Video Consultations and online booking
If you use online booking, you can make your video consultations available to clients to book online. Allowing clients to book directly into your WriteUpp diary eliminates the need for them to contact you to book appointments and therefore reduces the time you spend on appointment admin.
Online booking is included in your WriteUpp trial period but if you're an existing site and you'd like to give it a try for a few weeks, drop us a message via the chat box below and we'll activate a further trial for you!
If you're looking to allow clients to book video consultations via online booking, the initial setup mirrors that of setting up video consultations within your WriteUpp site. Those steps are:
Create your video appointment types
Create a confirmation of a video consultation via online booking
Once you've ticked those off the list, there are additional actions you'll need to undertake to ensure that appointments can be booked seamlessly by your clients online.
To allow a user to be booked for a certain appointment type in online booking, they must have been selected as a resource for that appointment within WriteUpp. To do this:
Go to Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Types
Click on Edit next to the appointment type you'd like to check:
Under "Who will offer this treatment?", make sure any user who can offer that particular appointment type is ticked, then click Save:
Repeat for all video appointment types
If you have multiple locations enabled in WriteUpp, you need to timetable your diary to tell online booking where you will be and when. This is something that needs to be done for all online bookings regardless of video. If you add an additional location purely for video consultations, either now or in the future, remember to add this to your timetable.
If you have more than one location set up, you'll also need to allow your appointment types to be booked in a certain locations to allow online booking to match appointment types to both users and locations when looking for availability. Just like adding a resource to an appointment, this is done within Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Types. Follow the steps to choose a type to edit, and then look at the locations section and click Edit:
Choose the locations in which you'd like the appointment type to be available and click Save:
Make sure you repeat this for all video appointment types.
When you add appointments to WriteUpp, they are pulled across into online booking for you, but set as not visible on your site initially. To make sure your clients will be able to see these appointments:
Log into the online booking admin area
Click on Treatments in the top menu bar:
Find your video appointment type in the list and click on it:
Enter a description and toggle the "Is treatment visible" switch to the right (it should be green):
Then "save & publish"
Repeat for all video appointment types
When you "View the website", you should see your video appointment types available as options:
Another optional step you might want to think about is taking appointment prepayment via online booking. Processed via Stripe, clients will have to make payment in full before they can confirm an appointment via your online booking site. Just like video consultations, Stripe is fully integrated with WriteUpp, making the payment and reconciliation process seamless for both you and your clients.
When a client books and pays in advance via online booking, an invoice for the appointment will be generated and marked as paid for you, allowing you to keep on top of your finances. You can also set up Stripe to automatically send your clients a payment receipt once their payment has been processed, confirming it for their records.
To activate appointment prepayment:
Log into the online booking admin area
Click on Settings in the top menu bar:
Scroll to the bottom of the page and toggle the "Require payment for booking" switch to the right (it should be green):
Then "save & publish"
Once this has been turned on, clients will be asked to provide payment information prior to confirming their appointment:
Even if you don't use online booking for your standard consultations, we'd really recommend giving it a go for your video consultations, especially alongside appointment prepayment. It can be a divisive subject but the reality is that appointments that are pre-paid experience a significantly lower “no show” rate.
Online booking is included in your WriteUpp trial period but if you're an existing site and you'd like to give it a try for a few weeks, drop us a message via the chat box below and we'll activate a further trial for you!
If you're looking to allow clients to book video consultations via online booking, the initial setup mirrors that of setting up video consultations within your WriteUpp site. Those steps are:
Create your video appointment types
Create a confirmation of a video consultation via online booking
Once you've ticked those off the list, there are additional actions you'll need to undertake to ensure that appointments can be booked seamlessly by your clients online.
Appointment types and resources
To allow a user to be booked for a certain appointment type in online booking, they must have been selected as a resource for that appointment within WriteUpp. To do this:
Go to Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Types
Click on Edit next to the appointment type you'd like to check:
Under "Who will offer this treatment?", make sure any user who can offer that particular appointment type is ticked, then click Save:
Repeat for all video appointment types
Online booking and multiple locations
If you have multiple locations enabled in WriteUpp, you need to timetable your diary to tell online booking where you will be and when. This is something that needs to be done for all online bookings regardless of video. If you add an additional location purely for video consultations, either now or in the future, remember to add this to your timetable.
If you have more than one location set up, you'll also need to allow your appointment types to be booked in a certain locations to allow online booking to match appointment types to both users and locations when looking for availability. Just like adding a resource to an appointment, this is done within Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Types. Follow the steps to choose a type to edit, and then look at the locations section and click Edit:
Choose the locations in which you'd like the appointment type to be available and click Save:
Make sure you repeat this for all video appointment types.
Appointment visibility in online booking
When you add appointments to WriteUpp, they are pulled across into online booking for you, but set as not visible on your site initially. To make sure your clients will be able to see these appointments:
Log into the online booking admin area
Click on Treatments in the top menu bar:
Find your video appointment type in the list and click on it:
Enter a description and toggle the "Is treatment visible" switch to the right (it should be green):
Then "save & publish"
Repeat for all video appointment types
When you "View the website", you should see your video appointment types available as options:
Appointment prepayment
Another optional step you might want to think about is taking appointment prepayment via online booking. Processed via Stripe, clients will have to make payment in full before they can confirm an appointment via your online booking site. Just like video consultations, Stripe is fully integrated with WriteUpp, making the payment and reconciliation process seamless for both you and your clients.
When a client books and pays in advance via online booking, an invoice for the appointment will be generated and marked as paid for you, allowing you to keep on top of your finances. You can also set up Stripe to automatically send your clients a payment receipt once their payment has been processed, confirming it for their records.
To activate appointment prepayment:
Log into the online booking admin area
Click on Settings in the top menu bar:
Scroll to the bottom of the page and toggle the "Require payment for booking" switch to the right (it should be green):
Then "save & publish"
Once this has been turned on, clients will be asked to provide payment information prior to confirming their appointment:
Even if you don't use online booking for your standard consultations, we'd really recommend giving it a go for your video consultations, especially alongside appointment prepayment. It can be a divisive subject but the reality is that appointments that are pre-paid experience a significantly lower “no show” rate.
Updated on: 17/06/2022
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