Bookings

For allowing users to book to take part in your service.

What it does

Booking tools let you plan where and when to run your service. They can allow users to register for an event, or book a slot from a range of options.

• Standalone tools require users to visit a separate website or app
• Integrated tools work with your existing website and calendar

They will require users to enter personal information, and usually have a verification process to ensure the user is genuine.

Popular platforms

• Eventbrite
• Calend.ly
• Appointed

Things to consider

Confirming booking and joining instructions

You should consider how you want to send booking confirmation, joining instructions and any updates about the event or session.

Doing this within the booking tool helps to keep data secure and accurate. However, you should check what control you can have over communications. Consider

• How often emails will be sent
• Any issues with tone or branding
• How users can make you aware of changes
• How you make users aware of changes
• Any charges for sending emails or other messages

You might prefer to extract information from the tool and communicate with users using a different approach. In this case you should be clear about how the data is kept accurate, safe and secure.

Contact information and privacy

Handling and processing contact information requires careful planning. You should understand how the tool will manage this information and be able to communicate this to your users.

You should also have good processes internally, and make sure you are only asking for information that you need. For example do you really need an address, or just an email.

Charities using this tool

• SCVO use Calend.ly, integrated with Office 365 Calendar and Zoom, to offer one-to-one digital support calls.