Online Bookings” and scroll down to “Appearance” to get started.
- Choose the colour you’d like to use
- Customise the text - you can add instructions or information such as where to park etc
- Adding a photo and a description of yourself gives clients more reassurance when they are booking with you for the first time!
Set this up in Timely: Setup > Online bookings
For more information see our help guide: Customise Online Booking