Let visitors book viewings and collections
A viewing day or a collection afternoon runs more calmly when visitors pick a time in advance. In Bidvise you create an appointment schedule for that: the days and hours you are open, the length of an appointment, and optionally an address and a short description. Visitors then book a slot on your website. You see the bookings per day in the planning.
1. Create a schedule
Open Planning and choose Appointment schedules. Make one schedule per kind of visit: for example one for the viewing days of the autumn sale and one for collection afterwards. Give it a clear name, because the visitor sees it.
Set the duration of an appointment, in minutes. Under Weekly hours, mark per day whether you are open and from when until when. Bidvise divides those hours into slots of the chosen length.
If the schedule belongs to one auction, give it a start date and an end date. Nobody can book outside that period. A single closed day, such as a public holiday, goes in as an exception.
2. Decide what the visitor sees and has to do
The address and the description appear on your website next to the calendar. Put in what the visitor needs to know: where to ring, what to bring.
Three settings decide how tight the schedule is:
- Minimum notice: how many minutes ahead a slot can still be booked.
- Buffer between appointments: room between two slots, for example to put something away.
- Reminder: how many hours ahead the visitor gets a reminder by email. Empty means off.
If only known customers may book, switch on Sign-in required and enter the path to your sign-in page.
3. Put the calendar on your website
The Bidvise team helps you place the booking widget on your website. There is nothing to build on your side; tell us which page it belongs on.
This is how it can look on your website:
4. Work with the bookings
Under Planning you see per month on which days there are bookings. Appointments shows one day as a list, with the visitor’s name, phone number and note. That is also where you mark who turned up.
A visitor receives a confirmation with a link to move or cancel the appointment, so you do not have to.