New: Online Booking Features

With the latest release of StudioCloud the following new features have been added to the online booking.

New Features

• An option to limit the number of bookable sessions displayed per day.
• An option to have sessions booked from an online booking form to be automatically deleted if a client doesn't pay.
• An option which lets you adjust the number of days before a client can start booking a session.

Updated Features

• The option to limit how many days in the future a client can book a session has been modified to support clients booking today.

When would you want to limit the number of bookable sessions displayed per day?

This option is ideal for encouraging clients to book sessions that are grouped together rather than randomly throughout the day. Once a session is booked for a specific day a brand new session will automatically open up for the next customer.

For example, take the situation where a business wants to allow customers to book a 1 hour session where the sessions for the day start at 9 am. In that situation if the option was to set to limit the bookable sessions to 2 per day then the online booking form would show the following available sessions.

• Session available from 9 am to 10 am
• Session available from 10 am to 11 am

If a client booked the 10 am to 11 am session then the online booking form would automatically show the following available sessions for the next customer.

• Session available from 9 am to 10 am
• Session available from 11 am to 12 pm.

This option also has the nice benefit of giving your clients the impression that you are busy since it appears to them that there are only a limited number of slots available to them because the others are already booked out.

When would you want to have booked sessions automatically deleted?

Some businesses only want clients to book paid for sessions. This option ensures that all of the sessions booked on the calendar are paid for sessions. If a session is booked but not paid for then the business will receive an email saying that the client didn't pay for the session and the session was removed. The business can then follow up with the client at their leisure to address any concerns.

When would you want to adjust the number of days before a client can start booking a session?

Previously to this update the online booking only allowed a customer to book a session starting 1 day in the future unless the resource being booked wasn't available at that time. With the latest update the online booking can be adjusted so that those businesses can handle same day booking. In addition, if a business wanted to only allow customers to book sessions online 7 days in advance this feature would allow them to do that.

When would you want to adjust how many days in the future a client can book?

Many businesses want to limit how many days in the future a client can book a session to avoid scheduling conflicts. With the latest update of the online booking StudioCloud now supports the option of restricting clients so that they can only book sessions the day of. 

This feature is ideal for businesses that want to offer a booking option for clients that walk into a business and want to book a session that same day.

How do I set this up?

All of these features are options included in the online booking.

Click here for a tutorial on how to setup the online booking

New: Scheduling Features

With the latest release of StudioCloud we have added a bunch of new automated features to calendar types to streamline your scheduling workflow

New Features

• You can now have an overall default calendar type so that when a new appointment, session or event is being booked a calendar type is already pre-selected
• You can now have employees, locations, or equipment automatically scheduled when an appointment, session or event is booked.
• You can now have leads automatically converted to clients when an appointment, session or event is booked.
• You can now have a client pipeline automatically marked as completed for clients when an appointment, session or event is booked.

When would you want to set a default calendar type?

If you find yourself selecting a specific calendar type the most then it would make sense to have that calendar type pre-selected for you.

For example, portrait photographers often will have a calendar type called "Sessions" and then they will have calendar sub-types such as "Portrait Session". By setting the "Sessions" calendar type as the default they can speed up their process they go through of selecting the specific type of session.

When would you automatically book employees, locations or equipment?

Often times an employee, location, or piece of equipment is only scheduled for certain types of appointments, sessions, or events. The new automated steps reduce the need to manually add those resources when booking those events. 

For example, if the same employee is always booked for all of the sales session with customers then the automated process would streamline scheduling this employee.

When would you not automatically book employees, locations or equipment?

The automated booking should only be used in situations where there are resources dedicated to a specific type of appointment, session or event. If multiple resources can be booked for the same resource then then automated booking shouldn't be used. 

For example, if multiple employees could be booked for a sales session with a customer then the automated scheduling shouldn't be used because a decision has to be made regarding which employee needs to be booked.

When would you want to automatically convert a lead to a client?

Many businesses consider a lead to be a client once the client has been scheduled for a session. This step is useful for those businesses.

This feature is especially useful if you want to be able to access the client in ProSelect after they are scheduled for a session. Only clients are visible in ProSelect.

When would I want to automatically close a client pipeline when a session is scheduled?

Many businesses use the lead tracking with the objective of getting the customer to schedule a session. Once the session is scheduled the client either is tracked using session tracking or is no longer tracked after that point. 

This new feature streamlines the workflow for businesses whose goal is to schedule a lead.

How do I set it up?

All of the above features are setup from the create or edit calendar type window. This means that each calendar type and calendar sub-type can use the new features in a unique way.

Pro-Tip: If you setup the actions for the calendar type they also apply to all of the calendar sub-types associated with the calendar type.

Click here for a tutorial on how to create and edit calendar types