What your customers see

A walk through the booking form, step by step, exactly as a customer meets it.

Your booking form is a run of short screens, each asking one question — and a screen only appears when it has more than one sensible answer. Here is the flow, in the wording customers read.

The order customers move through

Three steps come first and can be reordered — Location, Service and Team member. The rest is fixed: date and time, details, then payment if money is due. A Back button sits on every step but the first.

Steps hide themselves when there is nothing to choose: location goes when only one branch offers the service, category when only one category has anything bookable — both settings still read as on, which catches people out. The team step is the exception: it appears even when one person can do the job, so switch Let customers choose staff off to skip it.

Choosing a branch, a service and a person

Branches show their name and address, with an optional map; only those with an active, staffed, bookable service are listed. Group services into categories and customers pick one first, or see a single list under category headings.

• 1The step list — completed steps are ticked and clickable, so customers can go back without starting again. Show it as dots, pills, numbers, a “Step 3 of 6” bar, or not at all.
• 2Search — filters as they type; no match reads “No services match your search.”
• 3A service card — swatch, name, description, duration and price from the service record. Video services carry a Video consultation badge and ignore branches.
• 4The running summary — builds as they choose and always ends with Total, plus Deposit due today where one applies. It can sit beside the form, above it, or be hidden.

Screening questions before the booking

Eligibility questions appear right after the service is chosen — yes/no, single choice, multiple choice, number, text or date, under your own title. Required ones carry a red asterisk, and skipping one shows “Please answer all required questions and complete any uploads before continuing.” Uploaded identification is encrypted, and the customer is told so.

If an answer makes them ineligible, a pop-up headed Not suitable to book shows your message with a Change my answers button, and the booking stops. Rules set to flag instead let it through, marked for staff. Set the service to Secure link after booking and none of this appears in the form — the customer books first and gets a Complete your screening button and an emailed link.

Picking a date and time

For a group booking the form asks “How many people?” first, because party size lengthens the appointment and changes what is free. Customers name the others under “Who else is coming?” and see a running total: “3 people · £75.00 total”.

On “Pick a date & time”, slots are grouped Morning, Afternoon and Evening, only free ones are ever listed, and they print in 24-hour or 12-hour form to match Settings › Region & currency.

• 1The date picker — five styles: Calendar grid (the always-visible month shown here), Dropdown (that same calendar in a popover), Week (a seven-day strip with slot counts), Next free (open days with times inline) and Clinic (an “Earliest we can see you” banner).
• 2The times for that day — spaced by the Time slot interval in Settings. A full day reads “No times available on this day.”
• 3The scarcity note — shown only when the day genuinely has one to six slots left: real availability, never a fixed number.

Next free looks only a fortnight ahead, so a shop booked further out reads “No availability in the next two weeks. Please contact us.” even when later dates are free.

Details, add-ons and paying

Customers may be offered same-visit add-ons: “Want to add anything to this visit? We’ll book it right after your appointment — one trip.” Only what fits after the chosen slot is shown. The step needs three things at once — Appointment bundles on in Settings, Offer same-visit add-on appointments on for the form, and another in-person service at the same branch that fits.

• 1The fixed fields — first and last name, email, phone. Only a name and a valid email are required; anything more comes from eligibility questions.
• 2Notes — optional, and it lands on the booking for your team to read.
• 3The deposit explanation — from the service’s resolved deposit, so it reflects any category or service override. Your reassurance line disappears whenever a deposit is due: this sentence replaces it, which is deliberate.
• 4The confirm button and trust badges — the button always carries the amount: Confirm booking · £25.00, Confirm booking · £10.00 deposit or Confirm & pay · £25.00.

When money is due the card screen follows, in your own colours and fonts.

• 1Digital wallets — an Apple Pay or Google Pay button appears only on a device that supports it, above the “or pay by card” divider.
• 2Card fields — number, expiry, CVC and name on card, in Booked’s own styling with your palette and fonts.
• 3The security note — details go straight to the card network, never to your site. On success the booking is marked paid and confirmed.

The confirmation, and what arrives afterwards

The last screen reads Your booking is confirmed — but only if Auto-approve new bookings is on in Settings › Booking rules. Leave it off and customers read Your booking is requested instead. It sits on another screen, which makes it the most common surprise here.

Below is a card with the reference (GB-00042 by default), the service, team member, branch or “Online — video call”, date, time and price. Add-ons appear under Also in this visit; a course lists every visit. Customers may also get:

• Join video call — for a video appointment; the same link is in their email.
• Complete your screening — a private page for the questions and any identification.
• Add recommended extras — reopens the pop-up headed “For your appointment”, which opens by itself when the service has products.

A confirmation email goes out at the same moment, and reminders follow. Their wording and timing live under Customisation › Notifications.

When a booking is stopped

• The slot went while they typed. They are put back on the time step with the clash explained, rather than losing everything.
• Too many attempts. Ten tries from one internet connection in ten minutes triggers “Too many booking attempts. Please wait a few minutes and try again.” — which is how staff testing lock out real customers.
• A blocked email, domain or address. They read a neutral “Your booking could not be processed. Please contact us if you think this is a mistake.”
• No active licence. The form renders nothing for visitors — administrators see a grey prompt, so it looks fine to you and blank to everyone else.