thread Re: How to handle house calls in appointment booking? in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

How to handle house calls in appointment booking?

ThaiMassage-NYC — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 23:32:08 GMT

I'm having trouble with Housecall booking for my appointments.
Of course I have all of the details on my website regarding separate fees for travel and directions regarding which one to select in addition to the service.
However, this does not do any good when a person who had not yet discovered the Housecall was an option until it was presented to them by the Square Appointment system.
These people often assume that there is no charge for travel and are upset when they are informed after booking that they were supposed to select an additional travel fee before checking out.
There must be some way to do this differently that I know.
Also, the setting allow extra time for travel AFTER a Housecall, but I see no provision to account for travel time on the way there. This allows a person to book a Housecall 30 min. after a studio appointment and not enough time to transit.
I'm disappointed
Am I missing something?

Re: How to handle house calls in appointment booking?

George — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:32:03 GMT

Hi @ThaiMassage-NYC, that's an interesting use case. Thanks for bringing it up. Hopefully other sellers who also make house calls can chime in with their thoughts.

In the meantime I’ll share your suggestion with the product liaison team.

Re: How to handle house calls in appointment booking?

hackest — Sat, 07 May 2016 02:24:17 GMT

I have a similar challenge since my entire business is based on house calls, and consequently travel between appointments. For now I'm trying to proactively block travel time in front of each appointment on my personal calendar then allowing it to sync as busytime but I do anticipate there will be instances when someone books an appointment too close to another one. I've incorporated general travel costs into my pricing but explaining distance limits to each client typically happens when I do the initial phone consultation with them. I'd love to detail some overall parameters and policies on my Square site but I can't seem to figure out how to set up a store front and have Appointments be the primary purchase tool.

Re: How to handle house calls in appointment booking?

KristyLin — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 17:42:06 GMT

How about setting up housecalls as a separate service with the appropriate price?

Re: How to handle house calls in appointment booking?

ThaiMassage-NYC — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 08:53:44 GMT

There are 4 different fees involved with a house call. I have 3 different sessions that I offer, each with 6 options for duration to cover a housecall option like this on the site would require 18 more items.