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Appointments Overview

The ProfitSystem® offers appointment management that is very flexible and can handle almost any appointment booking scenario.

Setting appointments is equivalent to reserving time for a specific date/time to insure there are adequate employees or resources to handle the customer demand. The use of appointments has another benefit in that the process commits a customer to a visit to the store, thus, hopefully, increasing sales.

The shop decides the types of appointments that will be accepted. Some stores accept appointments for ANY sales consultation, i.e Bridal, Prom, Bridesmaid Tuxedo, Alterations .. etc., while others only accept appointments for Bridal. It does not matter what your appointment strategy is, the BBL Appointment management module can be set to accommodate.

Customers may even request appointments via a shop's website thru the BBL Cloud form feature. Those requests automatically are received in ProfitSystem, like email, where they may be processed and confirmed.

For multiple store installations it is important to note that schedules and appointments are store SPECIFIC. What a user sees for schedules and appointments are determined by the store of the assigned Register the user is currently logged in as. Example, A user must be logged into a Register assigned to store 1 to see schedules and appointments for store 1. This is the same for store 2, etc.

Multi-store tip: SA/Resources are not assigned to stores. They could float between stores. The schedule determines the specific store availability. Schedules are store specific.

Appointments may be booked by any one of the following ways: * By Time slot * By Sales associate * By Resource (example: Dressing Room)

It is important to for the store to make the decision on how it will book appointments early, as the setup is dictated by the decision. An ideal approach is to write down how appointments will be managed in the store, then adjust the Appointment module setup to accommodate.

Appointments may be created from the Appointment Dashboard, Prospect form, Customer form, Event Members tab and Custom fitting module.

A availability schedule must be created by day of week. The schedule can be assigned to either Sales associates or Resources. Assign a schedule to either or both. Booking by SA? Then each Sales associate taking appointments must have a schedule for system to know when each is working and taking specific appointment types. Booking by Dressing Room (Resource)? Each room must have a schedule. indicating when open for appointments. Booking by Time slot? Then either the SA or Resource needs a schedule, and once set, the book by times slot option is available.

A shop may book by Resource (dressing room) or Time slot. Then assign a Sales Associate to the customer appointment when they arrive. This allows store staff to see where the customer is in store. Assigning Resources (Rooms) to appointments allow for other functions, such as the use of a tablet to display customer names above the Dressing Room assigned.

The Appointment Skill is a feature to limit the kind of work (job tasks) Sales Associates are qualified to do or the type appointment accepted within a dressing room. The same concept applies to Resources (Rooms). Skills indicate what tasks can be handled within the room.

Using the Appointments Module

The basic workflow to use the appointment module, once the system is setup & ready, is: 1. Click Add on the Appointment form (accessible from multiple locations in system) 2. On the Add Appointment form, select the requested appointment date.
3. Then select the Appointment type. 4. If that appointment type can be booked via SA or Resource, select either SA or Resource. 5. Click Find Appointments 6. On the Appointments Available by SA/Resource, double-click the time for the appointment. 7. You will be prompted for the phone/email of the customer to search if the customer is already on file. 8. The appointment is created and displayed. Fill out the customer name, address, etc and click Save. 9. When the customer arrives, locate the appointment via the Appointment form and click Appointment Started. 10. When the appointment is complete, locate the appointment via the Appointment form and click Appointment Complete. 11. You will be prompted to create a Prospect record for the appointment. Select Yes and fill out any additional prospect details. If the customer is purchasing and is a bride or groom, click Create Event on the Prospect form then create the ticket from the Member tab of the Event form. If the customer is not part of an event, click Create Customer on the Prospect form and then use New Ticket on the Customer details tab to ring up the sale.

Setup

To begin utilizing the BBL Appointment module several set-up steps are required.

Several easy setup steps must be completed to prepare the Appointment module to accept appointments.

  1. Add Appointment Skills (Skills or Groupings - limits the kind of appointments that can be accepted by a specific SA or Resource [Dressing Room], examples: Bridal CONSULTATION vs Bridal FITTING)
  2. Add Sales Associates (SA)
  3. Add Resources (example:. Dressing room) (optional to use)
  4. Add Schedules for SAs or Resources
  5. Add Appointment Types (The kind of tasks the shop would like to reserve SA time or Resource space for)
  6. Optionally create additional new Availability codes, Appointment Scripts/alerts. Skill Rankings

The simplest setup is all store employees can perform any task in any room during business hours. In this scenario. The store will book appointments by Resource (Room). There would be one Skill, example AT=Any Task, which is created & assigned to all store employees - called Sales Associates once added to system. Then add a Resource representing each dressing room, with the schedule for each being the hours the store is open. Add the AT skill to each Resource. Now the system is ready for accepting appointments.

The setup steps are in this order:

  1. Create Skills: Skills indicate to the system what the Resource/SA can do. For example, Sales Associates or Resource skills might include a) BRIDAL FIRST (accept a first visit Bridal Consultation), or b) BM (the Sales Associate or Resource can accept bridesmaid consultations).
  2. Create the Resources & apply skills,: Appointments can be booked/reserved against Resources or Sales associates. Resources are usually dressing rooms. Resources are created using the Resources form. Sales associates are created using the SA form. Resources have Skills, which are the same as Skills for Sales associates. A Resource may have multiple skills assigned. The first skill entered for the Resource will be their primary Skill. Appointment types, when created will have the Skills assigned that will allow the Resource or SA with matching skills to be booked for that appointment type. When the Resource or Sales Associate has the same skill as required by the Appointment type, then the Resource or SA may be reserved to the appointment when created
  3. Add Sales Associates & apply Skills: Appointment types require specific skills to be performed. Each SA can have one or more skills. If a SA has the skill that is required for an appointment type, then that SA can be booked for that appointment. Go to the Employee to set one or more skills that each SA has.
  4. Set Appointment types & apply skills: For example, you might have an appointment type FIRSTVST or BM. Then, for each appointment type, you specify the employee skills needed to perform that appointment. For our example here, the FIRSTVST appointment type would requite the FIRSTVST skill.
  5. Availability Codes: (Optional). ProfitSystem© offers several standard codes. Create the availability codes and assign it a specific color.
  6. Resource orSA schedule: Input the availability schedule for each employee/resource, indicating at what times they are available . This setup is for each day of the week (Sunday – Saturday) for each SA or Resource.
  7. Resource/SA Exception Schedule: A Resource/SA may be unavailable for specific future date, i.e. vacation, sick day, construction ..etc. These exceptions to the standard work schedule must be entered for each.
  8. Appointment Alerts/Scripts (optional): This is an optional step. The creation of an appointment can cause the Alert/Script message to display for the time frame of the Alert/Script. Only one Alert/Script may be active.
  9. Skill Rankings (optional): This step is optional for single store installations & is not supported in Multi-Store installations. This provides the capability to rank each employee for each skill. Like a batting order, when an employee lookup list is provided for assigning an appointment to the SA/Resource, the list will be sorted in order of the Skill ranking of the skill to fulfill the appointment type being scheduled. Those ranked higher & available will be at the top of the list. (not available with the optional multi-store module)

Once the steps are completed appointments may be created. Click the View/Edit Appointments function, then Add appointment. Enter/Select a date and Appointment Type. ProfitSystem® can then display the Resource/SAs that are available and have the skills for the appointment type entered, OR show you how many “time slots” you have available, based on the number of employees that are working and have the skills for the appointment.

If an appointment is changed after it has been created, the changes are logged in the system log, under APPTEDIT.

Appointment edits of SA assigned by default require a Username/Password to identify the person performing the edit for the logging and to appear on the appointment's Extra Tab. This user request requirement may be toggled on/off via the System Setup -> General / Timclock tab -> Prompt for SA when appointment changed? The following function Buttons are common to all forms of the View/Edit Appointment dashboard and affect the selected/displayed appointment.

Appointment Button functions

Rebook... Used to rebook and existing appointment. This will change the status of the current appointment to Rebook, make the time available again for another appointment and display the Add Appointments form to create/book a new appointment. The appointment details of the selected appointment (customer info, appointment type, etc.) will be carried over to the new appointment automatically.

Page... Used to send a page via an in-house paging system that may be supplied by BBL. Requires that the PageLink software is configured and running on your pager server computer, and that ProfitSystem® is correctly configured with the Pager path in System/Store Setup. When you click this button there are three menu options.

  • Page SA: Prompts you for the message text, then sends a page to the SA specified in the Appt With field.
  • Assign Pager to Cust: Prompts you for the pager ID of a pager that you will give to the customer. The pager ID is then stored with the appointment.
  • Page Cust: Prompts you for the message text, then sends a page to the customer.

No-Show... Marks the selected not COMPLETED appointment as a No Show. The appointment status must be NEW or CONFIRMED before it may be tagged as a no show.

Arrived and Waiting... Press this when the customer arrives for their appointment. Sets the appointment status to Waiting and inserts the current time into the Arrived field. This step is important because ProfitSystem® uses these statuses to track how effective your SA’s are and how well your appointments are going.

Appointment Started... Press this when the appointment starts. Sets the appointment status to Started and inserts the current time into the Started field.

Appointment Complete... Press this when the appointment is completed. Sets the appointment status to Complete and inserts the current time into the Completed field. This step is very important because ProfitSystem® will then automatically create a prospect card for this customer if one does not already exist. Enable General Setup-> System Setup-> General / Time clock tab -> Require Prospect on Appointment when Complete to have a prospect auto created when appointment is marked Complete.

Customer Walkout... Press this if the customer leaves before the appointment starts. Sets the appointment status to Walkout.

Appointment Confirmed... Used if you have called the customer to confirm the appointment. Sets the appointment status to Confirmed and inserts the current date / time into the Confirmed field. The status change to CONFIRMED is a automation trigger which may be set to send a email/SMS/Phone to the customer.

Appointment Canceled... Used if customer has canceled the appointment (not re-booked it) Sets the appointment status to Canceled and inserts the current date / time into the Canceled field.

Add... Displays the Add Appointment form to select an appointment date/time, appointment type and optionally a Sales Associate.

Add Walk-In Customer... Creates an appointment for a walk-in customer. The appointment time is set to the current time, and the status is set to Waiting. The Waiting status is highlighted on the Appointment list if they are a Walk-In. Once you give that customer to a SA, click the Appointment Started button.

Add Same Customer... Creates a new appointment for the selected/displayed appointment and carries over the customer name, address, etc. to the new appointment.

Print... Clicking this function button will display a menu of additional options.

Report... Prints a worksheet recapping the appointment details on a single page for the highlighted appointment.

SMS Bride... With the optional eMail marketing enabled a SMS/text message may be sent to the customer contained within bride section of the appointment details tab. For this to work the email marketing option must be activated and the customer's cell phone provider and cell phone number must be completed on the appointment form.

SMS Groom... With the optional eMail marketing enabled a SMS/text message may be sent to the customer contained within groom section of the appointment details tab. For this to work the email marketing option must be activated and the customer's cell phone provider and cell phone number must be completed on the appointment form.

Email both... Send a email to the email addresses entered on the appointment for both the bride and groom. When selected the system will look for email appointment email templates created in the letters/tags/mail label module of the program.

Note: utilizing the Marketing Automation , appointment reminders may be automatically sent to the customer.