What is the Appointment Service?

Appointment scheduling is a feature that allows customers to book appointments with PROs at designated times. Once enabled, consumers can view your available time slots on your PRO profile and directly request an appointment, allowing customers to proactively reach out to you and significantly improve order efficiency and conversion rates.

This article will guide you through appointment scheduling, enabling you to make the most of this feature and quickly generate more leads.

Outline
1. What are the benefits of appointment service feature?
2. How does appointment service work?
3. How to enable appointment service?
4. How to view successfully booked tasks?
5. How are appointment service charged?
6. What do I need to prepare before enabling the appointment service?
7. How can I get more customer bookings?
8. Booking vs. Successful Deals

1. What are the benefits of the appointment service feature?

• More effective lead generation: Customers have already viewed your profile and proactively requested appointments, increasing the chances of conversion.

• Improved communication efficiency: Eliminates the need for PROs to initiate contact for quoting.

• More precise matching: Tasks need to align with your job scope and location requirements and fit within your available time slots.

2. How does appointment service work?

Once you activate the appointment service feature, consumers can view your available time slots from your PRO profile and select a suitable time to book an appointment with you.

(1) Consumers can access the "Available Booking Dates" through your PRO profile.

(2) Consumers can directly select an available time slot for booking.

The system will display your set "Service Hours" and the available time slots on your calendar, providing consumers with a clear view of the time slots you can serve.

(3) What are the conditions for customers to book an appointment with me?

• • The appointment time must fall within the available time slots defined by your "Service Hours" and calendar.

  • The task must fully comply with your set job scope and location requirements.

  • If some conditions are not met, you will still receive a "New Lead" notification, but you can decide whether to accept the appointment after reviewing the task details.

(4) Direct communication upon receiving an appointment eliminates the need to quote before contacting the customer.

Once a customer books an appointment with you, you can immediately access their information and start communicating with them. The customer must fully meet all your conditions, simplifying the process of accepting tasks.

3. How to enable appointment service?

Go to Project Management -> Select the project for which you want to enable appointment scheduling -> Click on the Enable button to activate the feature (the system will guide you through the necessary setup if it's your first time enabling it).

4. How to view successfully booked tasks?

When customers book a time slot that meets your criteria, the booking will appear in your calendar as a new appointment. You can view the booked task in the following two ways:

(1) Work Messages:

Successfully booked tasks will be displayed in your work messages. You can find the details of the appointment time at the top of the chat room for the respective task and directly discuss service details with the customer. This allows you to communicate with the customer without going through the quoting process, making it more convenient and efficient.

(2) Calendar:

Booked tasks will be displayed with a blue background in your calendar. By clicking on "View My Bookings," you can see the tasks that have been successfully booked by customers through the appointment service. In the calendar, you can easily manage your schedule.

5. How are appointment services charged?

(1) Charges for Successful Bookings:

When a customer successfully books your service, you gain direct access to their contact information, and the system will charge you for the contact fee. You can see the contact fee for each task in the "Budget" section. Please refer to: How to view contact fees for different projects.

Payment is primarily deducted from your stored credits. If your credits are insufficient, the system will charge your credit card.

(2) Confirmation Required for Partially Matching Tasks:

If a booked task does not fully match your work criteria and location, you will still receive a "New Lead" notification. You must confirm the task details before accepting the booking and incurring charges.

(3) Control Spending through Budget Settings:

You can set a weekly spending limit in the "Budget" section. The appointment feature will automatically stop when the booking cost reaches the limit. For more details, please refer to the FAQs on promoting services.

6. What do I need to prepare before enabling the appointment service?

To avoid incurring contact fees from unsuitable customer bookings, please ensure the following settings in project management:

(1) Service Hours and Calendar:

You must set your "Service Hours" to determine when to provide services and use the "Calendar" feature to block out busy periods. Successful bookings will also be automatically displayed in the calendar to prevent customers from booking during your unavailable times, thus reducing wasted contact fees.

Additionally, in the "Other Settings" of service hours, you can specify the maximum number of customers you can serve simultaneously during a specific time slot. If the number of bookings reaches the limit, that time slot will no longer be available for direct booking. For more information on service hours and the calendar feature, please refer to: What are service hours and the calendar?

(2) Service Mode and Coverage Area:

You can specify your service mode (e.g., online-only) and the areas where you provide services.

(3) Work Conditions:

Setting the work conditions for tasks you prefer to undertake is recommended to avoid unnecessary contact fees. Additionally, since consumer needs vary greatly, it is sometimes impossible to cover all requirements in the questionnaire. In such cases, consumers can select an "Other" option. If you are uncertain about accepting certain service requests, it is advised to uncheck the "Other" option.

7. How can I get more customer bookings?

(1) Set Up Pricing:

Customers tend to prefer PROs who have set prices for their services. Therefore, filling in project pricing with a pricing table is recommended. This will increase your competitiveness compared to PROs who only display "Price to be discussed" and help attract more customers. For detailed setup instructions, please refer to How to set up a pricing table?

(2) Optimize Service Descriptions and PRO Profiles:

Service descriptions and PRO profiles are important references for customers before booking. It is recommended to provide more detailed information about your services and pricing in the "Service Description" section to increase customer trust and reduce inquiries from customers who may not accept the price.

Your PRO profile is also crucial as it represents your promise. Providing rich content, such as explaining your experience and achievements, uploading service photos, and filling out FAQs, is recommended. This helps establish a professional and enthusiastic image, increasing customer satisfaction and their likelihood of choosing to work with you.

For more information on how to use service descriptions and optimize PRO profiles, please refer to the relevant articles: "How to use service descriptions?" and "PRO profile explanation".

8. Booking vs. Successful Deals:

So, as you know, a booked appointment does not guarantee a successful deal. Customers may book an appointment to discuss, trial, or measure services, and the actual service details will be determined through mutual discussions. The appointment service feature on the platform aims to reduce communication costs and facilitate smooth task matching, but it does not guarantee successful deals. However, when a customer directly books with you, it indicates a high level of interest in your service and the probability of a successful deal. Please do not miss this opportunity!