Calculate Travel Times - BackOffice
If you travel in between locations for appointments, then this feature will be of interest to you. If this option is selected within the Service Time Display window, TimeTap will propose the start times for appointments for your clients based on how long it will take to get there. This feature can be used in different scenarios, but in this page we will cover two examples. In the first example, we will assume that I offer appointments in two different offices which are located in different parts of the city, and clients are able to select the office where they would like to meet for their appointment. For the second example, we will assume that I have an office in the downtown area of my city where clients can come to me for their appointments, but they also have the option to book an appointment at their own home or office.
- If you travel between your different offices
- If you travel between your office and the client's home or place of business
We cover how to use the Calculate Travel Times feature in the scheduler in a different page.
I have two offices where I offer 1-on-1 appointments, one of the offices is located in the downtown area and the other in the southern part of the city. In my mini-website I list both of these offices and my clients can book appointments for themselves or they can call one of the offices and the receptionist will book their appointment. I want my available times to reflect the travel times between the two offices and the time it takes to park my car and get ready for my appointment. For example, if a client schedules an appointment with me at the "Downtown Office" on Monday, January 29th at 9 am to 10 am and another client wants to book an appointment at my "South Charlotte Office" I want the first available time slot at the "South Charlotte Office" to reflect the 20 minute travel time (The travel time is calculated using Google Maps' API) and the time it takes for me to park my car and get all my materials ready.
Before we begin it's important to mention that the two locations in my account, "Downtown Office" and "South Charlotte Office". are Physical Location types, this means that they are stationary and have a fixed address where clients come to meet me:
We'll begin by enabling the "Calculate Travel Times" feature, go to Settings > Time > Service Time Display:
Next, select the box next to Calculate Travel Times and click Save Changes:
Next we will assign inbound and outbound buffers to each location. Begin by going to Settings → Locations, and click view next to any of the locations listed:
Once in the location's profile, click Edit, and scroll to the bottom of the Overview section where you will see "Inbound Buffer Minutes" and "Outbound Buffer Minutes":
- Inbound Buffer Minutes: When you travel between locations and want to have some time upon arriving at this location to get set up before your appointment, enter the time in minutes here
- Outbound Buffer Minutes: When you travel between locations and want to have some time when leaving this location to get your bags packed and get in your car, enter the time in minutes here
At my "Downtown Office" I will add 10 minute inbound and outbound buffers and at my "South Charlotte Office" I will add 5 minute inbound and outbound buffers. These buffers will be added to my travel time and be reflected in the available time slots to the clients:
After the buffers are added, if I have an appointment at my "South Charlotte Office" from 9 am to 10 am and it takes me 20 minutes (TimeTap will around up in 5 minutes increments) to travel to my "Downtown Office", the next available time slot in the scheduler and in the Add New Appointment screen within the backoffice, to the client at the "Downtown Office" would be 10:35 am (20 minutes of travel time + 5 minutes outbound buffer in my "South Charlotte Office" to gather my bag and get in my car + 10 minutes inbound buffer at my "Downtown Office" to park and get to my office)
If the appointments are scheduled back to back at the same location then the buffers and the travel time will not be taken in consideration when displaying available time slot to clients. For example, I have an appointment booked on Monday, January 15th from 9 am to 10 am at at my "South Charlotte Office", if a client wants to book an appointment at this location the next available time slot in the scheduler and in the Add New Appointment screen within the Backoffice would be 10 am and not 10:30 since there's no need to travel:
In this example we will assume that I accept appointments at my "Downtown Office" and I can also travel to meet my clients at their home or place of business. If I have an appointment booked at my "Downtown Office" on Monday, Juanry 29nd at 9 am to 10am, and a client wants me to come to them to provide my services TimeTap should take in consideration the travel time and the outbound buffer when showing the earliest available time slot.
Before we begin it's important to mention that I have two locations in my account, one if my "Downtown Office" and the other is "We come to your home or office". The "Downtown Office" is a Physical Location type, this means that it's stationary and has a fixed address where clients come to meet me:
The "We come to your home or office" is a Variable type, this means that the location could vary for each location and the appointment takes place at an address that's provided by the client at the time of booking:
We'll begin by enabling the "Calculate Travel Times" feature, go to Settings > Time > Service Time Display:
Next, select the box next to Calculate Travel Times and click Save Changes:
Next we will assign inbound and outbound buffers to each location. Begin by going to Settings → Locations, and click view next to any of the locations listed:
Once in the location's profile, click Edit, and scroll to the bottom of the Overview section where you will see "Inbound Buffer Minutes" and "Outbound Buffer Minutes":
- Inbound Buffer Minutes: When you travel between locations and want to have some time upon arriving at this location to get set up before your appointment, enter the time in minutes here
- Outbound Buffer Minutes: When you travel between locations and want to have some time when leaving this location to get your bags packed and get in your car, enter the time in minutes here
I will add 10 minute inbound and outbound buffers at the "Downtown Office", these buffers will be added to my travel time and be reflected in the available time slots to the clients:
A client has booked an appointment with me at the "Downtown Office", this appointment is taking place on Monday, January 29nd at 9 am to 10 am:
Another client calls my office and wants to book an appointment, except she would like me to go her office instead. In the Add New Appointment screen the receptionist selects the location "We come to your home or office", then a new field will appear below the location, Client Address, this is the field where the client's address will have to be entered:
While your cursor is still in the Client Address field, click the Enter/Return button in your keyboard and TimeTap will verify the address with Google Maps then offer an address that matched the address you entered:
Notice that after you select the suggested address an icon appears to the left of the Client Address field, if you click on it the address you entered in this field will be opened in Google Maps:
After the address has been selected, you can add a new client or select from your list of existing clients, and in the Date field select the date when the appointment will be taking place, in this example I'll select January 29th. According to Google Maps it will take me 15 minutes to travel to the client's address from my "Downtown Office", and since I have a 10 minutes outbound buffer at this location the next available time slot for the client would be 10:25 am:
If you view the appointment in the Backoffice, you'll be able to see the address where the appointment is taking place inside the Client Address field:
You can click the icon to the left of the Client Address field to open the location in Google Maps:
Let's assume that you want to add an appointment for a client that already has an address in her profile:
While in the Add New Appointment screen search for the clients and select her name:
Notice that below the Client Address field you will have the option to user address from the client's profile, simply click the link below the field:
The client's address will populate, TimeTap will validate it with Google Maps, and then offer a match:
After the address is selected Google Maps will determine the travel time, TimeTap will add the outbound/inbound buffers, and the next available time slot for an appointment at the client's location would be 10:20 am:
For our final example, let's assume that we have back to back appointments at the client's location. My First appointment of the day on Monday, February 5th takes place at the client's address at 9 am to 10 am:
A new clients call my office and wants to book an appointment at their office, after I validate the client's address in the Add New Appointment screen, Google Maps will calculate the travel time (23 minutes) and will offer the next available time slot at 10:25 am:
