Systems we build and run
Bespoke booking and reservation systems
Appointments, hire items, rooms, courses and collections booked online against what is really free, with the deposit taken, the forms signed and the reminder sent. Every booking lands on the customer's record and in the office diary, built around the way your business takes work in.
What it is, and where it fits
Where this kind of system fits
- Clinics, salons and treatment rooms
- Wedding and function venues
- Plant, tool and equipment hire
- Training providers and course rooms
- Service firms booking visits and collections
A booking system is the diary your customers can see into. It knows who and what is free, what each kind of booking needs, and what has to happen before and after it, so the office starts each day with bookings that are ready rather than bookings to chase.
What gets booked differs from firm to firm. A clinic books a practitioner and a room for forty-five minutes. A hire firm books a machine for a week and a delivery slot to get it there. A venue books a date, a space and a head count months ahead. A training provider books twelve places on a course. The system is built for the way your bookings actually work, not bent to fit somebody else's.
A first version might be online booking for one service, live in weeks. Over time it can take on deposits, consent forms, waiting lists, packages and courses, each added when it is wanted.
The places it is built for
The idea is the same everywhere. What changes is what is being booked, what it depends on, and what has to be in place before the day.
Clinics and salonsPractitioners, rooms and equipment booked together, with medical forms, consent and patch tests in place first.
Venues and function roomsDates and spaces held, provisional bookings that lapse, deposits and stage payments, and numbers confirmed nearer the day.
Hire and collectionsMachines, skips and tools booked against what is actually back in the yard, with delivery and collection slots on the run sheet.
Training and coursesPlaces on a date, a minimum number to run, joining instructions sent, attendance recorded and certificates issued afterwards.
More on how this looks for aesthetics, salons and clinics, wedding and function venues and plant, tool and welfare hire.
What it usually grew out of
Most booking diaries start with somebody who knows it inside out. They know which room has the right equipment, which customers need a form before they come in, and which slot to keep back for the regulars. Bookings come in by phone, email and message, and they fit them all in.
A booking system puts that knowledge into the rules, so a customer booking at ten at night gets the same careful answer, and the person who knew it all can spend the day on the customers in front of them. Wanting bookings in without the back and forth is reason enough.
- Your rules, written in. Buffer times, who can do what, how far ahead people can book, what needs a deposit and what doesn't.
- One diary, not three. Online, phone and walk-in bookings all land in the same place, so nothing gets double booked.
- The history comes with it. Existing customers and future bookings are loaded in, so the first day already looks like your diary.
What goes into a booking system
These are the parts most booking systems end up with. Yours has the ones your bookings actually need, named the way you say them.
| What can be booked | Services, appointments, hire items, rooms, courses, delivery and collection slots, each with its own length, price, capacity and the questions it needs asking. |
|---|---|
| Live availability | Worked out from staff hours, rooms, equipment, stock in the yard and places left, so only times that can really happen are offered. |
| Deposits and payments | Deposits, full payment or stage payments taken through a card payment provider, with refunds and cancellation terms handled the way you set them. |
| Forms up front | Medical questions, consent, hire terms, delivery details or dietary needs captured at the time of booking and signed on screen. |
| Reminders | Confirmation, reminder and follow-up by text and email, timed to suit each kind of booking, with replies landing back on the record. |
| Changes by the customer | Moving or cancelling their own booking within the rules you set, with the freed slot offered straight to the waiting list. |
| The office diary | Day, week and month views by person, room or resource, with drag to move, notes, blocked time and the day's numbers at the top. |
| The customer record | Every booking, payment, form and message kept against the customer, so the next booking starts from what you already know. |
What it does
Only offers what is really free
Availability comes from the people, rooms and equipment it depends on, so a booking made online is one the business can keep.
Takes the deposit at the time
The booking and the payment arrive together, so a slot held is a slot paid for, and the takings match the diary.
Gets the paperwork done first
Forms and consent signed before the day, with anything missing flagged on the diary rather than discovered at the desk.
Reminds people for you
Texts and emails at the times that work for your bookings, sent from the record, so fewer people forget and more people rebook.
Fills cancellations from a waiting list
When a slot frees up, the people waiting for one like it are matched and offered it, with one click from the office or automatically.
Handles packages and courses
A course of six treatments, a three-day training course or a hire with a delivery and a collection, kept together as one booking.
Feeds the rest of the business
A confirmed booking can become a job, a run sheet entry, a stock reservation or an invoice, without anybody typing it twice.
Shows what is working
Where bookings come from, how full each person and room is, how many people do not turn up, and which services people come back for.
Reminders, confirmations and replies run through customer messaging, and the forms through forms and e-signatures. A booking system is often one part of one joined-up business system, sharing its customers, diary and figures with the rest. The other parts are on the services page.
Booking on their phone, at a time that suits them
Most online bookings are made on a phone, often in the evening. The booking pages carry your name and branding and ask only what that kind of booking needs.
- Real times, nothing to wait for. The customer sees the times that are actually free and books one, rather than sending a request and hoping.
- The right questions for the booking. A first visit asks for the medical form, a hire asks for the site address, a course asks who is coming.
- Moving it is easy too. A link in every reminder lets them move or cancel within your rules, and the slot goes straight back on offer.
- A waiting list when it is full. They say what they would take, and get a text when something frees up.
A day with a booking system running
A clinic with four treatment rooms and a training room, as an example. Every one of these steps is set up to suit the business, and changed from the admin screen rather than by asking us.
- Mon
Booked on Monday evening
A new customer books a consultation for Thursday on their phone, pays the deposit and fills in the medical form. It is on the diary with everything ticked.
- 08:30
The day, ready
The office opens the diary. Two forms are still unsigned, both flagged, and the customers have had a reminder with the link.
- 10:05
A cancellation, filled
A customer moves their afternoon booking to next week from the link in their reminder. The freed slot is matched to the waiting list and offered.
- 10:20
Taken in fifteen minutes
Somebody on the waiting list accepts the slot by text. The diary updates, the deposit is taken and the practitioner sees the change.
- 14:30
Checked in at the desk
The new customer arrives. The form, consent and deposit are already on their record, so check-in is one click and the visit starts on time.
- 17:30
Rebooked before they leave
Follow-ups are booked at the desk and the evening's reminders go out on their own. The owner sees the day's bookings, takings and no-shows on one screen.
How it gets built, and how it gets run
| Fixed price | Scope, price and dates in writing before anything starts, with what isn't included written as plainly as what is. It doesn't move because the job turned out harder than we thought. |
|---|---|
| Timescale | A first booking system is weeks rather than months, and it usually starts with the bookings you take most, with the rest added after. |
| Moving over | Customers and future bookings are brought across before the switch, and the old diary can run alongside for a short while until everybody is happy. |
| Payments | Card payments go through a recognised payment provider in your name, so the money goes straight to your account and card details never sit on our servers. |
| Security | Customer sign-ins by link and code, staff logins with their own permissions, and a record of who changed what. Built by a Cyber Essentials certified firm. |
| Hosted in the UK | UK infrastructure, backed up nightly to somewhere that isn't the machine running it, kept thirty days, and checked every few minutes that it's up and answering. |
| Changes | A new service, a different reminder, another question on the form. What that covers is agreed at the start, so nobody works it out on the day. |
Free Business Systems Assessment
An hour with whoever runs the day to day. Clear recommendations to act on.
We look at how the work actually runs and what it runs on, then send you a list of what we would change, what each change would do for the business, and what it would take. In person or online, whichever suits you. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- One hour
- In person or online
- Recommendations we talk you through
Honest answers
- There are ready-made booking apps. Why build one?
- For plenty of firms a ready-made app is the right answer, and we will say so. Bespoke earns its place when bookings depend on things a general app can't see, such as equipment in the yard, rooms with particular kit or forms that must be signed first, or when the booking needs to flow into the rest of your system rather than sit beside it.
- Can customers still ring to book?
- Yes. The office books into the same diary, so phone, online and walk-in bookings all follow the same rules and none of them clash.
- Will deposits cut down on no-shows?
- Deposits and reminders usually help. You decide which bookings need a deposit, how much, and what happens to it if somebody cancels late.
- Can it go on our existing website?
- Yes. The booking pages sit behind a button or link on your site, or on their own address with your branding, whichever suits.
- We book people and equipment together. Can it handle that?
- Yes. That is one of the main reasons to build rather than buy. A slot is only offered when everything it needs is free at the same time.
- Does it connect to our accounts?
- Yes. Payments and invoices can pass to your accounts package so nobody keys them in twice. More on joining up your systems.
- What happens to our data if we stop?
- It is yours. You can export everything at any time, and if you ever leave, we hand it over in a form another system can read.
Talk to us
Tell us what gets booked, what it depends on, and what has to happen before the day. That's usually enough for us to say whether we can help.
Ring, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, or use the form below. Pick what you'd like to keep track of, add a line if you want to, and leave a name and a way to reach you.