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System Settings

Setting Up Your Appointment System

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This guide will walk you through configuring your appointment system in CloudBridal. We'll start with essential setup steps to get your basic booking system running, then explore additional features to enhance your customer experience and streamline your operations.

Contents

Essential Setup

Before you can start accepting appointments, you'll need to complete these three core steps. Each component works together to create a seamless booking experience for both you and your customers.

Creating Appointment Types

Appointment types define the different services you offer and how they operate. Common examples include bridal appointments (typically 90-120 minutes), bridesmaid appointments (60 minutes), alterations fittings (30-45 minutes), and prom/formal appointments (60 minutes).

Basic Settings:

  • Name: The name of the appointment type that the customer sees when booking.
  • Description: An optional description you can use to provide details about the appointment.
  • Duration: The length of the appointment in minutes. Must be an increment of 15 minutes.
  • Buffer Time: The gap in minutes after the end of an appointment before taking bookings for the next appointment. This can be useful if you need to build some time in for overages or to prepare for the next appointment.
  • Appointment Stage: Choose between first-time or follow-up. First-time appointments will always create a new customer profile when the appointment is confirmed. On the other hand, follow-up appointments are tied to an existing customer profile.
  • Customer Type: Link appointments to specific customer categories (e.g., "Bride" or "Prom"). This automatically sets up the right profile type when new customers book.

Payment Integration (requires Stripe): CloudBridal integrates with Stripe to handle deposits, payments, or reservations. For each appointment type, you can:

  • Require immediate payment during booking
  • Hold a card to secure a booking, with the option of charging a fee for no-shows or late cancellations
  • Manual charging by staff members
  • Set different deposit amounts
  • Customize payment-related messages

Setting Up Rooms

Rooms in CloudBridal are intended to help you manage your overall capacity. A single room can handle one appointment at a time. Additional rooms allow you to take multiple appointments at the same time.

Room Configuration:

  • Name rooms clearly (e.g., "Bridal Suite 1", "Alterations Room")
  • Assign which appointment types can be allocated to each room
  • Set distinct colors for easy calendar identification
  • Use room restrictions to ensure specialized appointments (like alterations) only book in appropriate spaces
  • Consider creating temporary rooms for busy seasons or special events

Configuring Schedules

Schedules determine when appointments can be booked. They're highly flexible and can be customized to match your business operations.

Schedule Types:

  • Fixed Schedule: Your regular weekly operating hours
  • Staff-Linked Schedule: Link availability to staff working hours instead of fixed times

Basic Settings

Booking Windows

Control when and how far ahead appointments can be booked. These settings help you manage your calendar and ensure you have adequate preparation time.

Lead Times:

  • Minimum Notice: Set how far in advance customers must book (default: 12 hours)
    • Consider your preparation needs and staffing schedules
    • Can be overridden per appointment type for specialized services
  • Maximum Booking Window: Control how far ahead customers can schedule (default: 3 months)
    • Adjust based on your industry - bridal often needs 6-12 months
    • Balance between filling your calendar and maintaining flexibility

Cancellation and Changes:

  • Set required notice periods for cancellations and reschedules
  • Configure whether customers can make these changes themselves
  • Set different policies for different appointment types

Customer Information Collection

Configure what information to collect during the appointment booking process. CloudBridal provides both standard fields and the ability to create custom fields for different appointment types.

Standard Fields:

  1. Event Date

    • Track wedding or event dates
    • Can be made optional or required
    • Label is customizable in Customer settings
    • Enable/disable field visibility

  2. Additional Questions

    • Free-form field for notes and comments
    • Always optional when enabled
    • Enable/disable field visibility

  3. First Time Visit

    • Track if it's their first bridal shop visit
    • Required when enabled
    • Enable/disable field visibility

  4. Home Address

    • Collect customer address information
    • Can be made optional or required
    • Enable/disable field visibility

  5. Referral Source

    • Track how customers found your store
    • Configure referral options in Customer settings
    • Can be made optional or required
    • Enable/disable field visibility

Custom Fields System:

You can create two types of custom fields:

  1. First-Time Appointment Fields: Useful to capture additional information at the time of booking. E.g. "Budget" or "Dress Size"

    • Create fields specific to new customers
    • Set field type (text, dropdown, etc.)
    • Add help text for clarity
    • Make fields required or optional
    • Limit to specific appointment types
    • Shows on booking form and staff-created appointments

  2. Follow-Up Appointment Fields

    • Separate fields for follow-up appointments
    • Limit to specific appointment types

Each custom field can be configured with:

  • Field type (text, dropdown, etc.)
  • Required/optional status
  • Help text for customers
  • Visibility rules by appointment type
  • Position in the form

Communication Settings

Configure how CloudBridal communicates with customers and staff about appointments.

Email Settings:

  1. Customer Notifications

    • Enable/disable appointment status emails to customers
    • Sent when appointments are created or status changes
    • Customize messages for different appointment statuses:
      • Pending appointments
      • Confirmed appointments
      • Declined appointments
      • Cancelled appointments
    • Set up appointment reminders
      • Configure days before appointment
      • Customize reminder message text

  2. Staff Notifications

    • Enable/disable new appointment notifications
    • Sent to business email address
    • Option to notify for staff-confirmed appointments
    • Configure which appointment types trigger notifications

SMS Settings (requires Twilio integration):

  1. Status Updates

    • Configure SMS for different appointment statuses:
      • Pending appointments
      • Confirmed appointments
      • Declined appointments
      • Cancelled appointments
    • Customize message text for each status
    • Enable/disable per appointment type

  2. Appointment Reminders

    • Set up automated SMS reminders
    • Configure days before appointment
    • Customize reminder message text
    • Enable/disable per appointment type

Per Appointment Type Settings:

  • Override global message settings
  • Custom email subjects and message text
  • Custom SMS messages
  • Disable emails or SMS for specific types
  • Use smart fields in messages for personalization

Best Practices:

  • Keep SMS messages under 160 characters to avoid splitting
  • Use smart fields to personalize messages
  • Configure both email and SMS for better reach
  • Test messages before enabling for customers

Payment Integration

Requires Stripe integration to be enabled. When configured, you can set different payment requirements for each appointment type:

Payment Modes (choose one per appointment type):

  • Charge at Booking: Customer pays when booking the appointment
  • Manual Charging: Staff processes payment later in the appointment calendar
  • Reserve: Customer provides card details for potential no-show charges, but no immediate payment

For any payment mode, you can:

  • Set the amount to charge/hold
  • Add a custom disclaimer message that customers see during booking
  • Skip payment requirements for specific appointments

When an appointment requires payment, customers will see clear messaging about:

  • Whether they'll be charged immediately
  • The amount to be charged/held
  • Any additional payment policies or disclaimers

💡 Note: Payment features are only available when Stripe is properly configured in your account settings.

Branding and Display

Customize the appearance of your booking system to match your brand identity. These settings control how your scheduler appears to customers.

Color Settings:

  • Business Name Text: Set the accent color for your business name
  • Primary Button: Main action button color
  • Calendar Background: Set the calendar's base color
  • Slot Selection: Different colors for selecting/deselecting time slots
  • Waitlist Button: Customize the waitlist join button
  • Payment Labels: Set color for payment amount displays
  • Menu Items: Color for selected menu items
  • Page Background: Overall background color

Making Your Scheduler Available

Choose how customers access your booking system:

  1. Direct Links

    • Create links for specific appointment types
    • This is a good option when you want to have full control over your web page design. You can create a page with details about your appointment types, and simply add these links to your booking buttons within the page.

  2. General Booking Link

    • Show all available appointment types
    • This is a very simple option with just a single booking link. When a customer clicks this link, it will bring them to a page where they can select their desired appointment type and proceed with the booking.

  3. Embed

    • Embed the scheduler directly in your site, which creates a seamless booking experience for your clients. The main consideration is that this requires more technical knowledge to set up, so be sure that you are confident making the required changes yourself, or you can work with a designer to assist you.
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Customer Settings