Bookings: Defining your Service Offerings

Summary

This article describes how to create service details, assigning staff members to services, set publishing and scheduling policy options, adding online meeting option to bookings, setting up group bookings, and setting up text message notifications.

Content

When you define your service offerings in Microsoft Bookings, you set, among other things, a service name, description, location (choose whether you want to meet in person or have an online meeting), duration, default reminders to customers and staff, internal notes about the service, and pricing. You can also tag the employees who are qualified to provide the service. Then, when customers come to your business web site to book an appointment, they can see exactly what types of appointments are available, choose the person they want to provide the service, and how much their service will cost.

You can now add customized information and URLs to the email confirmation and reminders that you send when someone books a service through your booking page.

Create the service details

1. In Office 365, select the app launcher, and then select Bookings.

2. In the navigation pane, select Services > Add a service.

3. Enter the service details including name, description, and location. When you start typing an address in Default location, Bing will suggest locations for you.

4. Enter the duration required for the service. You can enter how long you want the duration to last in days, house and minutes, and set a buffer time when customers can't book.

5. Select the price model. For Fixed price, Starting at, and Hourly, you'll be asked to specify a price.

6. Under Price and payments, set the default price for the service.

7. Enter additional notes and reminder information.

8. Select Save.

Assign a staff member to the service

When assigning staff, think about whether the service requires advanced training or special certifications. If so, only assign the staff members who hold those credentials. If the staff member you want to assign isn't in the list, you'll have to go to the Staff page to add them. See Create your staff list for more information.

1. On the Services page, select those employees who are qualified to provide this service. You can select one or more. Selected employees have a check mark next to their names.

   

2. Select Save.

Set publishing and scheduling policy options

By default, your service details and staff assignments will be posted to the booking page on your web site as soon as you select Save. Also, the scheduling policies you set will be applied by default to the service you created. If you don't want to accept these defaults, follow these steps.

1. On the Services page, under Publishing options, clear the checkboxes next to Show this service on the booking page and/or Use the default scheduling policy.

2. Set the scheduling policies for this service. For more information about scheduling policies, see Set your scheduling policies.

3. Select Save.

Add online meeting option to bookings

Note: This feature is still rolling out and might not be available in your organization yet. For more info, check out When do I get the newest features in for Office 365?.

You can set up your services with an online meeting option. When you or a customer creates a new booking, or updates an existing booking, you have the option to make it an online appointment, using Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business.

1. On the Services page, select the toggle to turn on online meetings.

2. Select Save.

Once you select Add online meeting, all your staff members who have a Teams license or Skype for Business license will be enabled for this service. If your staff don't have a Teams license or Skype for Business license, they can't be assigned to this service when a customer tries to book. 

Important: Your customer doesn't have to have a Teams license or Skype for Business license. They also don't need to have Teams or Skype for Business installed. Once they click on the link to join the online meeting, they'll be able to use Teams and Skype for Business through their browser.

Group bookings

Note: This feature is still rolling out and might not be available in your organization yet. For more info, check out When do I get the newest features in for Office 365?.

Group bookings lets you to set up service appointments where multiple people can join a session with a single staff member. You can use group bookings to schedule conferences, lectures or training sessions with several people at the same time.

1. On the Services page, under Maximum number of attendees, enter the number of people who can attend this event. Once you set the maximum number, the attendee list can't exceed the number you set. By default, this field is blank.

2. Select Save.

Once you've set up the appointment on your calendar, you can add users to the service and send them an email invite.

Text message notifications

Note: This feature is only available in North America in preview. For more info, check out When do I get the newest features in for Office 365?.

You can now set up your services with text notifications. When your customer creates a new booking or updates an existing booking on such service, they will have the option to receive reminder text messages.

Your customer will have to agree to getting text messages on the self service page before they can receive them. 

1. On the Services page, under Reminders and Confirmations, select Enable text message notifications for your customers.

2. Select Save.

Need Additional Help?

Please fill out the Microsoft 365 Support webform with as much detail as possible, or contact the ET&S Help Desk team on your local campus.