Bookings

The bookings elements of the system are very flexible, allowing just about every conceivable option.

Bookings can be made on-line by the customer or over the phone. The system allows self service by the customer for the selection of options & extras and recalculates the prices accordingly using your pricing model.

Written confirmation is sent to the customer and yourself and your payment schedules are updated.

Optionally, you can take payment on-line.

How does it work?

There are six key components to the booking element of Instant-quote.co:

1    The Bookings Wizard

When a customer receives a quotation a link is embedded within the email that takes them to the Bookings page.

Based on the quotation information, the bookings wizard is prepopulated where possible. Having said that, everything can be changed.

The wizard collects information about:

• Who is involved and theior contact details.
• The Event Date, locations and times.
• The Journeys involved.
• The options and extras they require.

Based on the data entered, the system confirms availability and generates a price.
The customer can go back and edit their data if required, but once they are happy, they can book their transport after they have accepted your terms and conditions.

Once the booking is made, they are sent a confirmation email and a link to their My-Booking page. Your payments due and dashboard are updated and the items booked become unavailable.

If the customer pays their deposit on-line, your receipts are also updated.
In the event that a customer isunable to use the booking wizard, you can take over the booking process from your administrative bookings page.

2    The My-Booking page

The My-Booking page lists all of the elements of the booking and includes:

• All of the transport booked.
• All of the journeys to be undertaken.
• The departure time of the transport.
• The options and extras they have selected.
• A notes section.
• Optionally, a link to pay by card on-line.

3    The Pricing Engine

As part of your configuration and as you add transport, you enter your pricing model. Some elements relate to the hosts (websites) you have, some to the vehicles and some to the time of year or day of week.

The system supports multiple websites for each customer with different pricing on each site.

Mileage charge options:

• No charge.
• All mileage - including to and from base.
• Mileage just between pick up and reception.
• Mileage over a threshold.

Time charge options:

• No charge.
• All time including to and from base.
• Time just between pick up and reception.
• Time over a threshold.
• Setup time.
• Pack up time.
• Off duty time.

Date & Day charging options:

• Day of week: Mon - Thur.
• Fri.
• Sat.
• Sun.
• Public Holidays.
• Configurable special days.
• Low, Medium & High season.

Discounts can be applied when multiple items are booked.

4    The Template editor

The template editor lets you customise the content of your booking confirmation. Every aspect is configurable. You might like to compare it to a mail merge document in a word processor. You simply enter the text you require for you booking confirmations, format it how you want it to look and insert the fields you want to be filled from the range available.

Every booking appears personal and is packed with information - if that's how you want it.

5    Geographical restrictions

You can decide certain limits that you are prepared to work within. In particular:

• The maximum distance you are prepared to travel to a booking.
• The maximum distance for an individual leg of the booking.
• TThe maximum total distance for a booking.

6    Manual Bookings

The administrative pages of the system enable you to create bookings for people who telephone you. Manual bookings have additional features:

• Apply a % discount.
• Create a booking at a fixed price or discount.
• Override mileage restrictions for a quote.

7    Editing Bookings

The administrative pages of the system enable you to edit bookings. The key features are:

• Add and remove vehicles.
• Adjust journey times.
• Assign payments to a booking.
• View Edit and Print the Invoice.
• Recalculate the price based on current settings.
• Manually edit prices.
• See when payments are due and the outstanding balance.
• Add and ammend contact details.
• Add and ammend Optional extras details.
• View the price calculation.

8    Quick Bookings

The administrative pages of the system enable you to make quick bookings. The interface is designed for rapid entry of bookings taken prior to using the system. The key features are:

• Add a booking with a simpler interface.
• Add receipts at the same time.
• Use default values for journey timings.
• Add multiple vehicles simultaneously.