Short answer
First describe the booking rules: services and their duration, staff schedules, resources, cancellation and payment terms. Then decide whether an off-the-shelf platform will do or you need a custom system, and connect it with your website, payments, calendars and accounting.
1. Rules
- Which services, how long they last, and do you need breaks between them?
- Who provides the service — a specific employee, any available one, a room or a piece of equipment?
- Working hours, days off, branches.
- Cancellations, late arrivals, prepayment.
2. The customer journey
How many steps does it take a customer to book? In a good system: service → time → contact details → confirmation. On a phone it has to be just as easy as on a computer.
3. The staff side
Schedule, customer list, notes, the ability to move appointments quickly, an overview of capacity.
4. Integrations
- Payments — see how to add online payments.
- Calendars (Google, Outlook).
- SMS and e-mail reminders.
- CRM and accounting.
Complex bookings
The Aerodium system we built serves wind tunnels in several countries with different taxes, currencies, time zones and payment methods, and customers can also buy gift cards and the video of their flight. In cases like this a custom system is the only way to bring everything together in one place.
