Check in with a QR-code

One of the main reasons for using SuperSaaS is that it greatly reduces the time you spend scheduling appointments. But did you know that there are many ways to optimize your use of SuperSaaS, further improving the overall experience for you and your customers? In this blog we will take a look at how QR codes can improve appointments both when they are scheduled, and when they take place.

What are QR codes?

Essentially, QR codes are codes of black and white squares that can be read by machines, much like the traditional barcode. They can direct a phone or tablet to a specific URL simply by scanning the code.

There are two main ways to implement the use of QR codes that we will discuss:

• You can put a QR code on a flyer, so people who scan it arrive on your SuperSaaS schedule. This makes booking an appointment with you even faster.
• You can also send your customers a QR code in the email that leads to the “Edit booking” page of their appointment. That allows the administrator, or a superuser, who scans the booking on their phone, to keep attendance.

Sending customers directly to your SuperSaaS schedule

This is the most straightforward way to use QR codes for your schedule. You provide your customer with a QR code that they can scan with their phone or tablet to instantly open the right SuperSaaS schedule in their browser.

To set this up, these are the steps you need to take:

1. Generate the QR code on our QR code documentation page. Please note that you will have to log in to be able to generate the code for your personal schedule.

2. Place the QR code wherever it is useful for your customers. This could range from digital sources like your company website to a Facebook post, to printed products such as promotional flyers.

3. Customers scan the QR code and click the link that pops up on their screen. They will be directed straight to your SuperSaaS schedule to schedule their appointment.

This way you eliminate the need for your customers to type out the entire link on their mobile device, making it especially useful if you run appointments in a physical location or make use of promotional products like flyers. But that’s not all, QR codes can also be useful at a later stage.

Tracking attendance

If you teach group lessons or workshops (capacity schedule), you might to track attendance to optimize class size. If you offer products for rent or provide a one-on-one service (resource or service schedule), you might want to document no-shows to determine later availability. While this step is one of the last in the appointment scheduling cycle, it is a perfect opportunity to use a QR code.

You can use QR codes to track attendance as follows:

1. First put the QR code in the booking confirmation.

   • Find the link to your schedule on the “Supervise” page in your SuperSaaS account.
   • Add autotext to the end of your schedule link so it links directly to the “Edit booking” page. For a capacity schedule you need to add /$slot_id?view=view&id=$id and for a resource or service schedule you add ?view=view&id=$id
   • Make the link into a QR code link by putting it in the box below, and copying the result:
     https://api.qrserver.com/v1/create-qr-code/?size=150x150&data=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.supersaas.com%2Fschedule%2Fdemo%2FFitnessClub%2F$slotid%3Fview%3Dview%26id%3D%$id
   • If you would like to change the size of the QR code, you can change the code provided above. To change the size to 320x320 pixels, for example, you replace size=150x150 by size=320x320.
   • To change the color of your QR code to blue, you need to add &color=00f to the provided code. For more information about changing the color of your QR code, please see the QR code API documentation.

2. Add the QR code link you just created into the email on the layout tab. To ensure the QR code is properly generated, make sure to switch on HTML in your emails. You can find this option on the “Layout Settings” page in your SuperSaaS account.

3. Add a supervisor field to keep attendance. You can add the supervisor field by adding it under “Access Control”. After you have added the supervisor field, make sure to show it in your schedule. You can do this by going to “Configure” > “Process” > “Do you want to add an ID field to each reservation?”

4. Scan the codes during the event to update attendance as you check customers in. Scanning the code with your phone or tablet camera will load a popup on your camera screen. Click it to open the “Edit booking” page directly. You can now enter a note to indicate the customer has checked in.

Please note: It can be quite stressful trying to fix this process when you have a line of people waiting to check in, so we strongly recommend that you test the steps above before you implement it in your daily business.

(Optional) Create a report of the attendance

When you have entered the attendance information for all customers during a certain class or period, you might want to produce a report to see if you can draw any conclusions about your offerings based on the attendance rate. Because you have stored all the attendance details in the supervisor field, you can easily do this by going to the “Supervise” page, then downloading the file on the “Download” tab. The supervisor field is automatically included in the report.

If you have any questions about using QR codes with SuperSaaS, we are here to help.