Overview: What are we talking about?

This article will walk you through what to expect, and how to plan and prepare to go live with the Customer Portal for your business and your customers.

The Customer Portal will give your customers an optimized experience when interacting with your business on the Gingr Portal. The Customer Portal includes optimized booking workflows, better organization of information, improved error messaging, additional customization, and more.

This article includes:

• Set it Up: Let's get started 
• Test it: Let's make sure everything looks right!  
• Enabling the Customer Portal: Let's make it active!   
• Notifying your Customers: Let's invite them to their Portal!

Related Articles:

• Customer Portal Overview
• Using the Customer Portal
• Customer Portal Interaction Settings
• Location Custom Text
• Service Request Links
• Customer Portal Links

Set it Up: Let's get started. 

If you would like to disable login for the Customer Portal while you review the set-up, navigate to the Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization » Toggle Online Login and select the red Disable Online Login For All Customers button. A pop-up will appear prompting you to confirm this selection before moving forward.

There are a few settings that you might want to review and update to ensure that the Customer Portal includes any necessary information regarding the reservation types, services, etc. that your business offers.

Step 1: Review your Request Links 

When requesting bookings, customers will first need to select a booking category asking them if they want to request a reservation, appointment, or group class. You can customize which of those three options appear, and how they are worded, depending on the services you offer. If you started offering new services recently and didn't know to update these, now is a great time to do so. 

Service Request Links can link to three places:

• • New Reservation Page: this page is used for multi-day or single-day reservations that are not appointment-based (e.g. boarding and daycare).
    
    
  • New Appointment Page: this page is used for single-day reservations that are appointment-based (e.g. grooming and training).
    
    
  • Group Class Enrollment Page: this page is used to show all of your group classes and to allow customers to enroll.

To review and update your request links, follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.
2. Use the pencil icon to edit any of your Request Links that need to be updated. You will only need to make updates to the Titles, as the links will automatically redirect within the Customer Portal.
3. For more information on updating Request Links, click here.

Step 2: Review Reservation, Appointment, Services, and Deposit Custom Text 

The layout of the Customer Portal brings emphasis to your Custom Text options in Gingr. You can add custom text to a variety of different places to notify customers of important information and really promote your business and services! 

To review and update the various custom text options for the Customer Portal, follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Reservation and Appointment Requests.
   
   
2. Review Reservation Request Text. This text will appear on the left-hand side of the booking page for your customers to review before selecting the type of reservation they are looking to book. 
   
   
   
   
3. Review Appointment Custom Text. This text will appear on the left-hand side of the appointment booking page for your customers to review before selecting the type of appointment they are looking to book. 
   
   
   
   
4. Review Reservation Request Services Text.  This text will appear in a pop-up if a customer requests a reservation, but does not select any additional services for their pet during their stay. This is a great place to try and upsell the customer some of the amazing services that you offer. Leave it blank if you do not want a pop-up message to appear. 
   
   
5. Review Deposit Policies Custom Text. This text will appear as your customers go to submit payment for any deposits. 

Step 3: Review Portal Customization Settings 

With the Customer Portal, there are options for customization. These settings will allow you to enable or disable certain pages and actions on the Customer Portal like the ability to show Webcams, Rewards Points, and more. 

Take a moment to think about which of these features you use for your business, and whether or not you want your customers to be able to view or complete these actions through their online Portal. 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.
2. Enable or disable the following settings depending on your business: 

• Allow Package Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Packages page from the portal if you don’t allow customers to purchase any prepaid packages online.
  
  
• Allow Retail Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Retail page from the portal if you don’t allow customers to purchase any retail online for in-store pickup.
  
  
• Allow Subscription Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Subscriptions page from the portal if you don’t allow customers to start their own package subscriptions online.
  
  
• Show Rates section on the portal? This will hide the View Rates page from the portal if you don’t want customers to see any of their rates for reservation types and services in the portal.
  
  
• Show Reward Points balance on the portal? This will hide the Reward Points page from the portal if you don’t use the Gingr Loyalty Rewards feature.
  
  
• Show Webcams link on the portal? This will hide the Live Webcams page from the portal if you don't use webcams with Gingr. 

Test it: Let's make sure everything looks right!  

It is recommended that you log in with one of the test accounts in your app to review your portal and make sure that any adjustments that you just made look correct! To do this, you will need to go ahead and enable login to the Customer Portal.

Enabling the Customer Portal: Let's make it active!   

Once you are ready to enable login for the Customer Portal, you will want to follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization » Toggle Online Login 
   
   
2.  Select the green Enable Online Login For All Customers button. A pop-up will appear prompting you to confirm this selection before moving forward.
   

Notifying your Customers: Let's invite them to their Portal!  

We recommend having a plan to let your customers know about the portal. You will just need to provide them with your portal link and some basic information about the portal. Here are a few ideas on how to inform your customers about the Customer Portal.

1. Update your business website and social media. 

If you would like the Customer Portal to be linked on your business website, social media pages, or anywhere else, you will need to make sure to input the correct link to your Customer Portal URL. This will allow your current and future customers to easily find the correct site for them to log in. 

You can easily find your link for the Customer Portal by navigating to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.

This is also where you can locate a unique invite code that will allow your customers to access your portal using the free Gingr for Pet Parents mobile app which is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

2. Send a Marketing Email Campaign with Details on the Customer Portal.

You can use the Gingr Email Marketing Campaign feature to reach out to your customers in bulk and provide them with the link to access the Customer Portal.

We recommend including your portal link and unique invite code for the free Gingr for Pet Parents mobile app, as well as a link to this help article for pet parents on how to use the portal, and this brief tutorial video:

If you do not wish to promote the use of the mobile app with your pet parents, you are welcome to exclude that portion from your marketing campaign prior to sending to your customers. For more information about the mobile app, click here.

For more information on creating email marketing campaigns, click here.

3. Share a quick 1-page sheet with your clients that contains your portal details. 

Posting a flyer with your portal information on the door or at the front desk can be an easy way to connect pet parents with your portal when they are onsite at your facility. We've created this simple 1-page template that you can open in Google Docs or Microsoft Word to customize with your unique portal URL and mobile app invite code, and then print or share with your clients any way you'd like!

4. Create a custom QR Code to leave on the door or at the front desk. 

Creating a custom QR code will be a great way to seamlessly connect customers with their portal if they ask about it while they are onsite at your facility. Instead of having to type in or send the link to them, they can easily scan the QR code with their smartphone camera and be instantly connected. 

You can create a free custom QR code online, and all you will need is the link for your Customer Portal which you can access from Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization. Here is a website that we recommend: https://www.qr-code-generator.com/. 

• Customer Portal 2.0 Marketing Template Code (3).txt20 KB