Help/Workshop 365/Bookings, enquiries and reminders
Bookings, enquiries and reminders
How cars come in, and how they come back. Customers book a slot from your link, phone calls are logged as enquiries, and every car you finish is put on a chase list for its next service.
Screenshots use a fictional business and figures.
Your services
Go to Services & booking under Setup, and press Add a service.
Fill in the Name, What it covers, the Price shown and How long it takes (minutes). Leave the price empty if it cannot be priced before you see the car.
Use Words before the price for “from”, so the page says “from S$120”. That is nearly always the honest version.
Leave People may book this online and Still offered ticked, and press Save.
Two or three services people ring about is enough to start. Edit changes one later.
Switch on online booking
Under Booking from your website, tick Let people book a slot online.
Choose Your link name, such as tanjong-motor. Your link appears under it with Open and Copy link. Put it on your website, your Google listing and your WhatsApp profile.
Under When you are open, press + Hours on each day you open and set the times. A day left empty is shut. Add public holidays and your own breaks under Days you are closed.
Under How the slots work, set A new slot every (minutes), Cars you can take at one time, Most cars in one day, Notice you need (hours) and How far ahead people may book (days). The sentence under them shows the start times customers will see.
Under What happens when a booking arrives, leave Confirm it straight away off if you want to say yes to each one yourself. Set the Cancellation notice you ask for (hours).
Everything on this page saves as you change it. Which websites may show your form is optional: add your own web address if you would rather nobody else put your booking form on their page.
What the customer sees
Your link opens a booking page in their phone’s browser, with your workshop’s name at the top. They:
pick what it is for, from your services or Something else,
pick a day and a start time under When suits you?, from only the times you are free,
fill in their name, mobile, number plate, the car and What is wrong?, tick that you may keep their details, and press Request this slot.
If you confirm bookings yourself, they are told you will confirm shortly. Nothing is charged. The page then offers See or cancel this booking, which opens their own booking page, where they can press Cancel this booking.
Confirm a booking and book the car in
Bookings shows what is coming in. The filters are Waiting for you, Coming up and Everything.
- Confirm says yes to a booking that is waiting for you.
- Car is here, when it arrives, opens a job card with the car, the customer, the service they picked and what they wrote already filled in. Open job then takes you to it.
- No show and Cancel close a booking that is not going ahead.
If you have connected the Telegram bot in your back office, a new booking and a customer’s cancellation are sent to you there too.
Log an enquiry
Somebody rings, and you cannot take the car in yet. Log it so it is not lost.
Go to Enquiries and press Log an enquiry.
Fill in the Name, Mobile, Plate (if they said), Car and What did they ask about?. Pick How did they reach you?: Phone call, WhatsApp, Walked in, Website, Referral or Something else. Press Log it.
When the car comes in, press Open a job on the enquiry. If they went elsewhere, press Lost.
New enquiries nobody has picked up are counted on Today. The filters are Open, Became a job, Lost and Everything.
Due back: the chase list
When you complete a job, that car’s next service is set from today and the mileage on the job, using the months and kilometres in Settings. A car has one service reminder, moved forward each visit, so nobody is chased twice.
Open Due back. Ready to chase lists the cars about ready for their next service. Every car shows them all.
Press WhatsApp. WhatsApp opens with your “time for a service” message already written. You send it, and the row says Already messaged.
When they book, press Booked in. Stop stops reminding about a car until the next time you close a job on it.
To send
To send holds the messages a job threw up while you were under a car: the quote is ready (with its link), and the car is ready for collection.
- Send on WhatsApp opens WhatsApp with the message written. Send it there and it moves to What has gone out.
- Copy copies the words, if you would rather paste them yourself.
- Not this one takes it off the list without sending it.
Nothing is sent for you. The words are yours: change them under What you say.
Questions
Can a customer book a time I am not free?
No. The page only offers times inside your opening hours, outside the days you are closed, after your notice period and within how far ahead you allow, and only while you have room for another car at that time and that day.
Does the customer pay when they book?
No. Nothing is charged when they book. They pay against the invoice when they collect the car.