INTRO
Hello there and welcome to our channel!
My name is Robert from themeisle.com in this
video, I’ll give you a detailed step-by-step
guide on how to allow your website visitors
to book an appointment through WordPress using
a free plugin called Easy Appointments.
STEP 1 - INSTALL AND ACTIVATE EASY APPOINTMENTS
Get started by installing and activating Easy
Appointments.
It’s free and listed at WordPress.org, so
you can install it directly from your WordPress
dashboard.
Make sure you install the right plugin because
there are a few different plugins with similar
names.
STEP 2 - ADD YOUR LOCATIONS
Once you activate it you should see a new
Easy Appointments tab in your dashboard sidebar.
Head there and go to the Settings link.
The first thing to set up is your locations.
To add one, click on + Add New Location.
Just enter a Name, Address, and Location.
You don’t need to include all of the fields
– so if you’re booking appointments for,
say, digital meetings, you don’t need to
add a business address or location.
You can add as many locations as needed.
So if you want to accept bookings at different
physical locations, add each location separately.
STEP 3 - CHOOSE WHAT SERVICES PEOPLE CAN BOOK
On the Services tab, you can click + Add New
Service to spell out which different services
people can book as well as how long those
services last for.
Again, you don’t need to enter all the fields,
so you can leave Price blank if you don’t
want to specify a price.
For example, to set up a service for a free
one-hour consult, you would enter something
like this (notice the blank price field)
STEP 4 - CHOOSE HOW MANY WORKERS YOU HAVE
Next up, head to Workers and enter the name
and contact information for each worker you
want to allow visitors to book.
If you’re the only one accepting appointments,
all you need to do is add an entry for yourself.
Otherwise, you can include each available
worker in a separate entry.
STEP 5: SET YOUR CONNECTIONS
The Connections tab is where you actually
link up your locations, services, and workers.
For example, you can specify that.
Worker A offers Service B at Location C on
X days of the week.
If you’re the only one accepting appointments,
it’s pretty trivial to set up.
If you have multiple workers / locations / services,
you’ll need to be careful when configuring
everything, though.
To help you grasp how everything connects,
here’s an example of a connection where
I, Robert Peter, offer one-hour consults at
a digital location from 9 am to 5 pm on Monday
to Friday.
STEP 6 - CONFIGURE EMAILS AND FORMS
Last configuration step!
On the Customize tab, you can configure the
emails and forms used for your booking system.
You can specify emails for Pending, Reservation
Info, Canceled and Confirmed.
Set each email text in its corresponding tab.
And make sure to utilize the tags at the top
of the email editor box.
They allow you to insert dynamic content into
your emails.
For example, #worker_name# will be automatically
replaced by the actual name of the worker.
Also, make sure to configure the emails’
subjects and “from emails” at the bottom
of the email editor box.
A bit further down the page, you can add Custom
form fields if needed.
You can also delete fields and choose whether
or not each field is required.
And finally, at the end of the Customize tab,
you can choose a different currency for your
appointment prices or, if you don’t want
to set prices, completely turn off the price
feature.
STEP 7 - DISPLAY YOUR APPOINTMENT BOOKING
FORM ON THE FRONT-END
Okay, now your appointment booking form is
totally configured.
But you still need to add it to your site
so people can actually use it!
To do that, you can use a simple shortcode
in any post or page where you want your booking
form to appear.
I’ll give you two shortcodes.
Don't worry about typing them manually, you
can copy and paste those shortcodes from the
article, and you can find that link in description
below.
For a basic one-column form, just use this:
[ea_bootstrap]
To create a two-column form, which I think
looks much better, use this one: [ea_bootstrap
width="800px" scroll_off="true" layout_cols="2"]
For example, to add a two-column form on a
page called Book an Appointment, you’d create
a new page with that name and add the shortcode
to the WordPress Editor.
Then, once you publish the page, you should
see a booking form like this.
Note how the weekends are grayed out (unavailable)
and your visitor gets a nice Booking overview
to review the information before submitting
their booking.
HOW CAN YOU TELL WHEN SOMEONE BOOKS AN APPOINTMENT?
Whenever you get a new appointment, three
things will happen.
I’ll start with the two that don’t require
any action on your part.
1.
You’ll get a notification email.
2.
The appointment will be added to the specified
worker’s timetable, which is accessible
by going to Reports → Timetable.
This gives a broad overview of availability.
The third thing is something you will need
to take action on.
In the Appointments option, you’ll see all
your bookings for the specified time period.
By default, all new bookings are only saved
as Pending.
To make them permanent, you need to click
on the appointment, click Edit, and change
its status to Confirmed.
The person who booked the appointment will
then get an email telling them their appointment
is confirmed.
And that’s all you need to do!
Now, your visitors can easily book appointments
through WordPress without any back-and-forth
about timeslots and availability.
