Introducing online booking sounds like a project. Done in the right order, it is one week of work. This guide covers what to offer online, where the booking link belongs, how to bring regulars along without losing anyone, and which numbers to read after four weeks. It applies to any online booking software, not only terminio.
What to offer online, and what to leave out
The first mistake happens before the first click: businesses put everything online they can do. Eighteen services, three variants each, every one with its own price. But the customer on a phone wants to decide in thirty seconds. Take your list and cut everything booked less than once a week. What remains is usually six to ten services. The rest stays bookable by phone or comes later.
Each service needs three things: a duration, a price, and who does it. The duration is the real time in the chair or on the table, not the hopeful one. Add a buffer for cleaning up and greeting the next person, usually five to fifteen minutes. Skip the buffer and the third online appointment of the day starts a queue in your waiting area.
Then decide who can be booked. Not everyone on the team has to be online from day one. Someone new, or someone who only does certain services, can join later. Customers like to pick the person they know, so names and photos belong on the page.
- Cut services that are booked less than once a week
- Enter the real duration plus a buffer, not the optimistic duration
- Show the price, even if it starts with 'from'
- Only make people bookable who have fixed working hours
- Keep services that need a consultation on the phone for now
Introduce online booking: the seven-day plan
One week is enough if you do exactly one thing per day. The catalogue comes first, the promotion last. Share the link before prices and hours are right and you burn the first wave of attention. With terminio the page itself is live in minutes, and you pick theme and colour later. The week is for your content and your team.
Keep the weekend for a test run. Book yourself from a phone, ideally one that has never seen your page. Watch three things: Can you find the service without scrolling? Does the free slot shown match your calendar? Does the confirmation arrive? Only when all three answers are yes does the link go out.
- Monday: set services, durations, buffers and prices
- Tuesday: take photos, write a one-sentence description per service
- Wednesday: enter opening hours, breaks, holidays and blocked times
- Thursday: add the team, test confirmation and reminder
- Friday: put the link in Google, the Instagram bio and the website
- Weekend: book yourself, fix what breaks, then tell your regulars
Where the booking link belongs
A link nobody finds brings no bookings. Most new customers arrive through Google. There the link goes into your Business Profile, in the appointment field, not just in the description. On Instagram it lives in the bio and in every story where you show free slots. On the website it needs a button at the top right, on every page, not only the home page.
The second group is people who already know you. For them, the places they are anyway count: the receipt with a QR code, a sign at the counter, the voicemail message when you cannot pick up. Someone who calls and gets no answer hears the link and books, instead of calling the next business down the road.
- Google Business Profile: link in the appointment field
- Instagram bio and story sticker with the link
- Website: a button on every page, visible without scrolling
- Voicemail message with the short address of your page
- QR code at the counter and on the receipt
- WhatsApp status and a signature under every message
Offer online booking without losing your regulars
Regulars have a habit, and the habit is calling. Do not take it away. In the first month both ways run: whoever calls gets their appointment as always and hears one sentence at the end. Whoever books online notices it is faster. After four weeks most have switched, without you pushing anyone.
The sentence has to be short, because you will say it a hundred times: 'Next time you can also book online, the link is on your receipt.' No speech about benefits. Anyone who opens the page once sees for themselves that they can book at ten in the evening and need no app and no account for it.
Two more things help. First, enter the appointments you give on the phone into the same calendar, so online shows only real free slots. Second, send the confirmation or reminder by WhatsApp after the visit, because the link is in it, and the next appointment is one tap away.
Which numbers count after four weeks
After four weeks you have enough bookings to read three numbers. The first is the share of online bookings among all appointments. Below a fifth, the link is too hidden or the catalogue too complicated. Above half, you can start taking load off the phone.
The second number is bookings outside your opening hours: evenings, Sundays, the lunch break. These are appointments nobody could have given before. Depending on the trade, that is often a sizeable part of all online bookings, and exactly these appointments show why the switch pays off.
The third number is no-shows. Appointments booked online with a confirmation and a reminder are generally forgotten less often than ones that only sit in the book. Compare the rate before and after the launch. If it does not fall, what is usually missing is the reminder the day before, not the booking page.
Why online booking for small business stalls
The page is live, but nobody books. Almost always it is one of three reasons. Too many services: the customer cannot find theirs and calls. No photos: without a picture every service looks the same, and price becomes the only difference. A hidden link: it sits on the website under Contact but not in the Google profile, where people actually look.
The fourth reason is quieter: the calendar is wrong. If slots show as free online that you gave away long ago, you have to cancel, and that customer never books online again. So every appointment goes into the same calendar, however it comes in. Good online booking software shows only real gaps, without you maintaining anything by hand.
- More than ten services on the first view of your booking page
- Services without a photo, price or duration
- Link only on the website, not in the Google profile
- Phone appointments that do not land in the same calendar
- No reminder the day before
