How to Use the Dubsado Appointment Scheduler for Your Business
One of the tools that Dubsado offers its users is a scheduler - a way for leads and clients to book appointments with you without an endless stream of back and forth emails to find a time that works for you both (remember those days?).
Some Dubsado users continue to use other scheduling software like Calendly or Acuity. Even though Dubsado has the same capability.
For some there is a good reason to use other scheduling software. They need to book recurring appointments, group scheduling, etc.
But others don't make the switch because they're comfortable using their current software.
If you have workflows setup in Dubsado and are using it for other tasks, you’re missing out by not using the scheduler.
Why?
Because you can tie in appointment triggers into your workflows. Appointments can triggers actions at these specific times:
After appointments are scheduled
Before an appointment start time
After an appointment has ended
When a client books an appointment, Dubsado can send an email or a form an hour after the meeting ends. Or it can send an email with a questionnaire right after they book an appointment.
If the Dubsado scheduler feels a bit intimidating, you're not alone. Here are step by step instructions to take you through the setup of a scheduler.
How to setup a Dubsado Appointment Scheduler
Part 1 - Dubsado Scheduler Basic Settings
1. Appointment Name: the name of the scheduler or appointment.
2. Appointment duration: the default options are 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes. You can also set a custom time.
3. When can this appointment be scheduled?: here you have 3 different options
Rolling day window: allows people to book within a certain number of days ahead in your schedule. I recommend 14 or 30 days to avoid having people book too far out in your calendar - but it depends on your type of business.
Fixed date range: sets a specific start and end date for them to book appointments in. This works well if you're having a lot of sales calls during the launch of a program or if you’re selling photoshoots at a certain time of year.
Indefinitely: appointments can be booked at any time in the future.
4. What times are you available?: It sets your availability window - kind of like your working hours. You can edit it for specific dates or set schedules for specific days of the week.
5. Once booked, show me as: shows you as busy or available once an appointment is booked. If you’re syncing your Dubsado calendar with an external calendar you might want to set this to ‘Busy’. But it depends on the appointment type.
6. Location: place the address if the meeting will take place in person.
If using video conferencing check the box and Dubsado will add your Zoom link (first you'll need to integrate Zoom to Dubsado in your settings).
If using video conferencing, make sure to use the appointment conferencing link smart field and not the meeting location in your email reminders so people have the Zoom link in their email.
7. Email: this is the canned email sent by the system when sharing your scheduler link with someone. It’s not something I ever use to be honest, since I embed my discovery call scheduler in my website.
Part 2 - Dubsado Scheduler Advanced Settings
1 - Prevention: prevents appointments from being booked X hours in advance. This way you’re not booked at the very last minute and it reduces the chances of you missing an appointment.
2 - Buffer Time: allows you to set a buffer of a certain number of minutes before and after an appointment. To allow you to prepare before a call and also to do any of the things you need to do after a call (take notes, send a proposal, etc.) It also allows you some breathing room so appointments aren’t booked back to back.
3- Increments: it controls how the appointment increments are displayed. You can set it at 30 minutes or 60 minutes (or something else you prefer). If it’s set to 30 minutes they’ll see: 9:00 am, 9:30 am, 10:00 am, 10:30 am, etc. If it’s set to 60 minutes they’ll see: 9:00 am, 10:00 am, etc.
4- Appointment details: lets you set the maximum number of appointments that can be booked per day. You can still be booked on other schedulers.
The option ‘allow this scheduler to be used’ will let you set the TOTAL number of appointments that can be booked. After this it will no longer allow future bookings. This setting works well for promotions.
5 - Welcoming message: it's the message that appears at the top of the scheduler when they open the link. It’s not visible for embedded schedulers.
6 - Confirmation email: it’s the email that Dubsado sends them when they finish booking an appointment. Choose the specific email you want to use from the canned email list.
7 - Additional form: this allows you to attach a questionnaire or a lead capture form to the booking. It requires to fill out the form before completing the booking.
If using the scheduler with new leads - attach a lead capture form and it will create a new client / project in the system.
8 - Redirect URL: it's the page they will be redirected to after completing their booking. If you have a ‘Thank You’ page on your website, you can place the link here if it makes sense.
9 - Invoice: it’s perfect if you charge for some appointments and need people to pay before booking time with you. Keep in mind that the invoice needs to be paid in full, there are no options for payment plans here.
10 - Notification: toggle on to set reminders before your appointment. This is important to set as people can forget appointments in their calendar. I set a reminder 24 hours in advance and then another one 1 hour or 30 minutes before the appointment.
11 - Monthly view - This changes the view of the scheduler from a monthly calendar view to a weekly view. I am NOT a fan of the weekly view, it’s not how I’m used to looking at calendar so I always keep the monthly view toggled on.
Tutorial: How to setup a Dubsado scheduler
Here is a quick tutorial to show you how to setup a Dubsado appointment scheduler. I cover the basic and advanced settings written above.
Need help with Dubsado?
Need more support setting up Dubsado and customizing it for your business? I can help you with my Done-For-You Dubsado setup.
To learn more book a free discovery call. We’ll talk about your business, where you need help and we’ll decide if it makes sense to work together.