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By Madison Potter, Client Advocacy Manager

Building Your Booking Calendar

 

GreenRope’s booking calendar helps you automate the appointment setting process while improving the overall customer experience. A CRM is designed to help store, manage, and utilize the client data, so it’s important to have a booking calendar that integrates seamlessly with all of your other processes. GreenRope offers our fully integrated booking calendar, free with every account.  The booking calendar helps you save time, automate the appointment setting process, and provides an easy and simple way for your leads and clients to connect with you. By having an integrated calendar that connects directly with your CRM, all appointments are automatically tracked and saved within their contact record.

 

A few benefits of setting up a booking calendar within your CRM:

  • Saves time by opening up the lines of communication

  • Builds trust with immediate follow ups

  • Increases sales engagement

    • Measured at both times and touch points

  • Seamless, realtime updates

    • Adds to calendar(s), updates CRM record, sends email notifications, etc.

 

Before you start building it out, think about the type of calendar you’re needing:

  • Acquiring new leads - such as scheduling demos or appointments

  • Client support - office or support hours, scheduling client meetings

  • Team coordination - meeting scheduling, trips, outings, lunch, etc.

  • On boarding and training - scheduling sessions, courses, seminars

 

Once you have determined what kind of event you are creating you will have a better understanding of time duration, optional fees, or approval requirements. Hover over the “Settings” drop down and select the “Calendar” option. This is where you will create and manage the default calendar appointment settings for the group.

 

1. Activating the Booking Calendar

Within the “Description” tab, check the box for appointment calendar with booking availability. Once you activate the booking calendar, some additional settings options include:

  • Customizing the calendar URL

  • Setting the default calendar to view (monthly, weekly, or list)

  • Sectioned breaks in between calendar appointments (i.e time to prepare)

 

 

This page also provides other settings for after the time slot has been selected, for example:

  • Directing clients to a custom Thank You URL

  • Sending the clients an approval/confirmation email

  • Activating a workflow for your team to manage follow ups

  • Connecting these appointments with your Google, iCal, or Webcal Calendars

 

 

2. Event Location

To specify where these events are taking place, add your location defaults within the “Event Locations” tab. This location information (name, address, website link, etc.) will help clients know how to attend your event. It will populate in the calendar invites sent to your attendees, show in their event reminders, and populate on their external calendar (i.e. Google Calendar). Make sure to include the necessary information to maximize attendance. Once you’ve built out your event locations, check the appropriate options for this group to make them available options in the next step. See the image below.

 

 

3. Event Types

In addition to the default types available, you can create custom event options which include:

  • Where the event/meeting is being hosted (event location)

  • The time slot duration for each time slot

  • Max attendees per time slot appointment

  • Activating automatic event reminders to groups of people

  • Custom coloring for personal reference

  • What information to display on your GreenRope hosted website

 

 

Some additional options can be found in the remaining tabs of this Calendar Settings page. Within the “Upload” tab you can select your .ics file from your external calendar to import time slots. Build out multiple events within the “Add” section, or “Export” the calendar options from this Calendar Settings page as well. Now that you’ve built out or uploaded the calendar setting defaults, it’s time to build out your actual time slots available.

 

4. Building Out Your Time Slots

Hover over the main “Calendar” heading in the navigation bar and select the new “Booking” option available. Within this Booking / Appointment Calendar page, the Time Zone reference is along the top-right, but can be adjusted within the account or group settings page. The default view is set to Monthly, unless otherwise specified in the settings area.

 

 

Click on any calendar day to create a new time slot, then specify the appointment details. For example, how often do you want this appointment to occur for - today only, next few days, weeks, etc. Specify the start/end times and assign an event type for this time slot.

Each time slot can include additional “Comments” for your clients to know before selecting the time slot. Also once the time slot has been confirmed/approved, you can provide any additional “Description/Instructions” to help clients prepare for the upcoming appointment. Customize your branding in these fields by including branded logos, images, or hyperlinks to additional resources.

 

 

To view the appointment time slot on your calendar, click ‘Save and Close.’ Continue this process for the remaining time slots you wish to create, or copy the time slot over to duplicate.

Below is what the client will see once your calendar is live on your site or you’ve shared the custom link with them. This is booking calendar currently set to “List View,” which only shows the available time slots to select from. The default options for time zone and calendar view will display on your site, but also be adjusted by the user on your calendar as well.

 

 

Whether your business is service or product based, great customer experience comes with a high level of support and accessibility to your team. A Booking Calendar can help simplify and streamline connectivity both internally among your team and externally between you and your clients. To learn more visit the Help section, reach out to our support team, or watch our webinar on Creating Your Booking Calendar today!

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