Running an online store is tricky business even for the professionals. The way online store owners handle business has changed drastically. Perhaps the most notable change is in the way in which customers approach businesses to book. In this guide, we will tell everything you need to know about WooCommerce Bookings plugin and how it can transform your website into a successful online booking platform. Going back in time, staff members and admins spent long hours waiting for calls to schedule appointments. This has been replaced by an automated online booking which takes away all the hassle. A boon some would say.
What is an Online Booking Solution?
An online booking solution is a software/tool which allows customers to check the availability for a service/product/activity and book the desired time and date accordingly. This way a potential customer can decide to book a particular service, choose the date, pick a time and pay the booking amount—everything handled online.The prime benefit of such an automated system is there’s absolutely no workload. A capable online booking solution will enable both customers and admins to relax and trust the system to do the job. Important tasks like sending payment invoice via email and displaying booking prices on the front-end will be handled by the booking solution.
What is WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments Plugin?
Advanced online booking solutions like WooCommerce Bookings plugin allow customers to book WooCommerce products. Greatly expanding the potential for bookings for your online business. The plugin hardly takes any time to configure which is ideal for business owners looking a light-weight yet powerful booking system.
One added benefit of using this plugin is that there’s no cap on the amount of booking you can handle. In simple terms, the booking system won’t gasp for breath even if you get hundreds or thousands of booking requests. Moreover, with such an automated booking solution, you’re basically allowing people to book when the time is convenient for them. Not the other way around.
Benefits of Using WooCommerce Bookings Plugin
Businesses that require a booking system often prefer customers to fill in the booking details. So it’s important for the people who are planning to use an online booking solution figure out the benefits they’re about to experience. This could come handy while implementing their booking business case. Let’s go through some of the major benefits of using WooCommerce Bookings plugin.
Accept Bookings and Appointments 24/7
The WooCommerce Bookings plugin will be open 24/7 and your business will be accessible to your clients all the time. So rather than being constrained by your working hours, you can accept a countless number of bookings at any moment. Eliminating the need for an admin to verify if the simultaneous bookings end up crashing or not. A large percentage of online bookings in major industries like hospitals or hotels occur during the late hours. As per research, people prefer to book during the late hours, mostly between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM. With increasing competition and enormous no of service provides you do not want to lose your prospects just because the customers cannot book when they like.The WooCommerce Bookings plugin allows you to set and offer bookings in minutes, hours, days and even months. So no matter what business you’re in, the plugin should be able to successfully display the required calendar on the Product page.
No Mistakes!When it comes to taking bookings over emails or phones, there is always a chance of mistake and double bookings. Though that can be handled and fixed when you have, say, 10 bookings every day. But think about the massacre when there are hundreds of bookings. Impossible right? Online Bookings, on the other end, can never go wrong with the bookings. Everything is calculated, synchronized, and programmed in such a way that there’s no chance of two separate bookings colliding together. But that’s not enough, you have another good feature which lets you modify the bookings in the back-end. Cases when a customer wants to, for some reason, change the dates of the booking, you can step in and change the dates for him/her.
Reduction in the Number of No-ShowsThe WooCommerce Bookings plugin sends automatic reminders to your customers and helps them show up on time. With online bookings, your customers will be less likely to miss an appointment. Moreover, it displays real-time booking cost on right then and there to avoid any confusion. In cases when customers do have to cancel or reschedule an appointment for genuine reasons, the time slot is immediately freed up for new bookings. So, last-minute bookings can be easily filled, helping you use your time optimally. With online bookings, you get more appointments and reduced no-shows.
Involving More Customers at the Same TimeTaking appointments calls in between your ongoing appointment can be very distracting for your receptionist. But it’s even more annoying to your customer on the other end. You already know that your customers are rather busy would like to get full attention when they’re ready to pay for the appointment. Not to forget, there are other similar businesses as well. Focusing on the same point again, it really doesn’t give a good impression when you attend calls in between an appointment. With online booking solutions like WooCommerce Bookings, you can be completely focused on your ongoing service while the Booking solution works for you in the background with 100% efficiency.
No Maintenance Online Booking solutions like WooCommerce Bookings are considered as smart investments. It doesn’t require you to handle a bunch of servers or own any sort of hardware to maintain and continue receiving bookings. Your website will hold off to the bookings and store the entire information right then and there.With WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin, you focus more on the quality of your work and also the more important aspects of your business like marketing, advertisement, and finance. More focus on important aspects means more bookings and more business for you.
What are the Applications of WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments Plugin?
The WooCommerce Bookings Plugin has a huge variety of practical applications. Customers don’t have to call just to find out the availability of your business during a particular time-period. They can simply visit your website, look for the preferred product/service and check the availability on the calendar associated with it.
For your business, online booking solutions represent a huge lifting of the workload from staff and dramatically improves the customer’s buying experience. Customers can make or timeslot reservations through your WooCommerce Bookings system and get real-time information on availability. Minimizing reservation errors and unnecessary complications which can lead to negative customer service experiences.
Types of Businesses that could use WooCommerce Bookings Plugin
An online booking solution can be used multiple times. Making them ideal for booking-dependent businesses of all shapes and sizes. Put plainly, if your business takes bookings of any kind, it can benefit from the WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments Plugin.
PluginHive‘s WooCommerce Bookings plugin might be of particular interest to businesses which rely on bookings from online educational courses all the way to online Yoga classes bookings. Imagine being able to pitch your product or service to customers in person and let them quickly and simply book right then and there, making their payment instantly.Here are some of the business types that can make use of this flexible Booking solution.
- Professionals like Lawyers and Doctors could use this plugin to schedule appointments
- Salon and Spa services, Dog walkers, etc., could use this plugin as services bookings
- Can be used as an Accommodation Booking solution
- Websites providing Online Courses could easily use this solution
- Serves as a Hotel Booking system
- Used along with Online Fitness or Cooking lessons
- Property owners can use it as a Guest-House Booking system
- Also serves as a Rental Booking system for Bikes, Cars, Costumes, Party-Equipment, etc.,
- Unique booking requirements like Waste Collection Bookings can also be implemented
You can also let customers buy additional products or services online which can be sold alongside your bookings. The plugin offers you to set resources which allows you to do that.
Final thoughts on WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin
It is clear that online booking solutions are both increasing the present and future of bookings for all kinds of businesses. With more of us than ever browsing, booking and buying online it makes superb business sense. And as businesses increasingly move online our WooCommerce Bookings Plugin allows both customers and businesses alike to take their bookings on the road.WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments is a great plugin which is simple yet very effective and suits all types of businesses. So go ahead explore and try the WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin.
Good Luck!
