What Does This Page Cover? 

Learn how Bookings helps you conduct appointments between multiple staff members and a single customer.

Overview 

A collective booking is a type of meeting that involves multiple staff members and a single customer. Collective bookings are ideal for appointments that require a many-to-one model.

Collective Booking Service in Zoho Bookings 

In Zoho Bookings, we use the term, "Collective Booking Service" to refer to the many-to-one model.

To create a collective booking service, you'll have to:

• Create a staff group by choosing multiple staff members.

• Create multiple staff groups.

Staff groups can be created and assigned while adding a service. When the customer makes an appointment, any group can be booked for the appointment, depending on the availability of its members.

Scenario: Let's say Kevin has ten staff members (Members A-.J) and needs three of them to provide a consultation.                                    

Kevin can create a collective booking service in Zoho Bookings and add staff groups. He can create different staff member combinations (ABC, BDE, FGI et.c) and assign them to the service. Now, when a customer books an appointment, any one of the staff groups can be assigned.

Use Case

Let's say a hiring company relies on Zoho Bookings to schedule their interviews. In some cases, they may need multiple interviewers to meet with a candidate. A collective booking service can be used for these interviews, which involve multiple interviewers and a single candidate.

Adding a  Collective Booking Service

Collective booking service setup flow 

Steps For Creating a Collective Booking Service

1. Click Services on the menu bar. Click the add button  next to Services on the top-left side. Choose Collective Booking.
   

2. A pop-up window will open, where you can enter the below details:

• Workspace: Select a workspace where the service will be added.

• Name of the Service: Enter a name for the collective booking service.

• Duration: Enter a time duration for the service.
  

• Price: Enter a cost for the service.

• Buffer Time: It is the extra time allocated before and after an appointment, which can be used for preparation or winding up. Select the Add buffer time checkbox to enter buffer time. Specify the time for Pre-buffer(buffer time before) and Post-buffer(buffer time after).
  
  

• Preferred Meeting Tool: Choose the meeting method for the appointment. This get populates depending on which video conferencing tool is integrated and the in-person locations added in the workspace. 
  
  
  

• Group Assigned: Similar to assigning a staff member to a service, you can assign a group of staff members as a single entity. Multiple groups can be assigned to a service.
  
  To create a staff group:

1. Choose staff members from the Group Assigned dropdown.

2. Set any member as an organizer by clicking Set as Organizer.

3. Click the +Create Group button to create a single group.
   
   
   

To create another group, click the Group Assigned dropdown again and repeat the above steps. Multiple groups can be created.

3. Click Save.

You can now share the booking page URL to let your customers schedule their collective booking service appointments.

Things To Know 

• Collective Booking Service Details

• Group Assigned
  
  

• Notifications 
  
  

• Booking Page
  

Collective Booking Service Details 

Navigate to Services > Required collective booking service to view/edit the details and various settings of your collective booking service.

Group Assigned  

To view/edit the staff groups assigned to a service, navigate to Services > Required Collective Booking Service > Group Assigned.

Here, you can:

• View the staff groups assigned.

• Edit or delete each staff group.

• Add a new staff group.

Notifications 

Email and SMS notifications will be sent to all staff and customers if notification is configured.

To include the staff list in the notifications, you can use the variable, %cohosts%. This returns the email address of the co-attendees(staff other than the organizer). This can be accessed under Services > Service Notifications > Customize.

Booking Page 

Points to Note

• Availability of all staff members in a group is checked. Only when all staff in the group are available can a particular slot be made available for booking.

• An organizer has to be chosen for each staff group.

• If an online meeting is enabled for a service, the organizer should integrate/add the meeting tool. Only then will a meeting link be created. The meeting link will be sent to all the staff in the group through email.

• A calendar event will be created from the organizer's calendar and other staff in the group will be added as attendees.

• When a staff who was set as an organizer is removed or marked as inactive, another staff member will be automatically assigned as organizer for the group. You can set your preferred staff member as the organizer under Services > Group Assigned. 

Related Topics 

Service Availability

Service Notifications

Service Preferences

Service Booking Form

Service Booking URL

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