October 26, 2017
Table of contents
Starting today, you may notice something different with Services in Time To Pet. That they may be a little "Smarter" than usual. That's because this morning we released our newest feature --- Smart Services!
Smart Services is a significant upgrade to how services work in Time To Pet. We've revamped the technical structure of a service which allows us to add some increased (and smart!) functionality to it. This functionality includes Auto Fees and Frequency Discounts.
To get started --- you'll notice that we have re-organized the "Edit" screen for a service. There are now three tabs at the top. One for "Setup", one for "Auto Fees" and one for "Frequency Discounts".
The Setup screen is similar to the old Edit Service screen but it has been organized to include General Information about the service at the top.
And information on the default rates for the service at the bottom.
The next tab is for Auto Fees. Auto Fees allow you to automatically add fees to events that are scheduled after hours or on the weekend. For After Hours --- first enable these fees, then set your work hours and choose how much you charge your client and pay your staff. These fees will be automatically added to an event when the start time is outside of your normal business hours. (Take a look at our help article for more details on After Hours Fees)
Setting Weekend Fees is similar. Just enable this fee and set your rates. When enabled, Time To Pet will always tack on extra fees when events are scheduled on a Saturday or Sunday. (Take a look at our help article for more details on Weekend Fees)
Frequency Discounts is a major upgrade to how a service works in Time To Pet. Many of our customers offer special pricing to clients when they book a certain number of visits per day, per week or per month. Now, the rates for those services will automatically be adjusted based on the rules created in Frequency Discounts!
Frequency Discounts can be set to one of three "Frequency Periods". Either Daily, Weekly or Monthly. When set to Daily --- you can create rules that will automatically adjust the rates of a service when a certain number of visits are scheduled per day. This is the same for Weekly and for Monthly. Only one frequency period can be set per service.
Let's run through an example. You charge $25 for your dog walking service when less than 5 visits are scheduled per week. However --- if a customer books more than 5 visits per week, the rate is reduced to $22. You would set your 1st level frequency discount as shown below:
If you want to give clients even more incentive to book visits, you can add an additional level. Let's say you want to reduce the rate to $20 when a client books more than 10 visits per week. You would set your 2nd level frequency discount to:
You will notice that your 1st level discount has been automatically updated to reflect that only between 5 and 9 visits get this special pricing:
Frequency Discounts also allow you to override the staff pay rate at each level as well.
For more information about Frequency Discounts, be sure to check out our help article.