We see online appointment booking options and appointment booking systems on more and more websites, even with a calendar display and the now-expected bank card payment option.
This not only reduces the service provider’s administrative tasks and the commitment of labor capacity, thus increasing its efficiency, but also provides a solution to the consumer’s needs in this regard.
This increases the satisfaction of the user of the service, as he can book an appointment online with just a few clicks, or reserve a room for rent, without making a phone call or sending an email.
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- Why should you use an online appointment booking system?
- For which service types do I recommend the online appointment booking module?
- In general, in what cases can the appointment booking system be used?
- What functions can the ideal appointment booking system perform?
- Online appointment booking plugin for referral WordPress websites
- Online appointment booking with bank card payment option
- Automation of invoicing
- An additional advantage of booking an appointment online
- Plugin compatibility, template recommendation
Why should you use an online appointment booking system?
Fierce competition requires businesses to automate as much as possible. One element of this can be the online appointment booking system for various services or rooms for rent.
Not only is it suitable for increasing their own efficiency, but customer needs are also increasingly demanding this option. Anyone who does not keep up with changes in consumer habits can easily lose customers and sales.
Of course, many cases are possible where the service cannot be sufficiently standardized for this solution, a unique offer, pricing, consultation and reservation, as well as an agreement are definitely needed, but it is definitely worth considering which step of a given sales process can be taken over by the automation of the online system.
For which service types do I recommend the online appointment booking module?
First, some practical examples of which service provider activities are worth considering using the online appointment booking system.
For landlords
The online appointment booking option can be useful when booking locations for rent, such as:
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- office
- meeting room
- photographer’s studio
- dance hall…
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For service providers
Without claiming to be exhaustive, here are some types of services where the option of booking an appointment online via the provider’s website can relieve the burden:
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- health service, medical clinics
- dentistry
- ophthalmology
- family doctor
- beauty industry, services related to beauty care
- hairdresser’s
- beautician
- tattoo parlor
- artificial nails
- services related to sports and health care
- Personal Trainer
- masseur
- services
- car repair workshop
- technical examination station
- education
- skype language lesson
- subject specific teacher lessons
- health service, medical clinics
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In general, in what cases can the appointment booking system be used?
Online appointment booking basically works well for services that are characterized by most of the following criteria.
Services with well-defined content
The service that can be booked is clear and well defined (short haircut, winter tire change, English class for developing speaking skills on Skype, teeth whitening, employee fitness medical examination, etc.)
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On the other hand, if the exact content of the order is not known in advance, neither is the time required, so the online booking system should be avoided to avoid possible congestion or empty flights (e.g. complete car generator service and preparation for technical test, full medical examination).
Well-defined time-consuming services
In close connection with the above, it is important that the duration of the given service can be determined well in advance (1-hour language lessons, 1-hour haircut, 2-hour hair dyeing, half-hour oil change or tire change, booking an office for a period of one hour, etc.)
What functions can the ideal appointment booking system perform?
The appointment booking plugin can cover a very wide range of ideas, given the number of possible settings.
The owner of the website can freely decide what data must be entered during the reservation, where appropriate, the extension works in an incognito way, i.e. without registration or entering personal data.
Summarizing the basic functions and what data the extension is suitable for setting:
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- booking with or without registration
- record service location (e.g. if there are several stores or rental locations)
- opening hours setting
- service type selection
- service provider (e.g. if several dentists or hairdressers can be booked at a specific location)
- contact settings
- multiple display of free appointments (list, calendar view)
- automatic email messages
- service provider about the fact of the reservation, even naming the selected service provider, e.g. a specific doctor in the dental office
- to the customer about the acceptance of the reservation, if according to the setting, acceptance by the service provider is not automatic
- other email messages, such as cancellation management
- payment option integration (PayPal)
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Online appointment booking plugin for referral WordPress websites
Easy Appointments
The specific extension I tested and recommended is the Easy Appointments appointment booker.
This is a well-proven development with many users (20,000+), so the number of downloads so far encourages you to try it, and the overall rating is also very high. I highlight this because, otherwise, in connection with the security of websites, I usually emphasize that it is worth using extensions that are regularly updated, used by many and rated excellent by others.
The good news is that the extension is free of charge , which is really advantageous in addition to its numerous functions.
The appearance of the elements generated by the extension on websites is responsive , i.e. they appear well and usable (readable, clickable) on all devices.
In addition, I think it can be perfectly customized for any type of service and has proven itself well on multilingual websites.
Some setting options:
Booked Pro – Appointment Booking for WordPress, with extra features
The Booked appointment booking add-on is not free of charge, but accordingly it has many useful functions, which may be indispensable in certain cases.
Some options, without claiming to be exhaustive – in addition to the usual ones – which are usually not included in the free appointment booking add-ons:
- WooCommerce integration, bank card payment option, automated invoicing
- Booking with or without registration
- In case of registration, it is possible to cancel a reservation by the applicant
- Sending a reminder email to the applicant before the appointment
- Google Calendar synchronization option
Order Booked Pro appointment booking system
The Booked Pro add-on with integration, full configuration and Hungarian translation can be ordered at a discounted price using the form below
The setting includes adjusting the appearance of the extension to the design of the website, in terms of font, color and design.
The development fee depends on the details of the system to be developed, e.g. number of events to be recorded, so an individual request for quotation is required to issue a well-founded quotation.
Online appointment booking with bank card payment option
The extensions can be integrated with the WordPress Woocommerce shop module and thus with any payment option that can be defined there, including the bank card payment i option that is now expected .
In the case of the Easy Appointments extension, this latter function is no longer free, but a one-time, approx. It is available for a fee of HUF 14e, in the case of Booked, the function is included in the plugin.
Automation of invoicing
The huge advantage of online payment options, such as bank card payment solutions, is that the payment can be connected to an online invoicing system (e.g. szamlazz.hu ), thus reducing the administrative burden.
An additional advantage of booking an appointment online
Inevitably, it may happen that some pre-booked appointment cannot be used. Depending on the time of cancellation, this may also cause quantifiable financial damage to the service provider, if the freed time is no longer available.
Based on experience, the cancellation rate drops drastically in cases where payment is made in advance. Whether it is the full service fee or a smaller booking fee deducted from the fee.
Plugin compatibility, template recommendation
Templates
I tested the appointment booking extension with the Divi template, which has been immensely popular and practically the market leader among the WordPress templates, and found it to be perfectly fine.
Of course, it may happen that in the case of unique appearance ideas, the part of a specific template style relating to elements needs to be completed, but I think it is important that the extension works well without this.
Linguistic appearance
The extension, like WordPress developments in general, is in English, but a Hungarian translation is also available.
Regardless, there are several options for translating the module on a specific WordPress-based website. Common language translation plugins are Loco (free) or WPML (premium).
I favor language file translation because it works free of charge and without extensions, the number of which should be kept to the minimum possible level to support the fast and safe operation of the website.
