Let customers book themselves in.
They pick a time, pay a deposit if you take one, and it lands in your calendar and theirs.
Someone books at nine at night from their phone, picks one of the times you're free, and it's in your calendar without you touching it.
Deposits are optional. Take one and the card is charged as the booking is made; leave it off and the rest works the same.
Reminders go out on their own, so the text the day before isn't something anyone has to remember. If they need to move it, they reschedule from the confirmation email and the calendar updates itself.
Pick a time, pay, done.
Availability comes straight out of the calendar you run the business from, so a slot that's taken is never offered. No account to create and no app to download.
What the booking system handles for you.
Your hours and your rules
Minimum notice, buffer time between jobs, and the days you're not available, so the only slots offered are ones you'd take.
Deposits, if you take them
A deposit, the full amount, or nothing at all, charged as the booking is made. Someone who's paid something turns up.
Reminders that go out on their own
A confirmation straight away and a reminder before the appointment, without anybody remembering to send it.
They can move it themselves
Rescheduling and cancelling happen from the confirmation email, up to whatever cutoff you set, so a change of plan isn't a voicemail.
Staff and services
Different lengths, prices and people, with the right availability against each, so the calendar matches how the business runs.
It lands in your calendar
Bookings arrive by email and drop into the calendar you already use, with the customer's details attached.
Booking questions.
Will this work with the booking software I already use?
Usually, and which way round depends on what your system holds. Jane, Mindbody, Acuity, Square Appointments and Housecall Pro all have a booking widget that can sit inside your own pages rather than sending people off to their site, and if yours holds patient files, memberships or payment history, keeping it is the right call. Where it's only holding a calendar, the flow gets built into the site itself and writes to Google or Outlook, which reads better and has no monthly fee. Tell me what you run and I'll say which one yours is.
Can I keep using my own calendar?
Yes, and you should. Bookings write into the calendar you already run the business from, so you're not checking two places. Availability is read back out of it too, so blocking out a morning in your own calendar removes those slots from the site.
Do I have to take a deposit?
No. Plenty of businesses can't or won't, and the booking flow works the same without one. Where you do take one it's the single biggest thing that reduces no-shows, and an automatic reminder the day before catches most of the rest. What's left is a cancellation policy, which is a business decision rather than a technical one, and the flow can state it before anyone pays.
Can customers reschedule or cancel themselves?
Yes, from a link in their confirmation email, with no account and no phone call. You set how close to the appointment they can still do it, and what happens to a deposit after that point.
What does it cost to build, and what does it cost to run?
The build is quoted with the site: booking is one of the things that moves a project up from the starting price, and pricing has the ranges. Running it, there's no monthly booking subscription. Card processing is the standard 2.9% + 30¢ on anything you take, text reminders are under a cent each plus a couple of dollars a month for the number, and email reminders and calendar sync cost nothing.
Do you use Calendly or something similar?
Sometimes that's the honest answer, and I'll say so if it is. What it costs you is the handoff: the customer leaves your site for a page with somebody else's branding on it, at the exact moment they were about to commit. A booking flow built into the site keeps them on it, which is worth more on a site that is otherwise well designed.
I sell products as well as taking bookings.
Both can go on one site and often should. Selling products is the other half, and the same payment processor handles a deposit and a cart order without needing two accounts.
See how booking would work.
Send me your site, or your business name if you don't have one, and I'll build a free, interactive demo of the booking flow so you can click through it yourself.
Drop in your current site and I'll build you an interactive preview of your booking flow.