Our ‘act on behalf’ feature lets you book appointments for your users under their own login details, while still keeping a full overview of all bookings and who each booking is for. This feature is designed to make scheduling easier for both you and your customers, keeping your workflow smooth without losing track of any appointments.
In this blog, you’ll read about:
- How the ‘acting on behalf’ feature can benefit your business
- Why acting on behalf of a user can be advantageous to your workflow
- How to enable the ‘act on behalf’ feature when booking for your customers
How the ‘acting on behalf’ feature can benefit your business
In an era where digitalization and automation dominate, it may seem unnecessary to offer offline booking options. Despite 50% of people worldwide preferring an online option to book, there is still a reason to consider this option. Research by Amra & Elma, shows that 32% of people in the United States still prefer booking appointments using offline practices, such as booking per phone or in-person. This percentage, however, varies per industry.
There is also a third group that businesses often overlook: hybrid bookers. These customers move fluidly between online and offline channels. For example:
- They book their first hair appointment online, but schedule their next visit in person.
- They reserve via your website but call to adjust the time.
- They book digitally but book their follow-up via text or other message platforms (e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, etc).
By enabling staff to act on behalf of customers, you open other ways for customers to find you, eliminating any barrier that would prevent customers to book with you. In a hybrid world, success does not belong to the businesses with the most advanced or fully digital workflows, but to those that adapt to the varying needs and preferences of their customers.
Digitalization may lead the way, but it should not define the limits of your service. By allowing your team to act on behalf of customers, you connect online and offline booking within one system, maintaining operational efficiency while offering the flexibility customers expect.
Why acting on behalf of a user can be advantageous to your workflow
There are several reasons why the ‘act on behalf’ feature can be improved in your workflow.
First, it makes admin easier. You save hours of figuring out which booking belongs to which customer. No need to search through all the bookings. You can simply search for the user in the user management page and click on the spyglass icon to view their upcoming and even past bookings. It’s well organized and gives a clear overview of all appointments of the user. This might come in handy if a customer suddenly wants to cancel or change an appointment and is unable to do it themselves, or emailed you last minute about the change. On the user end, the user can also log in to their account to find an overview of their bookings, so they don’t lose sight of their upcoming appointments.
Another reason to utilize this feature is to accommodate bookings via telephone or in-person and place them under the right user, a suitable solution if your have users who cannot book online. As stated before, there are many people that still prefer to have an option to book in other ways than online. Think about those who are not digital-savvy or are hybrid bookers, loving the flexibility to either choose to book a follow-up appointment in-person or online.
As a result of letting people book over the phone or in-person, you might not always be able to book those appointments yourself. Especially if you work, for instance in a clinic or salon and have multiple people available that can carry out the same service. Or, if you have a front desk where assistants are responsible for reservations and checking customers in. In this case, you can assign staff the superuser role in SuperSaaS to act on behalf of your customers, making in person appointments very easy to plan and manage for your staff as well. Giving you as an administrator more time and space to carry out other tasks that require your attention.
How to enable the ‘act on behalf’ feature when booking for your customers
To use the ‘act on behalf’ feature, your customers will need a user account login. Without a user account, the appointment cannot be linked to individual users and the feature will not appear on the schedule pages.
Step 1: Require login for booking
Ensure your schedule requires users to log in before making a booking. This specific can be enabled on the Configure > Access page of your schedule.
Step 2: Create or Import Users
The ‘act on behalf’ option is only available if there are users in your account. When booking online and login is required to book, your customers are being directed to a login page where they can create an account if it’s their first time booking. If a customer cannot create their own account you can either:
- manually create a user profile
- Import users in bulk
Both can be done in the User Management section. We explain more about this in our documentation.
Step 3: Use the “Act As” icon
After making sure you have configured the schedule in a way that your customers have to log in when making an appointment, and your users have made a user login, you can see a little icon appear in your schedule pages. This icon is the ‘act as’ icon and only appears if you have at least one user registered in your account and the settings are configured correctly.
To act as a user:
- Click on the icon and type in the login name of the customer
- Click on the username and then on the green check icon
- After clicking the username, the username will be shown in the right corner of the schedule
- You can now book on behalf of the user
When making an appointment, all the details of the customer will be automatically filled in the booking detail fields. Also, if email notifications are enabled, the customer will receive a confirmation of the appointment in their inbox.
After successfully creating an appointment, simply hoover over the username or the act as icon. You will see that the username will be crossed off, and the icon becomes red. Simply click on the crossed-out username, and you will be no longer acting on behalf of the user. A notification on screen will also appear, confirming that you’re no longer acting on behalf of the user.
To sum it all up: acting on behalf of your users is a great way to optimize your workflow, keeping admin streamlined while keeping a clear overview of upcoming and past bookings. Want to give it a try? Sign up today for your free SuperSaaS account. Should you require any assistance in the process, our support team is ready to help. Simply reach out on our feedback form.