NEWSLETTER | Bookings comes to Microsoft 365
3/3/2021
Status: Available Now
Bookings comes to Microsoft 365
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What is Bookings?
Bookings is a new Microsoft 365 app that provides a universal and adaptable way to schedule and manage any type of meeting or appointment with persons either internal or external to your organization. Its administrative interface works across multiple platforms, mobile, desktop, cloud, apple, or android. Bookings was developed with the user experience in mind, the layout is simple and easy to navigate. Whether you’re managing staff members, schedules, or booked appointments; all your tools are at a glance.
Integrates with Staff Outlook Calendars
Ability to connect to social media platforms
Customize your Bookings page with company branding
Scheduling policies for time increments and lead times
Automatic Email Notifications for reminders to all attendees
Customer Contact reference for confirmed Bookings
Manage Staff information
Manage multiple services offering with specific staff
How does it work?
Bookings has two interfaces, an internal version which is used by the organization to manage the application and calendars, and an external web-based Bookings page that can be used by staff or customers to book their appointment. The “Bookings Page”, once customized and published from the Bookings administrative interface; is a customer viewed web page with its own URL. The link to this page can be added to Facebook, embedded on a web page or shared in an e-mail message. From this page, users would select a time and date available from the calendar and input their name and e-mail address. Once submitted, the appointment triggers an e-mail notification to the staff member based on their availability. The Bookings calendar is immediately updated and if the customer is new, their information is saved to the organization’s contact list. An automated reminder is set to notify both the staff member and the customer before the appointment. All of these features can be managed from the organization’s administrative page accessed from the internal web-app.
The internal interface offers three components, a Web App, a Mobile App and a Teams App. With the Microsoft 365 web app you can schedule meetings both internally and externally. Bookings can pull data from any type of Microsoft supported calendar including, Outlook and Microsoft Teams. To schedule a meeting within your organization, Bookings pulls designated staff availability and suggests an optimal time that works for everyone. Once an appointment has been scheduled, friendly confirmations are sent to each party to be sure they’re available. After they’ve confirmed, they will get a friendly reminder before their meeting is scheduled to begin. From that point the staff's office calendar is auto booked to reflect the change. To set appointments outside of your group or organization, you can send a link to your Booking Page. All types of Bookings whether it be internal or external can be managed on Booking’s internal facing Web Dashboard along with all your other tools.
The Bookings mobile app allows calendar owners and administrators to see all their appointments, access customer lists, contact information, and make manual bookings on the go. The Bookings app within Teams, enables professionals and administrators to schedule bookings with Microsoft Teams Meetings. Once downloaded from the Teams app store, staff can use this scheduling tool to send appointment reminders from your business or department to meet virtually with any attendee. Bookings Teams was designed to assist with external engagements and minimize switching between apps, creating new bookings, adding appointment categories, assigning staff, scheduling new appointments and managing existing ones; are just a few features which accomplish that efficiently.
How does Bookings compare to popular scheduling apps?
How is Bookings Licensed?
Bookings is turned on by default for customers who have the Microsoft 365 Business Standard, or Microsoft 365 A3 and Microsoft 365 A5 subscriptions. It is available to customers who have Office 365 Enterprise E3 and Office 365 Enterprise E5, but it is turned off by default.
Users external to your organization can use an authorized link to access the Bookings page for free.
Learn More:
Publish your business calendar online with Microsoft Bookings
