What is the Booking Site?
The Booking Site acts as a client portal; a place where your customers can sign in and carry out a variety of tasks, unaided. Examples of the types of activities which they can undertake include booking in jobs, downloading their own job cards, viewing job progress and creating alerts.
The level of access available for users is fully customisable and it’s adjustable on a person-by-person level, allowing you to tailor it for the differing requirements of individual customers, according to their needs. For example, a customer may want to restrict the access of Person A to job cards, whilst allowing Person B to create jobs.
Setting Up the Booking Site
Default Site Set-up
There are 2 parts to Booking Site set-up, Default and Customer-Specific.
To begin with a Default set-up, navigate: My Account → Administration → [Quick links menu] General Account Settings → [side menu] Booking Site
A window ‘Default booking site settings‘ will now have opened:
- Web Address – the details within this field represent the URL link you will provide to your customers in order for them to use the Booking Site. The first part of this field (shown) contains details which are not editable but you should add the name which you wish your site to be known as directly after it, with no spaces. For example, if my company name is ‘Fast Repair’, the field would display as: https://booking.bigchangeapps.com/fastrepair
- Logo URL – here you may add a logo by inputting the image’s URL. Since this is the default version of the Booking Site, it is likely to be your own company logo.
- Visible job types – Select all or specific types of jobs to be viewable by default. For example, you may not want to include your own industry/business-specific categories eg team planning meeting or project briefing but do want to include things which may be more generically useful eg emergency callout, quick job.
- Job list columns – select some or all of the columns from the dropdown menu which you would like to display on the jobs list. The first 5 are selected by default but are editable if required.
- New Users – Check this box if you would like new customers to be able to sign up to the Booking Site without your input. BigChange will search your CRM to see whether the customer’s email address already exists in your system. It is recommended that you control who has access to the booking site and that this option is left unchecked, which is the default position (shown above). However, if you use the iFRAME or Booking App, this option will have to be checked.
- Save – remember to press save before moving on.
Once this is complete, it should look something like this:
For those who have ticked the New Users checkbox, additional fields will have appeared:
- Contact group for new users – select which group new contacts are automatically created under eg Head Office, Wholesaler
- New users’ default rights – Select which of the available rights you want new booking site users to be given. Remember: be selective here as people will be accessing this for themselves and you will not be involved in the process.
- Jobs’ time shown – This sets the parameters you wish to offer when people are using the booking site to book in jobs, ie do you want them to be able to choose an exact time or date, or do you only want them to be able to express a preference for am/pm.
Customer-Specific Site Set-Up
The benefit of a customer-specific Booking Site is that the customer’s own logo or preferred image will appear at the top, rather than the default version, which shows your own. It also allows customers to customise the displayed information, via the columns they opt for and display their own predefined invoice items where these have been created.
The process for setting up a customer-specific site is very similar to that for setting up the default site but it begins in the CRM, rather than in Administration.
Navigate: CRM → select contact → [tab] Booking site:
- Web Address – the details within this field represent the URL link your customer will provide. The first part of this field (shown) contains details that are not editable but you should add the name which they wish their site to be known as directly after it, with no spaces. For example, in this instance: https://booking.bigchangeapps.com/fitzwilliamenterprises
- Logo URL – here you may add a logo by inputting the image’s URL.
- Visible job types – Select all or specific types of jobs to be viewable.
- Job list columns – select some or all of the columns from the dropdown menu which you would like to display on the jobs list. The first 5 are selected by default but are editable if required.
When all of the information has been input, it will look something like this:
A Hack for Finding Your Logo’s URL
If you are struggling to find the URL for your logo, try this:
- Ensure that an appropriately sized/edited version of the desired logo is saved on your computer.
- Upload it into the Attachments tab of a contact within your CRM:
- Click on the image in the Attachments tab and it will open in a new window. Now copy the browser address shown:
- And paste it into the appropriate field. Once you click away from this, the logo will appear to the right of the field:
Set-up a Person’s Access to the Booking Site
In order for a Person to be able to make use of the Booking Site, which will enable them to book/request jobs from the site, they must first be given permission to access it. Navigate: CRM → [side menu] Contacts → [tab] Contacts → select contact → Edit → [tab] Persons
You can now add a new Person or click to select an existing one. You will see a field entitled Booking site, with a checkbox field ‘Can access the booking site‘.
If you leave this checkbox blank, the person will be unable to access the Booking Site. If you tick the checkbox, additional fields will appear, allowing you to customise the actions each Person will be allowed to undertake, even though they have been given access:
Note that beneath the Booking site field there is a field entitled Owner. The Owner is the user who has granted this Person permission to access the Booking Site, although this can be edited and replaced with any Web User set up on the site if desired. Notifications regarding jobs will be sent to the Owner’s email address.
You will be able to see from the list view which Persons have access rights and which don’t:
If you now click back upon the Person you have given permission to, an additional icon will have appeared Email password:
The Person will then receive an email with their login details and a link which allows them to create a password:
The link will take you to a form that you can then complete.
Once the new password is added and saved, a new popup will appear:
The Person will then be able to log in to the Booking Site using their credentials.
Setting up a New Job Alert
If you would like one or more Persons to be notified when there is a new job, this can be set up as follows.
Navigate: Alerts → [icon] + Create a new alert
- Who – set to ‘Any Job‘
- What – set to ‘Has its client status changed to‘ and then click on ‘select status‘ and select Booking made.
- Send to – select one or more recipients and the method by which you wish them to receive a notification. These can be added dynamically ie by beginning typing and then selecting from the dropdown list or you can add them freehand.
- ,5,6,7. These will vary depending upon the delivery method for the notification. In the case of 5, you will be shown a message which can be edited. The blue box here represents keywords and will be replaced in the actual message with your own information. Where a template is being used, you can opt to send it with a default displayed or use a pre-created template you have made and to which you have attributed Alert usage.
8. Finally, Save.
An Alert will now be sent to the named recipients whenever a new job is raised via the Booking Site.
For more information, please read the Alerts article.
Booking Site: Pre-defined Invoicing Items
Where you have a fixed charge for specific items or services, you can set them up as pre-defined invoicing items, available on your booking site. To do this, navigate: My account → Administration → [side menu] Financial → Predefined invoicing items → Add/Edit
Ensure that all mandatory fields are populated and tick the checkbox next to ‘Available on booking site‘.
You will see that the right-hand column on your list view shows which items are ‘available on booking site‘; those which are, are indicated with a blue tick.
On your Booking Site, these will be displayed in the Options section:
Using the Booking Site
Logging In
As shown earlier, once you have been given permission to access the Booking Site, you will receive an email with your login details and a link which allows you to create a password:
The link will take you to a form asking you to create a password:
Once the new password is added and saved, a confirmation popup will appear. Click Ok:
You can then log in to the Booking Site using your credentials.
To do this, type the address for the Booking Site into your browser:
and then add your credentials into the relevant fields:
The screen which you see next will be determined by the choices which you made when you set up the Booking Site. For example purposes, the form below belongs to a Person who has all options ticked, allowing them full access:
You will see that all jobs are shown, as are the 5 columns which were selected during the set-up process. For this reason, the columns shown on your own version may differ depending on which options your company selected.
Search
Clicking on the Search icon will show 3 new fields:
- Reference/Order number – allows you to search by either ref/order no
- Location – allows you to filter by the location, useful where there are parent and child(ren) sites
- Date – This allows you to search between date parameters but also to filter between planned, actual or creation dates.
These enable you to find a specific job quickly, eg
Now click on the job and the Job Card and Job Progress will open (assuming you have access):
Clicking on the Job Card icon at the top right will download a pdf of the Job Card:
Where there is a parent-child situation with the Customer-specific Booking Site, jobs for both parent and child will be displayed but can be filtered using the Location field.
Settings, Including Changing the Password
Clicking on the Account icon
opens an additional popup window where you can make the following changes for the site:
- Password
- Currency
- Time zone
In all of the above instances, simply type in/select from the dropdown menu the updated information and click Save.
The email address cannot be updated here and must be changed in the CRM (of Fast Repair, in our example).
A Job’s Journey Through the Booking Site: Addition, Completion & Beyond
Adding a Job
To add a new job via the Booking Site, log in and click on “+ New Job”
and a form will have opened:
- Select the type of job from the drop-down list
- Choose an address from the drop-down list if the Contact has multiple locations
- Add a provisional date request
- Select desired quantities of the available options (pre-defined invoicing items)
- Add any required notes for the job. Any information added here will appear in the Job details field of the job
- Check this box if an alert is required to be sent to the customer
- Add any attachments required. Please note, whilst these will be visible to the back office, they will not be automatically visible to the mobile resource.
- When complete, click Save.
Appearance on the Schedule
In JobWatch, any new jobs received from contacts using the booking site will appear on the Schedule tab side menu, under ‘Unscheduled Jobs’.
Once the job has been located in the list of unscheduled jobs, click on the job and then click View to see the detail of the job.
As shown, any constraints will appear beneath the job in orange and an appropriate icon, also in orange, will be displayed to the right.
The job can be allocated and scheduled as usual, either through dragging and dropping or by viewing and editing.
Once it has been added to the Schedule, note that the job is outlined in red. Click on the Job and then press Send confirmation.
A confirmation email will now open, containing the job information. Amend any details if desired, eg change the Subject and click Send to send it to the customer. Note that it has an appointment attachment which allows the customer to add it directly onto their calendar:
You will see a popup confirmation that it has been sent to the customer.
The Customer’s Email
The customer will now receive the email you sent, containing all of the job details, as well as a link to confirm the appointment/job and an appointment.ics to add it to their calendar:
The customer will then click the link, which will open a new window. They will now click to confirm, adding any notes where required:
Once the job has been confirmed, you will find that on the Schedule the job border will have changed from a red to green.
When the resource is on the way to the job, the customer will receive a notification if this option was ticked during set-up.
Note that until a customer has confirmed a booking by clicking on their link in the email, the job can still be edited or cancelled. Changes made will show on your main site ie on the job in the Schedule, in real time.
and in the list view it will still show as ‘to be confirmed’:
Changes can be viewed under the job’s Activity tab in the Customer activity sub-menu. Alerts can also be set up to notify resource’s when these changes are made. Navigate: Alert → Create a new alert and complete the first 2 fields as shown below:
Job Completion and Beyond
When signed in to the Booking Site, you can easily see the status of jobs.
Where jobs have a started (alarm clock) icon in the status, opening the job will now display a Map icon
Where live tracking is enabled, clicking on this will show you precisely where your mobile resource currently is en route to the job.
Those with a tick in the status column represent jobs which have been completed:
Click on a job and, assuming that you have adequate permissions, it will open the job card and job progress page:
- Clicking on the Job Card will download a pdf of the Job Card, which can then be printed if desired. Please note that this will not show your Worksheets as standard on the Booking Site. If you would like help with amending your Booking Card Job Cards so that they will show Worksheets, please contact RoadCrew on +44 113 457 1000.
- Clicking on the Attachments tab will allow you to view any attachments added to the Job
- This will hold any Financial documents which have been raised against this job
- The job progress section will update live as things change, although you may need to refresh your screen to see the update.
Videos
Live Tutorial: The Booking Site
Changing the Password
Creating a Customer-Specific Site
Adding a Logo
Set up a Person’s Access to the Booking Site
Confirm a Person’s Access to the Booking Site
Overview of the Booking Site