It’s not without reason that Corvid by Wix's tagline is ‘Creation Without Limits.’ That philosophy is clear in the recent release of two new Booking APIs, which enhance the booking experience for visitors to your clients’ websites and even more seamlessly integrate all scheduling information for your clients’ ease of use. In this article, we will explore what these APIs are and how they can transform any website that is already utilizing Wix Bookings.
These new features are particularly suited for any businesses that depend on clients being able to easily book classes or services. We know the goal: The web design and functionality must work in conjunction to facilitate web traffic following through on that ‘Book Now!’ or ‘Enroll Today!’ CTA. That means capabilities like quick-book forms, customized timetables that instantly display the next available time slot, and customized confirmation messages are all necessary site elements. And now, those functions (plus many more) are all possible with Corvid and Bookings APIs, thus aligning the online bookings system with your clients’ business needs.
Why you need an online scheduling tool
Before we get into the exciting new advanced Wix Bookings features, let’s start by refreshing our memories about why an online booking feature is a total must-have for any service-based website you’re working on. The underlying objective is for incoming web traffic to book and pay for services. So you need to set up a system that worries about all of the details for your clients, to make it the most painless online booking experience possible.
Thankfully, Wix Bookings offers an online scheduling process that can be set-up in just minutes to offer an effortless, commission-free process, complete with professional tools to support business management. Here, you can showcase all of your client’s offerings in one place with vivid photos, categories, taglines, and descriptions. Then, personalize this further by allowing customers to book individual or group sessions. When it comes to receiving payment, this feature easily accepts full or partial payment through well known, secure methods.
All scheduled appointments can easily be synced with the business’ central calendar, and the calendars of anyone who books with them. In addition, customers are less likely to miss an appointment because they are automatically sent an alert via email. This is a great example of a maintenance-free website feature you can install to simplify your clients’ lives, as they will receive real-time booking updates whenever an appointment is confirmed on their site. In short, gone are the days of updating multiple calendars, taking appointments by hand, and missed leads.
The Wix Bookings scheduling tool offers the following functions:
Accept online bookings 24/7 from any device.
Manage staff calendars.
Sync your Wix and Google calendars.
Offer group classes and membership plans.
Store and edit customer information.
Accept secure payments and deposits - all commission free - and send customer invoices.
All sounds great, right? But imagine being able to do even more, like allowing web visitors to easily filter through instructors or personalizing the post-booking ‘thank you’ page to extend the marketing funnel for engaged customers. That’s where these new APIs for Bookings come into the picture.
Meet the two new Corvid Bookings APIs
The first is called getServiceAvailability API. Its purpose is to enhance what you can offer through Wix Bookings in terms of display and organization. It achieves this by instantly fetching open time slots and staff member availability from the booking calendar to suggest to browsing potential clients. This can come into play in several locations, from the timetable to services lists and pages.
The second is called checkOut API. Whereas you can think of getServiceAvailability as a design-related tool, this second API steps in as the functionality backbone. It’s the device that makes the actual booking and payment processing possible. It’s ready to step in at moments where you want to offer a quick-book form, for example, or let site visitors filter through booking options to make their selection.
Now, we’ll delve a bit more into what these APIs let you do:
01. Create your own timetable.
Your clients live by their calendars. Why not help them use it meet their business goals? That’s why Corvid APIs gives you control over the presentation of their online timetables. For example, imagine your client is a personal fitness trainer whose time is in high demand. When a curious customer-to-be arrives on the site, don’t waste their time making them sift through the calendar until they find an open slot. Instead, this API forefronts these prime times for easy access. The faster this person can complete their booking, the lower the chance they’ll become discouraged and try their luck with your client’s competitor.
02. Fully customize service pages.
A big bonus of Corvid is the way it lets you create dynamic pages to display the business’ service list. This kind of efficient design is perfect for a gym that wants to create service pages for each of its fifty class offerings, or a pottery studio with ten different workshops, or any other similar situation. The idea of making an individual, identical page for each one of those classes or workshops seems almost prehistoric at this point. Instead, simply set up a database collection with all the informational fields you want displayed on any given service page (e.g. class name, description, image, cost, time, etc.). Then you connect that database collection to the dynamic page and voilà! You’re left with an entire series, ready for prospective customers to browse through.
Once someone has completed their selection, design personalized confirmation messages for each one of your client’s services. Instead of a generic ‘Thank you!’ message appearing each time someone books a class or session on your website, the tools are in your hand to reimagine what these pages might hold. Perhaps it’s reiterating important information participants should know before showing up to class, or suggesting a relevant product for sale from your client’s retail collection. In consultation with your client, you can decide on how to most strategically use this platform to insert some of their brand’s identity into the messaging and even further promote the business’ eCommerce ventures.
03. Add filters and availability to service lists.
If your client has their hands full of multiple class and instructor schedules, simplify matters for them through these APIs. Automatically syncing all online bookings with their Google calendar, possible with Wix Bookings, is a given. Next up is accelerating the convenience factor even further by adding adding filters and availability to their service lists. Web visitors will love the ability to easily search according to their own time preferences, or by their favorite instructor. It’s just another way you can help your client communicate how well they understand the navigability needs of their customer base, and solidify their reputation for excellent customer service.
04. Offer fast checkout and manage appointments.
One more way for your clients to leave their participants and members feeling satisfied is providing a quick-book option. Just picture it: Someone has just made a resolution to run a marathon and they’re looking for a trainer. This person’s intention to act is super high - so you want to ensure your fitness coach client’s web page is set up to orchestrate a perfect match between the searcher’s intent and your client’s offerings. Highlighting some of your clients’ major services on the home page is a smart move - and it becomes even more brilliant when you accompany these selections with quick-book forms. Now, that same future marathoner no longer has to contend with extra clicks after arriving on site (believe us, the marathon will give them enough challenge to overcome in their life; they don’t need any extra ones from a website booking process). By integrating that features with the APIs, you’ve just reduced the likelihood - even more so if they’re on mobile - that this potential customer will get distracted en route to the ‘finish line’ of booking a consultation. Instead, you just paved a one-track superhighway from arriving at your client’s site to an initial session squared away in their calendar.
Of course, retaining control over all incoming requests, whether from the quick-book form or your timetable, is vital for business owners. That’s why the admin panel is there for your clients to manage and approve all pending requests.
The time has come for your clients to be able to fully customize the boo
process available through their websites. It’s important for their own organizational flow, and for the quality of service they are able to deliver to their own customers. With the two recently-released Corvid Bookings APIs, inserting that level of personal preference into the design and adding the functionality your clients need is not only possible, but transforming the entire online booking experience.
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