I am in the process of building a new courier company in The UK, particularly for the take away sector. The customer would book an appointment for our couriers to go and fetch their take out once their meal is ready. I have outlined the main features we are looking to implement regarding this booking feature, which is imperative to the website. I do have a web development team working with me on this business, I also want to research jointly to see if Woo Booking can support our requirements of our booking feature. I would appreciate a detailed reply on how Amelia can assist.
1) Booking Visual.
1a) Instead of a full day by day monthly calendar on most booking appointment systems. We would require a two day calendar. 'Today, Tomorrow". I think this would be simpler for our customers to use. See image attached to this email titled "booking visual idea". The Tomorrow part would be in the drop down above the "today" option.
1b) In the time slot allocation we are looking at 20 minute intervals set at :00-:20 & :40 on the minute and this would be every hour from 10am to 10pm daily, every day. The 20 minute intervals give our couriers a window to pick up the customer's purchase, effectively at the end of the 20 minute window is the time to collect said purchase.
2) Booking Back Office:
2a) for every :20 minute booking we can change the amount of couriers available for each 20 minute time slot. For example: if we have 20 couriers available for 18:20hrs we can adjust the back office to have 20 couriers. This would also apply for off-peak couriers where only one courier is available for 06:00hrs, therefore making only one courier available for this one time 20 minute time slot... I have seen booking calendars where a yoga class has a class for a specific amount of delegates and it manages the time even so there is not a process of being oversold.
2b) Each courier can be scheduled for one delivery per customer. When we are very quiet and only have one courier we need to be able not to over book this courier. Also, when we are very busy we can have 20+ couriers, so we would need some kind of system which can allow one booking system which can cater for one courier per 20 minute slot then during busy periods be updated to 20+ couriers per 20 minute slot.
Overbooking Prevention:
3) *not important* Traffic light system. Green for availability. Yellow for Limited availability. Red for fully booked. So, when the customer looks at the 20 minute intervals they can see on the scroll down minute option 20 minute slots available. For example: If 09:00hrs had one courier appointed for this time, the time slot would be red as in to suggest this allocation at a quick glance is fully booked. However, 09:00 has 6 couriers available and only three couriers have jobs for this period which would change the colour background on the time slot to be amber. For 09:40 as an example we have ten couriers free and no jobs in this time-frame, which would give the background of said time-frame to be set as green.
3a) A system in place that does not overbook the time-slot allocations to the amount of couriers available.
Booking Efficiency: 4) Countdown timer that is linked to the payment system which will hold this time slot for fine minutes until the transaction is completed.
5) A system that includes a registration and log in database. 6) A section where the customer can attach a file, which would be a screen shot of their order. 7) A booking system that allows the customer to pay for this courier service. 8) Add a courier tip (this would be on the payment section).
So, this is our list right now. We are looking to launch Summer 2024. Currently our website is being worked on. Our Book A Collection service will be a big feature on our website.
I am absolutely looking forward to reading your knowledge regarding what you propose regarding my points from my booking criteria. Are there plugins that are available? I do have a web developer working on my website, however, he is new to coding and he thinks this work might be too heavy for himself to manage, but he is willing to try, providing we can find the right plugin which is why I am looking to outsource. I am aware this may also need someone to build this using another alternative booking/appointment plugin.
I would also appreciate it if you could discuss this with me and let me know your time-frame and what you would charge.
Thanks for reaching out to us. Here is the basic overview of how Amelia is designed and currently working. Amelia is stand-alone plugin for Wordpress and it uses shortcodes to be displayed on the front end. You can choose between different booking forms to display Amelia. The way how Amelia is designed to work is the booking through steps. The first step is always configured as service selection, where your customers needs to choose a service and then the date/time step is displayed based on the service selection. Each service needs to have at least one employee assigned since the timeslot availability comes from the employee work hours. Looking at your first question (booking visual), something like this would not be possible to configure, since there is already a booking visual. You can check demo on this link to get a better overview.
By default, only one employee can work on one time slot. While you can assign multiple employees to one service, your customers will be able to select only one employee when they choose a service. You can manage/configure all the appointments in the backend, but there is no option to choose the "amount of couriers available". When an appointment is already booked, you can change the appointment status, as well as the appointment date/time, number of persons and etc., but only one employee will be assigned.
Amelia by default doesn't offer the same timeslots, if it's already booked. If the timeslot 9AM is already booked, it won't be displayed on the booking form. This prevents overbooking, but there is also an option to configure if you want the same timeslot to be configured multiple times.
Since each appointment needs to have the appointment status (needs to be booked), when it set to pending, this is when the timeslot is "reserved". Again, this depends on the configuration, but if the timeslot is already booked, it won't be displayed on the front end. Unfortunatelly, currently, there is no option "countdown timer".
Each customer will have access to the customer panel once they book an appointment. You can choose if the credentials will be sent to the customer or an access link. More information regarding the customer panel is on this link.
By default, only first name, last name, email, and phone are displayed on the front end, so this information is what a customer can enter when booking. To collect the additional information (add the option to attach a file), you can use custom fields. More information on this link.
Amelia has integration with online payments such as Stripe, PayPal, RazorPay, and Mollie, and any one of these is configured, your customers would need to pay in "advance" in order to book an appointment. If they are not configured, then the "on-site" payment option is enabled by default.
As for the "tip" option, unfortunately, currently, this is not available within Amelia features.
I hope it helps. Of course, let me know if you have any other questions.
I am in the process of building a new courier company in The UK, particularly for the take away sector.
The customer would book an appointment for our couriers to go and fetch their take out once their meal is ready.
I have outlined the main features we are looking to implement regarding this booking feature, which is imperative to the website.
I do have a web development team working with me on this business, I also want to research jointly to see if Woo Booking can support our requirements of our booking feature. I would appreciate a detailed reply on how Amelia can assist.
1) Booking Visual.
1a) Instead of a full day by day monthly calendar on most booking appointment systems. We would require a two day calendar. 'Today, Tomorrow". I think this would be simpler for our customers to use. See image attached to this email titled "booking visual idea". The Tomorrow part would be in the drop down above the "today" option.
1b) In the time slot allocation we are looking at 20 minute intervals set at :00-:20 & :40 on the minute and this would be every hour from 10am to 10pm daily, every day. The 20 minute intervals give our couriers a window to pick up the customer's purchase, effectively at the end of the 20 minute window is the time to collect said purchase.
2) Booking Back Office:
2a) for every :20 minute booking we can change the amount of couriers available for each 20 minute time slot. For example: if we have 20 couriers available for 18:20hrs we can adjust the back office to have 20 couriers. This would also apply for off-peak couriers where only one courier is available for 06:00hrs, therefore making only one courier available for this one time 20 minute time slot... I have seen booking calendars where a yoga class has a class for a specific amount of delegates and it manages the time even so there is not a process of being oversold.
2b) Each courier can be scheduled for one delivery per customer. When we are very quiet and only have one courier we need to be able not to over book this courier. Also, when we are very busy we can have 20+ couriers, so we would need some kind of system which can allow one booking system which can cater for one courier per 20 minute slot then during busy periods be updated to 20+ couriers per 20 minute slot.
Overbooking Prevention:
3) *not important* Traffic light system. Green for availability. Yellow for Limited availability. Red for fully booked. So, when the customer looks at the 20 minute intervals they can see on the scroll down minute option 20 minute slots available. For example: If 09:00hrs had one courier appointed for this time, the time slot would be red as in to suggest this allocation at a quick glance is fully booked. However, 09:00 has 6 couriers available and only three couriers have jobs for this period which would change the colour background on the time slot to be amber. For 09:40 as an example we have ten couriers free and no jobs in this time-frame, which would give the background of said time-frame to be set as green.
3a) A system in place that does not overbook the time-slot allocations to the amount of couriers available.
Booking Efficiency:
4) Countdown timer that is linked to the payment system which will hold this time slot for fine minutes until the transaction is completed.
5) A system that includes a registration and log in database.
6) A section where the customer can attach a file, which would be a screen shot of their order.
7) A booking system that allows the customer to pay for this courier service.
8) Add a courier tip (this would be on the payment section).
So, this is our list right now. We are looking to launch Summer 2024. Currently our website is being worked on. Our Book A Collection service will be a big feature on our website.
I am absolutely looking forward to reading your knowledge regarding what you propose regarding my points from my booking criteria. Are there plugins that are available? I do have a web developer working on my website, however, he is new to coding and he thinks this work might be too heavy for himself to manage, but he is willing to try, providing we can find the right plugin which is why I am looking to outsource. I am aware this may also need someone to build this using another alternative booking/appointment plugin.
I would also appreciate it if you could discuss this with me and let me know your time-frame and what you would charge.
Thanks A Million,
David.
Attached files: booking visual idea.jpeg
Hello David,
Thanks for reaching out to us. Here is the basic overview of how Amelia is designed and currently working. Amelia is stand-alone plugin for Wordpress and it uses shortcodes to be displayed on the front end. You can choose between different booking forms to display Amelia. The way how Amelia is designed to work is the booking through steps. The first step is always configured as service selection, where your customers needs to choose a service and then the date/time step is displayed based on the service selection. Each service needs to have at least one employee assigned since the timeslot availability comes from the employee work hours. Looking at your first question (booking visual), something like this would not be possible to configure, since there is already a booking visual. You can check demo on this link to get a better overview.
By default, only one employee can work on one time slot. While you can assign multiple employees to one service, your customers will be able to select only one employee when they choose a service. You can manage/configure all the appointments in the backend, but there is no option to choose the "amount of couriers available". When an appointment is already booked, you can change the appointment status, as well as the appointment date/time, number of persons and etc., but only one employee will be assigned.
Amelia by default doesn't offer the same timeslots, if it's already booked. If the timeslot 9AM is already booked, it won't be displayed on the booking form. This prevents overbooking, but there is also an option to configure if you want the same timeslot to be configured multiple times.
Since each appointment needs to have the appointment status (needs to be booked), when it set to pending, this is when the timeslot is "reserved". Again, this depends on the configuration, but if the timeslot is already booked, it won't be displayed on the front end. Unfortunatelly, currently, there is no option "countdown timer".
Each customer will have access to the customer panel once they book an appointment. You can choose if the credentials will be sent to the customer or an access link. More information regarding the customer panel is on this link.
By default, only first name, last name, email, and phone are displayed on the front end, so this information is what a customer can enter when booking. To collect the additional information (add the option to attach a file), you can use custom fields. More information on this link.
Amelia has integration with online payments such as Stripe, PayPal, RazorPay, and Mollie, and any one of these is configured, your customers would need to pay in "advance" in order to book an appointment. If they are not configured, then the "on-site" payment option is enabled by default.
As for the "tip" option, unfortunately, currently, this is not available within Amelia features.
I hope it helps. Of course, let me know if you have any other questions.
Kind Regards,
Stefan Petrov
[email protected]
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