Set Online Appointment Rules - Vagaro Pro app

The Online Appointment Rules feature allows you to set the online booking rules, including automated waitlist options, refund policies for customers doing online prepayments as well as the cancellation, no-show, and rescheduling policies. You also can set a requirement to accept or deny a customer's request to book online. This is especially helpful if you have clients who don't adhere to your cancellation policies and cancel bookings frequently.

To learn more about this feature, follow the steps below. 

Related Article: Setting Online Appointment Rules - Web version

1. Tap More at the bottom of the screen. 

2. Tap Settings. 

3. Tap Online Appointment Rules. 

4. Enter the Appointment Lead Time for the services you offer. Then enter the Class Lead Time if you provide classes. This allows you to limit how soon a customer can book an online appointment or a class, giving you enough time to respond to a request. 

5. Enter the Appointment Search Limit. This allows you to set the number of available appointment times for your customers to book online. 

Tap on the drop-down to set the Search Appointment Interval. Use this feature to set the time intervals between available appointment options online. 

6. Tap Show Number of Seats Remaining in Classes to allow customers to see the number of seats available in a class when booking online.

7. Display Business Phone Number When Appointments are Unavailable defaults to being Off. With the option on (green), when a customer tries to book an appointment or class that is either within the set Lead Time or outside of the Advanced booking limit (see step #11), they see a message that displays the business's phone number asking them to Call to Book. 

The customer can tap the phone number displayed to initiate a call to the business.

8. Tap the drop-down under Service Provider Order to set how your employees are ordered on your Vagaro booking page. You can set the order by First Available service providers or by the Website Employee Line Up, found in your Settings page in Vagaro.

You can also set the order by Best Reviewed or by Alphabetical Order. 

9. Select the option you prefer. 

10. Select the Require Acceptance for Online Booking option to be able to deny or approve a customer's request to book your business online. Select the checkboxes below this option to require acceptances for specific types of appointments, including:

• New customer appointments.
• Old customer appointments.
• Outcall service appointments.
• Customers with a specific number of no-shows or cancellations.

Once you select the Customer with no-shows or cancellations option, you will be prompted to enter a minimum number. For example, if you enter "5," this will require acceptance for clients who have at least five no-shows or cancellations.  

11. To limit how far in advance a customer can book a service or a class online, enter the number of days in the field corresponding to the service or class option.

12. To create a new Waitlist, select from the four options below. 

• You Pick: This allows you to manually select a client from a waitlist and add them to an opening slot on the calendar from your Notification Panel when your schedule is full and a customer cancels. 
• Money Maker: An automatic notification is sent to the customer with the highest-paid appointment on the waitlist. If a customer does not respond within the time frame (Time to Respond) you set, the opening is offered to the next highest paid appointment.
• First in Line: An automatic notification is sent to the first client on the waitlist. If the customer does not respond within the time frame you set, a notification is sent to the client who is next in line. 
• Instant Book: An automatic notification is sent to all clients on the waitlist. The first to book gets the appointment. 

Click here for more information on how to create a Waitlist in Vagaro.

13. Select Customers Can Add to Waitlist to allow customers to add themselves to the waitlist when they book online.

14. Select Customers Can Cancel to allow clients to cancel upcoming appointments. Then enter the minimum hours a customer can cancel before an appointment. In the example below, we've set it where the customer must cancel at least 24 hours before the service to get a refund. 

Next, select Automatically Refund for Pre-paid Appointments and Classes. This allows you to automatically refund a canceled appointment or class that's been prepaid by the client.

15. Enter the Refund Policy. Select Customers Can Reschedule to allow customers to reschedule appointments. Then enter the minimum number of hours clients can reschedule before an appointment. 

16. Enter the Appointment Cancellation Policy. 

17. Select Accept American Express to allow clients to book online appointments using an American Express card.

18. Select Only Allow Reviews From Verified Customers to only allow clients who have been marked as a Show or Completed to leave reviews. Tap Save when you're finished.