Microsoft Bookings

Vital for distributed teams with multiple systems

Comments: We have people all over the country using many different systems to book time with our staff. Bookings takes the guess work out and allows users to control their calendars more effectively. If someone is attempting to schedule a meeting and isn't on the network, we immediately provide the link to our Bookings page and make it easier on everyone.

Pros:

There are many tools that provide the same type of service as Bookings but the security of the Microsoft suite was important to us. We've previously used other tools but we were able to get everyone into Bookings which made training and troubleshooting easier for the entire staff. Our recruiters are asked to meet with students daily and rather than emailing the student their available times, recruiters can simply provide a link to the calendar which allows students to pick an available time simply. We work with several partners who don't have visibility to calendars when scheduling meeting. Access to the individuals' bookings page makes scheduling easier and reduces the chances of people getting double booked. Meetings booked through a Bookings page is moved over to the Outlook calendar with a notification. Cancellations are also updated in Outlook and the attendees are notified.

Cons:

The customization opportunities are limited. Users can set things like email reminders and calendar invites, and modify color schemes and logos. Would like to see more integrations with other MS products. For example, if a meeting is booked that is going to require a conference call or an online software. It would be nice to automatically have a Microsoft Teams meeting and invite created and emailed to the participants. Ability to create a one-time bookings page that incorporates the calendars of several people would be a nice addition to the product.

Convenience and functionality that work for us

Comments: Overall for us Microsoft Booking works quite well and is a very helpful tool to make sure we get appointments scheduled quickly and have additional tools for the functionality of the booking system that make it very simple to use.

Pros:

The convenience of being able to sync calendars, create recurring appointments and send and get confirmation through the booking systems connection to our outlook, makes Microsoft Booking a highly effective and very necessary part of our tools and systems. Clients can confirm within the email and we get that confirmation as well as regular reminders on the appointed day. Fewer missed appointments by our clients because they also get SMS reminders making it really convenient for us. I also like that it integrates with zoom and teams to have additional functionality to what appears to be a "simple" scheduler.

Cons:

I don't like that getting paid for appointments is still not a simple as some of their competitors who have their standalone booking systems that also allow for payment within their software.

Not quite ready, but close

Pros:

Very easy to implement. Easy to create appointment types and place on our main website. Great flexibility in customer email communications, with reminders of appointments and such.

Cons:

While it's functional on a basic level, there are many many annoyances that just are unexplainable. First, you can access bookings via the web app, or you can access bookings via a Teams plugin, or use an iOS app The problem is, each method provides you a different set of options when creating the booking. Zero consistency. In order to use bookings, you need to add everyone that uses it to the staff, AND, you have to give them full admin control. If someone gets to create bookings, they can also go in and muck with all of the settings. Horrible! The next access tier down is that they can view bookings, but not create or modify them. That's next to useless, if you ask me. Also, every staff member's calendar now shows up in bookings. If you have a receptionist making bookings, there would be no need for their calendar to show up. In the Teams version of the app, you can remove the useless calendars. On the web version you cannot. But on the Teams version, you only have very rudimentary options for creating a booking, so you need to use the Web app to access it. The home page in the web app is useless. It's got buttons for setting up the first time, but not what you need for day to day stuff isn't there, and there's no apparent way to change it. In the calendar page, you can create bookings. There are boxes for customer notes and internal notes. However, once you put anything in there, the boxes are no longer labeled as to what they are. Horrible design.

A great booking platform built into existing Microsoft solutions

Comments: A great solution that's included into the majority of Office licensing.

Pros:

The ability to customise specific types of bookings. I can arrange different meeting types from solution demos to review meetings, configure whether they are in person or online Teams meeting.

Cons:

I think more customisation/branding is needed for the personal bookings page.

Time to Meet

Pros:

The online booking feature is the most impactful. Bookings syncs with a calendar to allow prospective clients the opportunity to view open time slots to meet.

Cons:

The integration of Bookings into my daily routine required effort. The platform would do well for a barber or any professional who charges a fee for their service or time. Bookings needs some polish for those of us who meet and provide a service which may be offered free of charge. Those in a non-profit industry may find that extra time is needed to tailor Bookings to our specific needs before deploying.