Online Booking

Online Booking turns every place customers find you — your Google Maps listing, TripAdvisor page, Instagram bio, Facebook page, a QR code on the counter — into a Book now button. You create one named link per placement; they all open the same mobile-friendly booking page, and every visit and booking is attributed back to the link it came from, so you can see exactly which placement fills chairs. Customers pick a real open slot from your live calendar, get confirmations and reminders, and manage their appointment from a personal portal — no app, no account, no password.

What you get

• Named booking links, one per placement, each with its own visit, booking, and conversion stats — plus a print-ready QR code.
• A public booking page in your customer's language (English, Spanish, or French) showing your real services, prices (optional), professionals (optional), and live availability.
• Appointments created by customers land in your calendar exactly like staff-made bookings — same double-booking protection, opening hours, staff schedules, and lead-time rules as everywhere else.
• A customer appointments portal: upcoming and past visits, add-to-calendar buttons, and self-service cancellation within your policy.
• Confirmations by SMS and email, and appointment reminders (24h and 1h before by default) that try WhatsApp first, then SMS, then email.
• Acquisition reporting: a Bookings by Source chart in Analytics and Acquisition source / Booking link dimensions in the Data Explorer.

Who can do this

Capability	Who can do it
Create and manage booking links, download QR codes, change settings, see link stats	Managers only
Book an appointment on the public page, add it to their calendar, cancel it	Your customers — no account or login needed
See the Bookings by Source chart and the Data Explorer dimensions	Whoever can open Analytics & Data Explorer

The management page lives at Customers → Online Booking in the sidebar, with two tabs: Booking links and Settings.

Create a booking link for every placement

1. Open Customers → Online Booking (the Booking links tab).
2. Click + New booking link.
3. Name it after where it will live — e.g. "Google Maps — Centro". The name is for your reports; customers never see it.
4. Pick the channel (Google Maps / Business Profile, TripAdvisor, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, QR code (print), Email signature / campaigns, Website, or Other). The channel powers the source reports, so pick the one that matches the placement.
5. Optionally preselect a location: the booking page opens with that site already chosen. Leave it blank to let the customer choose.
6. Click Create link, then use Copy to grab the URL, Open to preview it, or QR for a scannable code.

A first link named "Booking page" is created for you automatically, so you always have a URL to share. Use Edit on any row to rename it, change its channel or location, toggle it Active, or delete it. Deactivating a link makes its URL stop working (visitors see a not-found page) but keeps its stats; deleting a link removes its visit history too.

Where to put each link

The Where to place your links card on the same page keeps these instructions handy:

• Google Maps / Business Profile — in Google Business Profile, go to Edit profile → Booking / Appointment links and paste your link. A Book online button appears on your Maps and Search listing — the highest-intent placement most salons have.
• TripAdvisor — in the Management Center, put the link in your listing's website/booking field.
• Instagram — add it as the link in your bio, or connect it to the Book now action button on your profile.
• Facebook — set your Page's call-to-action button to Book now with your link.
• WhatsApp — put it in your business profile, status, and auto-replies.
• In the salon (printed QR) — click QR on the link's row: a crisp code pops up with a Download PNG button for print shops. Place it at the counter, on the window, on receipts and flyers.

Watch each link convert

The Booking links tab doubles as a funnel report. At the top, four 30-day KPIs: page visits, online bookings, visit → booking conversion, and revenue from online bookings. In the table, every link shows its own all-time visits, bookings, and conversion rate — so "Instagram brings traffic but Google Maps brings bookings" stops being a hunch.

What customers see

The booking page is mobile-first and carries your logo and your optional welcome text. It opens in the customer's language (English, Spanish, or French — with a switcher on the page) and shows a next available chip so the customer immediately knows how soon they can come in. Booking takes under a minute:

1. Location — skipped when the link preselects one.
2. Service — your active services grouped by category, with prices when you allow it. The 10 most-booked services show first (with a Show all services link to reveal the rest), and a search box filters the whole menu as the customer types — accent-insensitive, so "unas" finds "uñas" — so long menus stay quick to pick from. Services you marked combinable (in Services → Public showcase) act like checkboxes: the customer can tick several — say gel + pedicure — and they book as one appointment covering the combined duration.
3. Date and time — only real open slots within your booking window are offered; if you allow it, the customer can pick a specific professional, or any available one. For a multi-service visit the slots already cover the full combined length.
4. Their details — first and last name and phone number, plus an optional email and note. The note lands in the booking's notes for your team.
5. Confirmation — an on-screen summary with Add to Google Calendar and .ics buttons and a link to their personal appointments portal.

Customers can always change their mind mid-flow: every completed step header is tappable, each step has a ‹ Back button, and on a phone the system back gesture moves one step back instead of leaving the page.

Help choosing a service. When your Contact Center WhatsApp number is connected, the service step shows a Not sure which service? row with a Get advice on WhatsApp button — the chat opens pre-filled with whatever the customer has selected so far, and your AI receptionist takes it from there. If AI-answered voice calls are enabled for your organization, a Call us button appears next to it. After advising, the agent can send the customer a link back to your booking page with the recommended service(s) already selected — the page also accepts these preselection links directly (…/b/your-link/?services=…), so the customer lands with everything chosen and only picks the time.

Behind the scenes the page uses the same availability and booking engine as your staff calendar and the Contact Center's AI agent, so it can never double-book, never offers a slot during closed hours or a professional's day off, and honors your minimum-notice rule. The page is also protected against bots and spam with a hidden trap and per-visitor rate limits.

No duplicate customer records: the booking is matched to an existing customer by phone number (national-number matching, so "+52 55 1234 5678" finds "55 1234-5678"). A record your staff created is never overwritten — at most, blank fields are filled in. New customers are created automatically, exactly like leads from WhatsApp — see Customers.

Booking page settings

Open Customers → Online Booking → Settings (managers only).

Booking page

Setting	What it does
Online booking enabled	Master switch. Turning it off hides the booking page and the customer portal immediately.
Let customers choose a professional	Off = the first available professional is assigned automatically.
Show prices on the booking page	Show or hide your service prices.
Minimum notice (minutes)	Customers can't book sooner than this many minutes from now (default 60; 0 = no minimum).
How far ahead customers can book (days)	The booking horizon (default 30, up to 365).
Welcome text (optional)	A short intro shown at the top of the page.

Cancellations

Setting	What it does
Customers can cancel from their appointments portal	Master switch for self-service cancellation.
Minimum notice to cancel (hours)	Cancellations must be made at least this many hours before the appointment (default 4; 0 = up to the start time). Inside the window, the portal asks the customer to contact you instead.

The Reminders & confirmations card is covered below.

The customer appointments portal

Every confirmation and reminder carries a personal manage your appointment link. It opens the customer's appointments portal — a no-login page (the link itself is their key, like a calendar-subscription URL) where they can:

• See their upcoming appointments — date, time, service, location, professional — and their recent past ones.
• Add to calendar: a Google Calendar button, an .ics download per appointment (with built-in 24h and 1h phone alarms, so even unreachable customers get reminded by their own calendar), and a subscribable feed of all their appointments.
• Cancel an appointment themselves — only while your cancellation policy allows it. The freed slot immediately reopens for booking, and if you use the Contact Center waitlist, it can be offered to a waiting customer automatically.
• Book again — one tap back to your booking page.

The portal link is personal and unguessable. If a customer worries theirs was shared, contact support and we'll issue them a fresh one.

Reminders that actually reach the customer

With Send appointment reminders on (the default), every online booking is reminded 24 hours and 1 hour before the appointment — configurable in Remind this many hours before (comma-separated, e.g. 24,1).

Each reminder is delivered through the first channel that can reach the customer:

1. WhatsApp — when your Contact Center number is connected and proactive messaging is enabled for your organization (it is compliance-gated and ships off — see that guide).
2. SMS — when SMS is configured for your organization.
3. Email — when the customer left a real email address.

Each reminder is sent at most once per appointment and offset — even if the Contact Center's own WhatsApp reminder engine is running too, the two coordinate so the customer is never double-texted. The message includes the portal link, so a customer who can't make it cancels in two taps instead of no-showing. Reminders always go out for online bookings; turn on Also remind customers booked by staff or WhatsApp to cover every appointment in your calendar with the same fallback chain.

Confirmations, on the same settings card: Text a confirmation with the appointment-portal link after each online booking (needs SMS configured) and Email a confirmation when the customer leaves an email address. The on-page confirmation always appears regardless.

See which placement fills chairs

Three reporting surfaces, from glance to deep-dive:

• The Booking links tab — per-link visits, bookings, conversion, and 30-day revenue (see above).
• Analytics → Bookings by Source — a chart of how your appointments split between staff-entered, online booking, and WhatsApp (AI agent) over the selected period. See Analytics & Data Explorer.
• Data Explorer — the Bookings dataset gains an Acquisition source dimension and a Booking link dimension, and the Sales dataset gains Acquisition source too. Group revenue by booking link to put a dollar figure on each placement, filter no-shows by source, or export it all — like any other explorer report.

Tips

• One link per placement per location — granular links cost nothing and make the source report meaningful.
• The Google Business Profile appointment link is usually the single highest-converting placement — set it up first.
• Print the QR for the counter and the window: after-hours walk-bys can book for tomorrow on the spot.
• Set Minimum notice to your real prep time so an online booking never surprises a stylist mid-shift.
• Align Minimum notice to cancel with your deposit policy so the two never contradict each other.
• Pair Online Booking with the Contact Center: reminders ride WhatsApp for free, and cancelled slots can be offered to the waitlist automatically.

Related pages

• Appointments & calendar
• Contact Center (CCaaS)
• AI booking controls
• Customers
• Analytics & Data Explorer
• Reduce no-shows