Service & Class groups - which get called "Reason groups" in TimeTap - allow you to organize your appointment types so that it is easier for your clients to navigate through the Client Scheduler to find what they're looking for.
This basically creates "folders" for your services and/or classes so clients don't have to browse your entire list of appointment types at once.
This is great if you have a whole lot of services and classes that you offer. Say you run a nail salon and you offer 4 different types of manicures, 6 different types of pedicures, 5 different types of massages, and so on. You wouldn't want to display all of these in 1 long list! Instead, you would create a group called "Manicures", a group called "Pedicures" and a group called "Massages", and then sort the respective services and/or classes into these groups.
In this documentation, we'll cover -
- How to Create a Reason Group
- Editing a Reason Group
- Adding Reason Groups to the Scheduler Panel Flow
In this article, I will use the above nail salon example for context. This feature could extend to any industry, but a nail salon is an easily understood example.
This gets to be a lot when clients go to your scheduler and end up seeing a long list of jumbled services -
You will notice the scroll bar on the right side of the previous image, which means there are even more services to choose from! To make it easier on your clients, let's add in some reason groups so that before they get to the service page, they will get prompted to select which type of appointment they are looking to book. To do this, select the Add New Reason Group tab from the page under Settings > Services & Classes -
Start setting up your new group by giving it a name. In this case I'll name the group "Manicures" -
When creating a new reason group, you will see the following fields to fill out -
- Reason Group Name - This is the name that clients will see on the Client Scheduler.
- Internal Display Name - This is the name that staff will see in the Backoffice. If you leave this field blank, the Reason Group Name will get seen by staff.
- Reason Group Description - This bit of text will appear under the reason group's name in the scheduling flow and can be used to provide more details about what gets included in this group.
- Private Reason Group - By checking this box, you will make this reason group private, which means that it will only be shown on the reason group's individual custom booking site and in the Backoffice when staff are adding appointments for clients.
- Services & Classes to include - You can check the boxes next to the different services & classes you would like to include in this reason group.
You will need to check the boxes next to all of the services you want to include in this group. For this example, I have selected all of the manicures that get offered and have clicked on the green Save button on the upper right -
This will take you to the new reason group profile -
On the group's profile you can apply a screening question (1), enter some text that you can later populate using the %REASON_GROUP_EMAIL_INSTRUCTIONS% email tag (2), create an individual custom booking site for the group (3) and add a logo to represent the reason group on the Client Scheduler (4) -
You'll now be able to find this group under Settings > Services & Classes > Reason Groups -
You'll next want to create another reason group called "Pedicures" so that clients can choose whether they want to book a manicure or a pedicure before seeing the list of options for each. You can accomplish this using the same method used to create the Manicures group from above. Once you're done with this, the Pedicures group will also show under the Reason Groups tab -
Now, as long as I have made sure to enable reason groups under my Service & Class Panel Settings, then before clients get to the list of services offered on my scheduler they will first get prompted to choose whether they are booking a manicure or a pedicure -
If they chose Manicures from the Service Group panel on the scheduler, the next panel would show only the manicure appointment reasons and none of the pedicures -
And if they had chosen Pedicures, they would only see the pedicure appointment reasons -
Much easier on the eyes, wouldn't you say?
Let's say you've gotten your nail salon all set up on TimeTap, and you decide to add a new type of pedicure called a Margarita Pedicure. You have already created the service, but now you just need to include it in the existing Pedicures reason group.
First, you'll want to navigate to Settings > Services & Classes > Reason Groups > click on the View button next to the Pedicures group -
This will take you to the reason group profile for the Pedicures group. To edit the selection of services and classes in the group, you'll need to click on the blue Edit button next to the Services & Classes in Reason Group section of the profile -
At first only the services and classes in the group will have the box next to them checked -
To include the service, you'll need to check the box next to that service and then click on the green Save button -
Now when that service group gets selected on the Client Scheduler, clients will see that new service as bookable as well -
To include service groups in your scheduler's flow, you'll want to follow these steps.
First, go to Settings > Services & Classes > Service & Class Panel Settings -
On the window that appears, you'll need to check the box next to Show Groups in Flow -
This will give you the option to rename the title bar for the reason groups panel as well as add some header text if you'd like -
Once you've personalized the values of these fields, you'll need to click on the green Save Changes button at the bottom of the window.
Now when a client visits your scheduler, a new panel will show up prompting them to select the reason for the appointment being booked -