Appointments

In this article

Creating appointments
Receiving appointments
Printing appointment tags
Completing appointments
Rescheduling appointments
Cancelling appointments

Creating Appointments

Appointments for your shop can be created in two ways. First, customers can book appointments online through either your custom Velodrop.com booking page or the embedded booking widget on your site. Second, employees can create appointments through your shop's admin dashboard.

From the Dashboard

To create an appointment from the dashboard:

1. Navigate to "Appointments" in the sidebar menu.
2. You can search for existing appointments or start a new appointment by clicking the "+" button to the right of the menu item.

The Booking Form

The booking form is divided into several sections:

Customer

In this section, you can either create a new customer or select from a list of existing customers. Simply start typing the customer's first and last name, and the system will display relevant matches. You can choose an existing customer from the list or proceed to create a new customer upon form submission.

Booking from the admin dashboard requires either a valid email address or a valid phone number for the customer. If you must book an appointment for a customer with no contact information, enter a dummy address in the email field (ensure it's not a real email address). For example, you can use something like "noreply@example.com." If the customer consents to receive SMS notifications, make sure the phone number is an SMS-enabled mobile phone, and set the "Send notifications via SMS" toggle to "Yes."

Appointment Date

By default, the earliest available appointment date is pre-selected. You can click on the date input to open a date picker widget with all available future dates. Dates that are unavailable for booking are shown in red and cannot be selected. An "Allow Override" checkbox is available below the date input, allowing you to choose any date from the current day forward. Exercise caution when using this feature to avoid booking errors, as it even allows selection on days when the shop is closed.

Bike

A description of the customer's bike, including brand, model name, year, and color, is required for each appointment. If you selected an existing customer above, their associated bikes will appear in a select input. Choose from the list or create a new bike by filling out the form.

Packages and Services

Select relevant packages for the appointment booking. Services included with each package are automatically checked and disabled. This provides a visual indicator of the services included. After selecting packages, you can add any additional services that were not already included. If the customer needs services not covered in the booking form, you can add them in the "Other Information" section.

Other Information

Add extra information or services in the text area. A quote is generated based on the cost of selected services and packages, which can be adjusted if needed. If the customer wants to set a spending limit on the service, enter this value in the "Call If Over" input.

Bike Received

If the customer is dropping off the bike at the same time as the appointment, set "Bike Received" to "Yes." This will disable appointment reminders. If the customer will drop off the bike later, select "No" to ensure they receive reminders at the appropriate time.

Booking Multiple Appointments For The Same Customer

If a customer is booking multiple appointments simultaneously, a link labeled "Book another appointment for this customer" will appear at the end of the green success message box after successfully creating an appointment. Clicking this link will take you to a new booking form with the customer's information pre-filled.

Receiving Appointments

Receiving appointments from customers is a straightforward process with just a few simple steps to follow:

1. Find and View the Customer's Appointment

• Start by locating and accessing the customer's appointment.

2. Mark Bike as Received

• In the appointment menu, located near the top right of the screen, click the button labeled "Receive Bike" to indicate that the bike has been received. To reverse this action, click the button again and confirm your choice to mark the bike as not received.

Printing Appointment Tags

To provide customers with an appointment slip containing their information, you can print it from the appointment page by clicking the "Print" button in the top right corner of the page.

Completing Appointments

After completing a bike service, you can easily mark the appointment as complete and notify the customer in a single step.

In the appointment menu located near the top of the page, click the "Complete" button. This action will open a modal dialogue with options for finalizing the appointment and notifying the customer.

Sending Notifications

Notifications are automatically sent to the customer upon completion. If the customer's phone number allows SMS notifications, they will receive an SMS message indicating that their bike is ready. In cases where the phone number is unavailable or SMS is not enabled, the customer will be notified via email. The modal dialogue provides the flexibility to choose between sending notifications via SMS, email, or both. If you do not wish to send any notifications when completing an appointment, ensure that the checkbox labeled "Send Notification to Customer" remains unchecked.

Your default SMS and email templates are preloaded into the message text areas for your convenience. You have the option to personalize these messages as needed. Once you've edited the messages to your satisfaction, click the "Yes, Complete" button to send the notifications and mark the appointment as complete.

Rescheduling Appointments

Rescheduling and moving an appointment to a different date is quick and easy. Find and view the appointment you wish to reschedule. In the appointment menu near the top of the page click the button labelled “Reschedule“. This will load a modal dialogue allowing you to choose a new date and options notify the customer.

Selecting a New Date

Just like when you create an appointment, the earliest available appointment date is already selected. Clicking on the date input will reveal a date picker widget allowing you to select from all available future dates. Dates that are currently unavailable for booking are shown in red and can not be selected.

Read the next section if you need to force an appointment onto a day that is currently full or otherwise unavailable.

Overriding Appointment Booking Limits

Below the date input you will see a checkbox labeled “Allow Override”. When this box is checked, you can choose any date from the current day forward, even days where the shop is closed We suggest you use this feature with caution to avoid booking errors.

Notifying The Customer

You can automatically send notifications via SMS and email to the customer when rescheduling an appointment. By default, no notifications are sent. If you wish to notify the customer of the change of appointment, check the box labelled “Send Notifications to Customer“, then select if you wish to send SMS, email or both. To speed things up, a default message is provided, but these messages can be changed before sending.

Cancelling Appointments

Appointments can be cancelled by clicking on the button labelled “Cancel” in the application menu bar near the top of the page. This will open a modal dialogue where you can confirm cancelling the appointment and select what notifications, if any, you would like to send to the customer.

By default, the customer will receive no notification that their appointment has been cancelled. To send a notification check the box labelled “Send Notification to Customer“. As always, the message containing text areas are automatically filled with a helpful default message that can be edited as needed.

Missed Appointments

Similar to cancelling appointments, you may mark an appointment as missed if a customer fails to appear on their scheduled date. Click the button labelled “Missed” and a modal will popup asking for confirmation. This action does not send a notification to the customer that they missed their appointment.

Restoring Cancelled And Missed Appointments

If you ever need to restore an appointment that has been cancelled or marked as missed, simply click the button labelled “Reschedule” and select a date to restore the appointment to. See the post on Rescheduling Appointments.