TIMIFY Book & Shop App: Invite customers to enter and browse your retail space with time-limited shopping slots.
This app offers shopping slots in accordance with the regulations required by certain governments due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
To use the app you first need to add your resources (retail spaces) and define the footfall capacity of each; then add your services (shopping slots). Customers can sign up for the shopping slots you offer online, via your booking widget.
Optional QR code check-in/-out can be used to track footfall, thus ensuring a secure customer entry and exit. This can be achieved via email and/or SMS.
Good to Know:
This app is available for TIMIFY Enterprise Accounts
This is a private app: contact your Key Account Manager or the TIMIFY Support Team to gain access. You must provide them an access key which you can generate from the Private Apps tab of the Apps Navigation. Once generated, the key is valid for 24 hours.
If you want to use SMS to send QR codes for check-in/-out, you need to set up the TIMIFY SMS App. There is a cost per SMS sent. More information on the SMS app is available here
To look at the customer journey of the app, and the settings that affect the booking widget, check out this article.
Article Structure
1. App pre-requirements: resources
We suggest you make a dedicated resource category for all your Book and Shop resources. We called our category Retail Departments:
Note: you must select the dependency resource option for your category!
…We set up our individual resources - our shopping departments - all in the same way: we gave each a unique colour, to make them easily identifiable, and made sure each resource is 'activated':
…Then we added the store hours, when resources can be booked…
That is all you need in order to prepare your resources.
2. App pre-requirements: services
Next we added a service category for all the 'Shopping Slots' we offer. We named this category Book and Shop: Customer Shopping Slots and added our services:
For each service make sure the appropriate resource is selected. For example, for our 'Toy Department Shopping Slot, 1 hr', we selected the corresponding resource 'Toy Department'. We also ensured that the service is online bookable in the booking widget:
That is all your need in order to prepare your services.
3. Book to Shop: essential set-up
First, install the app. Contact your relationship manager at TIMIFY to grant you access to the app, and then confirm that you want to install it.
Once installed, click on the set-up tab (the gear icon). Select a resource (retail space) that you want to make online bookable. Then add the maximum capacity of shoppers that can be in the space at any one time. Booking slots will not be offered via your booking widget once that capacity is reached.
Third, select the services you want to offer for the book and shop. It is possible to add multiples services for each resource. In our case, we have just one service for each resource; but some users offer multiple slots per resource, of varying time lengths.
That is all you need to do for your shopping slots to go live. Make sure that you have activated online booking and selected the booking widget settings that work for your needs. For more on booking widget settings, check out this article.
Return to your TIMIFY Calendar. Select your retail space resources from the resource filter… your view should look a little like this:
Click on a resource, and the app will open, showing your Book and Shop appointments for that day.
4. Book and Shop: advanced set-up options
Additional options are available: to customise the message regarding check-in that gets included in your email; to enforce check-in and check-out windows; and to activate SMS check-in, and edit the SMS message.
If you want to use SMS check-in, and need help getting the TIMIFY SMS app, check out this article
5. Manage Shop and Book customer bookings
In the Bookings tab, a list of all customer bookings display. You can filter your bookings by resource, customer, date, and time. You can also download the booking list by clicking on the red CSV icon.
Click on a customer booking to view all the details available. It is possible to manually check in and/or delete the booking from this view.
6. Insert breaks for sanitisation of the workspace
Option 1: Best for when you have booking slots of varying lengths.
Navigate to Resources. Add intervals to their Booking and Working Times for each relevant retail space resource. During the Unavailable From time slots, bookings cannot be made.
Option 2: Best for when you have fixed booking slots.
Navigate to Services. Activate the Prep and Follow-Up Time Slots for the services you are using for Book and Shop. The time that you add to either side of a service is available for you to clean and sanitise the space.
