Overview: What are we talking about?
By the end of this article, you should have an understanding of how to set up appointment-based services by configuring service settings and specialist availabilities. Appointment-based services are services which are scheduled at a specific date and time and are also schedule with a specific person — known in Gingr as a specialist. This article will cover how to configure a service's settings in order to be an appointment and how to assign a specialist to a specific service and manage their availability.
This article includes:
- Setting Up Services
- Field Guide
- Setting Up Specialists Overview
- Setting Up Time-based Specialists
- Setting Up Slot-based Specialists
- FAQ
Helpful Hints: Before you begin.
- When dealing with appointment-based services, you have two categories of settings to consider: service settings and specialist settings. Service settings will determine things specific to that service and will apply to all specialists assigned to that service. Specialist settings will determine certain aspects for a specific user, for a specific service.
- Time-Based Specialists have specified appointment start times with a capacity for how many appointments can be taken at each specified time.
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Slot-Based Specialists have appointments that start on specific dates but at no specific time. Slot-based appointments are great if you have a drop off time in the morning or if a specialist does not necessarily process services in the order that they arrive.
Set it Up: Let's get started.
Step 1: Set Up the Service
You will want to begin by setting up a service. If you have not done so, you can create a service by navigating to the Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Reservation Types and Services Configuration. You can create a new Additional Service under a Reservation Type via the "Create a new additional service" button.
When you create a new additional service, you will be presented with a series of service settings to configure. Appointment-based services will need to have the "is scheduled" setting set to "Yes/On". Please refer to the field guide below for a description of each service setting:
Field Guide:
| Setting | Description | Helpful Hint |
| Name | This text field will be the title of the service that you are creating/editing. | What you enter here can be visible to customers and employees so be sure to name it with this in mind. |
| Description | Rich-text editor where you can enter in and format information about the service. | The description is a great area to describe a service to your customers and can also serve to describe policies and reminders to your customers. |
| Show on Customer Side | Determines if the service is visible to customers on the Customer Portal. | This setting is great for seasonal or "internal" services. For services that you do not want your customer to see or request on their own, select "no" for this setting. |
| Is Taxed | Determines if this service will be taxed according to the sales tax rate that is set under Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Locations. | |
| Is Scheduled? | Determines whether or not a service is scheduled at a specific time/day. | For appointment-based services, you will want to have this setting set to yes. |
| Duration | Determines the average duration (in minutes) of this service. | |
| Interval | Determines the interval of time-spots that are available for this service (in minutes). | |
| Default Start Time | Determines the earliest possible time that this service can take place. | This setting must be in military time. |
| Limit Service Time Selection For Customers? | If set to yes, this will display service time options only between your business's open and close times. If set to no, this will show service time options any time between 12:00 am - 11:59 pm. | This setting will not be used for appointment-based services. |
| Frequency Options | When selected, these options will be available when booking this service. The system will automatically create the desired number of scheduled services at the selected frequency. | This setting will not be used for appointment-based services. |
| Color | Choose a color that will indicate this service on the Facility Calendar and from the "add service" section on the dashboard. | |
| Questions 1-3 | Ask your customers or staff up to 3 questions for this service. | These questions will appear when booking a service. |
| Auto Charge Last Time | If set to yes, this will allow a specific price be set when animal checks out for this service the first time. This price will be automatically remembered the next time an animal checks out with this same service. If set to no, the customer will be charged the default rate for this service each time they check out. | This is great for variable-priced services (e.g. weight/breed based grooming services). With this setting enabled, you will have the chance to change the service price for a dog at the time of booking, from the dashboard, from the facility calendar, or at the time of check out. |
| Drop Off Times | When text is input here, the email variable {service_dropoff_times} can be used in the New Appointment Email template to auto-fill this text. | |
| Email Custom Text | When text is input here, the email variable {email_custom_text} can be used in the New Appointment Email template to auto-fill this text. | |
| Is iDogCam Service? | If your facility has iDogCam web cameras, this will enable the customer to view these cameras if this service is added to their reservation. | This setting will not be used for appointment-based services. |
| Delete? | Deletes the service. | This cannot be undone. |
Important! For services that have variable prices such as Baths, you do not need to set a rate on the Location Default Rates page. Instead, you can leave the rate set to $0.00 and simply turn on the setting to Auto-Charge Last Time when setting up the service. This will allow you to set a rate for each animal who receives this service the first time they check out. Because the system can remember service rates per animal, it is not necessary to set up different services for each weight range unless scheduling needs to be controlled differently for each size variation.
To turn on this setting:
- Go to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Reservation Types and Services Configuration
- Edit the service in question. When this setting is on, this message will pop-up when checking out an animal who has received this type of service:
Step 2: Set Up the Specialist
Specialists are employees who can be scheduled to perform specific services by appointments (e.g. groomers and trainers). Specialists can also have commission automatically attached to the services they complete. This article will direct you on setting up Specialists! Click here to learn more: https://support.gingrapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004872391
How do I book time-based appointments?
When booking a time-based appointment, you will see specific appointment start times.
In the following example, we have a service Interval of 60 minutes (which is displaying the appointment start times), and a service Duration of 60 minutes (which will take up a 60-minute time block when an appointment is booked). The Specialist is will be taking appointments from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (we see the last appointment start time of 3:00 PM because her appointments are set to 60 minutes so this will allow her to be done by 4:00 PM).
When selecting the animal, you can increase the duration in order to block out future appointment times. In this example, we have increased the duration from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. This cannot be set by customers.
A time-based appointment will appear on the Specialist's section of the Facility calendar at the select start time and will take up the duration that was set when booking the appointment.
How do I book slot-based appointments?
Because slots don't start at a specified time, you will not see appointment times, but rather a single block allowing you to book an appointment for that date.
When selecting this appointment type for a dog, you will be able to select how many slots this specific service requires for this specific dog. The system will remember this # of Slots for this dog, for this service, when they request a future appointment.
Unlike time-based appointments which appear at specified start times, and display for a specified duration, the facility calendar will display Slots in their own section at the top of the Specialist's calendar for that date. In the following example, this dog will take up 8 slots (2 hours) for their full-service grooming appointment.
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