Scenario

You'd like to maintain engagement with existing clients/members and increase opportunities to reach prospective clients/members by showcasing specific services your organization offers.

Suggestion

Combine Coconut’s group service and booking shortcut features to create invite-only events - for example a first-time homebuyers webinar or a sustainable investing info session - and invite clients/members and prospects to register through an exclusive link.

When a client/member uses the link, they will be directed to the date & time of the event and need to only enter their details to register

Where to begin?

To make this possible, you will need to create a group service, schedule a group appointment for the service, and create a booking shortcut for the appointment.

Create a group service

To create a group service:

1. From the navigation menu, click Services

2. Click +Add

3. Enter a name for the service

4. Select the service duration

5. Ensure that the visibility is set to Invite Only

6. Select Group Service

7. Select one or multiple meeting methods for the service

8. Complete the additional form fields, where applicable/desired

9. NOTE: Hover over the question icon to learn more about that field and how it is used within Coconut.

10. Click Save

Ensure your group appointment is bookable in advance

If you’re creating a group service for an event that’s more than a few weeks away, it’s important to make sure your organization’s booking policy allows clients to book that far ahead of time. Otherwise, the booking shortcut may not appear to work when tested or shared-even though everything else is set up correctly.

There are two ways to adjust the advance booking window:

To update your general booking policy:

1. From the navigation menu, click Settings

2. Navigate to General, then Booking Policies

3. Click the dropdown next to How far in advance can clients book?

4. Select a timeframe that includes the date of your upcoming group event

To allow extended booking for this specific service only:

1. From the navigation menu, click Settings

2. Navigate to General, then Booking Policies

3. click Set for a specific service

4. Select the relevant group service

5. Adjust the advance booking window for just this service

This is especially helpful if you plan to test or share the booking shortcut before the event falls within your default booking window. Updating these settings ensures the group appointment will be visible and bookable as expected.

Schedule a group appointment

Next, schedule a group appointment for that service on the date your organization wants to host the event. To schedule a group appointment:

1. From Dashboard, click Schedule

2. Do one of the following:

   • Click + New and select Appointment

   • Click the desired date and time from within the calendar and select Appointment

     • NOTE: To pre-populate the location and staff member for the appointment, select the calendar for the desired location and staff member prior to selecting an available date and time

3. Do one of the following:

   • From the Attendees field in the New Appointment screen, search for and select a client who will be attending the appointment

   • To add clients to the group appointment at a later time, leave the Attendees section without a client and proceed to the next action

4. Confirm the intended staff member is listed as the Staff contact on the appointment

   • If not, click the More Actions ellipsis to remove the current staff member

   • From the Attendees field, search for and select the intended staff member

5. Select/confirm the date and time for the appointment

6. Within Details, select the appropriate group service from the Service dropdown

7. Enter the Client Limit for the group appointment/event

   • NOTE: Leave this field blank to provide unlimited attendance for the appointment/event

8. Within Details, complete the optional items, if desired

9. From Internal Notes, click Add notes to include information that is not visible to the client, but may be helpful for a staff member facilitating the group appointment

10. Click Save

Create a booking shortcut

Lastly, create a booking shortcut for the event that your organization can share with clients/members or prospects. To create a booking shortcut:

1. From the navigation menu, click Shortcuts

2. Click +New

   • NOTE: If this is the first booking shortcut, the page will look a little different; click Create a Booking Shortcut to get started

3. Select Make all Invite Only and Public resources visible on the client view to ensure clients/members can choose the invite-only service when using the shortcut

4. If applicable, add staff members and decide whether additional staff can be selected as well when using the shortcut

   • NOTE: To remove a staff member, click the more actions (⋮) icon and click Remove

5. Make your desired Meeting Method, Service Category (if applicable), Service, Location, and Language selections

   • NOTE: If no language selection is made, the booking shortcut will default to the language set for the Client View

6. Enter a name for the shortcut

7. If desired, customize the link address for the shortcut

8. If desired, set an expiration date and time for the shortcut (for example, 3 days prior to the event so that staff can prepare accordingly)

9. If desired, set a usage limit for the shortcut (for example, a maximum of 50 participants)

10. Click Save

The booking shortcut for the invite-only event is complete. You can now test the shortcut by clicking the link for the shortcut in the Booking Shortcuts table. Once successfully tested, share the shortcut with your organization so that it can be used to promote the event.

Additional Resources

For more information on how to create a service, please refer to this article.

For more information on how to schedule a group appointment, please refer to this article.

For more information on how to create a booking shortcut, please refer to this article.