Packages


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Packages

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What are packages?

Packages refer to repeated instances of the same service that are bundled together. For example, in a pet care business, a package would be 3 grooming visits instead of only one. This allows customers to book one of these bundled visits instead of 3 different items booked separately.

How packages benefit your business 

Almost every business in various markets offer packaged services. While it looks like packages mainly benefit customers, there are multiple gains that businesses reap from those deals. From increasing sales to achieving a higher customer satisfaction rate, packages offer positive outcomes for any business. Some of these outcomes are:

  1. Packages increase the company’s initial sale
    Unlike standalone services, packages include more than one service in them. Thus, when a customer chooses to book a package, they pay for the services bundled inside, increasing the company’s initial sale. The key here is making packages and bundles that appeal to the target customer enough, convincing them to choose bundled services instead of standalone ones.
  2. Packages upsell customers without asking them to
    Bundled services, if done correctly, offer customers higher value for the money they pay. This way existing customers would try new services they have never booked before. So, instead of booking only the service they used to book, they would book one more service.

How packages benefit customers

Customers also benefit from package deals. Here are some of the benefits they get:

  1. With packages, customers have more options to choose from
    When services are bundled differently; different number of occurrences or different types of services, they give customers different options to pick from.
  2. Solve many problems through a single booking
    Packages give customers the option to book only once for the different occurrences they need. This saves them from repeating the same process every time they want the service.

Setting up packages on OctopusPro

OctopusPro gives businesses a couple of options to create packages. The package can be created as a standalone product or as an option to be selected when the customer is making a booking.

Standalone packages

Standalone packages are packages that are created by businesses as a separate product. They appear on the business’s website as an option separate from any other item.

To create a standalone package, follow the upcoming steps:

From the sidebar menu, go to Settings > Service Settings > Services

In the service page, click on + Create New

After filling in the service information, click on Create a new package +

A form will appear so you can fill all the package information:

  1. In this field, write the name of the package you want to be shown to the customers. This field is mandatory.
  2. In this field, enter the number of bookings you want to include in the package. This field is mandatory.
  3. In this field, enter the time intervals at which the booking is repeated. This field is optional; you can either fill it or leave it to the customer to decide.
  4. In this field, write the number of days after which the package is no longer valid.This field is optional; you can either fill it or leave it to the customer to decide.

You can create as many packages as you want. Just click on Create a new package +

After adding all the packages you want, click on “Next” to save all the data you have entered:

The system will then redirect you to the cost and payrate page. Fill in the package cost information:

  1. Choose whether your service is paid or for free.
  2. Add all the requirements you want for online payments
  3. Select the way according which you want to charge for your service, the options include:
    1. Charge by time: the customer will be charged based on the time the fieldworker spends at the job
    2. Charge per job: the customer will be charged per service with no regards to the time the service take nor the size of the service
    3. Charge per unit: this option allows you to charge the customer according to the size of the service they require. For example, if you are running a cleaning service, you can select this option to charge the customer according to the size of the area being cleaned.

On the same page, you will also set up the payrates of your fieldworkers. You first need to select the payment structure; hourly or commission:

If you choose an hourly payment structure, this form will appear:

  1. Write down the hourly rate you will pay your fieldworker. This field is mandatory.
  2. In this field, mention the rate per hour for the overtime your employees. This field is mandatory.
  3. In this field, put the rate of the first hour the fieldworker is going to work. This field is mandatory.

After filling in all the information required, click on “Next”:

The other payment structure is to choose to pay your employees by “Commission”:

If you choose the payment structure to be “Commission”, this form will appear:

The form allows you to set both the basic and upsale commissions by either a percentage or a flat rate.

After filling in all the information required, click on “Next”:

The system will then redirect you to the Custom fields page. Add any custom fields you want then click on “Save”:

This way the package is saved on your system and will appear to your customers as an option while booking.

How standalone packages are viewed on the customer portal

For standalone packages, that package options will appear listed below the service:

After choosing to book the service, a list of the available packages will appear on the screen:

A summary of the package chosen will appear on the screen:

When the customer chooses to continue with the booking, the price of the standalone service will appear on the screen:

The order summary will then appear on the screen with the options to remove, edit, or continue with the booking:

The customer will then be directed to a new form that allows them to choose the timing of the different bookings in the package:

A summary of the selected times will then appear on the screen:

After confirming the timings, the customer will be required to provide their contact details:

The last step to confirm the details is to check all the details listed on the “Booking overview”, then click on “Confirm booking”:

Packages as an option within a service

This type of packages doesn’t appear as a standalone option in the services listed on your website. Instead, it is an option that appears under a standalone service. Thus, said service can be booked either for one instance or as a package of multiple instances.

The package option can be added to an already existing service or you can also add it when you are creating a new service.

Adding package options to existing services

To add a package option to a service, follow the below steps:

*Know more about adding services on OctopusPro, click here!

From the sidebar menu, go to Settings > Service Settings > Services

The system will redirect you to the service list page:

From the list, check the service you want to add a package option to. Click on the action button:

From the dropdown menu, click on “Edit”:

On the edit page, click to open the “Custom Fields”:

Click on the “Add New +” button to add the package option for your existing service:

From the dropdown menu, select “Create new custom field”:

A form will appear on the screen:

  • Field label: write in this field the question you want to appear to your customers while they are making their booking
  • Field ID: enter the ID that you want to be associated with the packages in the system. This field does not appear to the customers.
  • Field Type: from the dropdown menu choose the field type as either “Dropdown”, “Radio button”, or “Button group”:

Dropdown:

When you choose to add a dropdown list to your service, the following form will appear for you to fill:

In the “Title” field, write the option you want to appear to the customers in the dropdown menu. The hyperlink “+ Add package” allows you to add package option to your service:

After clicking on the “+ Add package” hyperlink, a form will appear to create a bundled service:

  1. This field should have a descriptive name for the package you have. The name will appear to your customers on the customer portal. 
  2. In this field, mention the number of services included in your package, so the system could automatically calculate the cost.
  3. This “+ Add package” hyperlink allows you to add even more packaging options. So, for example, you can add a package that includes 3 services, another that has 5, and a third that has 7 services. You can add as many packages as you want.

After adding the packages you want, click on “Save”:

Button group:

When you choose to add “Button group” to your service, the following form will appear for you to fill:

In the “Title” field, write the option you want to appear to the customers on the customer portal. The hyperlink “+ Add package” allows you to add package option to your service:

After clicking on the “+ Add package” hyperlink, a form will appear to create a bundled service:

  1. This field should have a descriptive name for the package you have. The name will appear to your customers on the customer portal. 
  2. In this field, mention the number of services included in your package, so the system could automatically calculate the cost.
  3. This “+ Add package” hyperlink allows you to add even more packaging options. So, for example, you can add a package that includes 3 services, another that has 5, and a third that has 7 services. You can add as many packages as you want.

After adding the packages you want, click on “Save”:

Radio button:

When you choose to add “Radio button” to your service, the following form will appear for you to fill:

In the “Title” field, write the option you want to appear to the customers on the customer portal. The hyperlink “+ Add package” allows you to add package option to your service:

After clicking on the “+ Add package” hyperlink, a form will appear to create a bundled service:

  1. This field should have a descriptive name for the package you have. The name will appear to your customers on the customer portal. 
  2. In this field, mention the number of services included in your package, so the system could automatically calculate the cost.
  3. This “+ Add package” hyperlink allows you to add even more packaging options. So, for example, you can add a package that includes 3 services, another that has 5, and a third that has 7 services. You can add as many packages as you want.

After adding the packages you want, click on “Save”:

How packages as an option within a service are viewed on the customer portal

 When the service has package options in them, the different packages do not appear when the customer clicks on the service. Instead, only the service name and picture appear:

When the customer chooses to book the service, a window with the package option will appear on the screen:

After selecting the package option, the different packages will appear on the screen to choose from:

When the customer chooses to continue with the booking, the price of the standalone service will appear on the screen:

The order summary will then appear on the screen with the options to remove, edit, or continue with the booking:

The customer will then be directed to a new form that allows them to choose the timing of the different bookings in the package:

A summary of the selected times will then appear on the screen:

After confirming the timings, the customer will be required to provide their contact details:

The last step to confirm the details is to check all the details listed on the “Booking overview”, then click on “Confirm booking”:

Creating service add-ons using custom fields

OctopusPro allows you to add some services that are related to the service you are offering. For example, if you own a beauty business, you can offer a hair wash with your hair cuts. This offer will be optional, so customers could opt to select it or not.

You can add an additional service to your existing services from the custom fields. The additional service should be optional and incur an additional charge.

To add an additional service, follow the steps below:

From the sidebar menu, go to Settings > Services Settings > Custom Fields

From the custom fields page, select “+ Create New”

A form will appear to create the custom field with the add-on service you want:

  1. Field label: in this field, write the question you want to appear to your customers while booking
  2. Field ID: this field contains the ID of the add-on service. *This field will not be visible to customers.
  3. Helper text: include in this field a text explaining to your customers the add-on service
  4. Field Type: from the dropdown menu choose the field type as either “Checkbox”, or “Checkbox Button group”.

After adding all of the information, click on the hyperlink for “additional cost”, to add the cost you want to charge for the add-on service:

A field will appear, allowing you to enter the price for the add-on service:

After updating all the fields, ,click on “Save”:

After saving the information, add the custom field to the service it is related to. To do so, go to the custom fields page from Settings > Services Settings > Custom Fields

You will be redirected to a page with a list of all the custom fields you have. Click on “Modify Services” next to the custom field you’ve just created:

A window with all the service will appear on the screen so you can link the custom field to its related service/s:

Select the service/s related to the custom field then click on “Save”:

For example: if you own a beauty system and want to add hair styling options to your hair cut service, you will fill the form as shown in the picture below:

Booking a service with an add on the Customer Portal

When a customer is booking a service that has an add-on service linked to it on the Customer Portal, they will have the booking option appear on the screen for them:

After selecting any of the add on services, the extra charge will appear on the screen:

The customer can then complete the booking process normally.

Booking packages

Standalone packages

For standalone packages, that package options will appear listed below the service:

After choosing to book the service, a list of the available packages will appear on the screen:

A summary of the package chosen will appear on the screen:

When the customer chooses to continue with the booking, the price of the standalone service will appear on the screen:

The order summary will then appear on the screen with the options to remove, edit, or continue with the booking:

The customer will then be directed to a new form that allows them to choose the timing of the different bookings in the package:

A summary of the selected times will then appear on the screen:

After confirming the timings, the customer will be required to provide their contact details:

The last step to confirm the details is to check all the details listed on the “Booking overview”, then click on “Confirm booking”:

Packages as an option within a service

 When the service has package options in them, the different packages do not appear when the customer clicks on the service. Instead, only the service name and picture appear:

When the customer chooses to book the service, a window with the package option will appear on the screen:

After selecting the package option, the different packages will appear on the screen to choose from:

When the customer chooses to continue with the booking, the price of the standalone service will appear on the screen:

The order summary will then appear on the screen with the options to remove, edit, or continue with the booking:

The customer will then be directed to a new form that allows them to choose the timing of the different bookings in the package:

A summary of the selected times will then appear on the screen:

After confirming the timings, the customer will be required to provide their contact details:

The last step to confirm the details is to check all the details listed on the “Booking overview”, then click on “Confirm booking”:

Packages with add-on services

For packages that contain add-on services, the additional service will be booked for the same amount of occurrences as packages are. For example, if the customer chooses to book a 3-session package of a haircut and also selected the hair wash as an add-on service. The hair wash will be added to each occurrence. So, the customer will book 3 haircut sessions as well as 3 hair washes.

This increases your business’ sales and ensures that the customer gets the service with their preferred add-on each time.

Customers can book packages with add-on services from the Customer portal. The add-on will be then repeated with all the booking occurrences automatically. 

First the customer needs to select the services they want to book on the Customer Portal:

Then click on “Book Now” to book the service:

The customer will be asked to provide their location so the system can check if the service is available where they are:

Then, the customer will be redirected to the page showing the different packages available for the service:

After selecting the package, a summary with the package details will appear on the screen:

The customer can then proceed by clicking on “Next”. A new page will appear showing the different add-ons available to the service:

After selecting any of the add on services, the extra charge will appear on the screen:

The Customer Portal will then show a summary of a single booking:

The customer will then be asked to provide the time they want the booking to be at:

A summary of the requested dates will appear to the customer:

After confirming the timings, the customer will be required to provide their contact details:

The last step to confirm the details is to check all the details listed on the “Booking overview”, then click on “Confirm booking”:

Package invoicing

OctopusPro allows you multiple ways to invoice your packages. You can decide how you would like to invoice the customers. The options are as follows:

  • Generate an individual invoice for each booking within the package booked

If you choose this invoicing option, the system will give you two other choices:

  • Generate all individual invoices at once when the bookings are created.

This option allows the system to generate all the invoices for the service occurrences included in the booking once the booking is created.

  • Generate the first booking invoice only when the bookings are created.

When selecting this option, invoices will be generated per service. To make it clearer, the system will generate a single invoice each time one of the package services is booked.

  • Generate one invoice that combines all bookings within the package

This option will let the system generate only one invoice for all the services included in the package.

  • Don’t generate any invoices when the bookings are created

In case of selecting this option, no invoices would be generated automatically when packages are booked. Rather, you would manually create the invoices whenever wanted.

For more information please visit Octopuspro user guide, and subscribe to our youtube channel.

Packages | Use cases

When services are bundled differently, they give customers different options to pick from.
Here are some use cases that highlight how different industries can benefit from the Packages feature. These are some of the best suggestions that business owners can get ideas from or even replicate when setting up their own Packages. Next is a step-by-step guide on how to create different Packages for different industries.

Animal Care

The industry of Animal Care has many different service categories such as Dog Grooming, Vet services, Dog Training and Dog walking.
Admin users have the option to create a package that is a bundle of the same service by scheduling the same service for a specific number of times.
To create a package, please follow the below steps:

  • Login to your Admin user account then navigate to Settings> Service Settings
  • Click on Services then click on Create new
  • Fill-in the required info then click “Next”
  • Scroll down after selecting how to invoice your customer to the part where you can select where to provide the service.
  • Complete required info and upload service images or videos “optional” to help customers understand how the service works.
  • Click on Next
  • The system will then redirect you to the cost and payrate page where you’ll need to update the below:
    • Fill in the package cost information
    • Choose whether your service is paid or free 
    • Set-up payment options as per your business
    • Set up the payrates of your fieldworkers by selecting the payment structure then add its required options
  • After filling in all the information required, click on “Next”.
  • The system will then redirect you to the Custom fields page. Add any custom fields you want then click on “Save”.
Home Maintenance

The industry of Home Maintenance has many different service categories such as Pool Cleaning, Gardening & Lawn Mowing, Irrigation & Reticulation, Drainage, Landscaping, Furniture Assembly, and so on.

As an Admin user, you have the option to create a package with more than one service or to create a package with same service, provided that it would be available multiple times at a discounted price, this helps in selling services with low or none demands.

As an example, you may create a package that contains the service of Pool Cleaning and Gardening.

To create the advised package, you may follow the below steps:

  • Go to Settings > Service Settings > Services
  • Click on Services then click on Create new

  • Add service title and select | add category then click on Create a new package
  • Fill-in the required info then click “Next”
  • Scroll down after selecting how to invoice your customer to the part where you can select where to provide the service.
  • Complete required info and upload service images or videos “optional” to help customers understand how the service works.
  • Click on Next
  • The system will then redirect you to the cost and payrate page where you’ll need to update the below:
    • Fill in the package cost information
    • Choose whether your service is paid or free 
    • Set-up payment options as per your business
    • Set up the payrates of your fieldworkers by selecting the payment structure then add its required options
  • After filling in all the information required, click on “Next”.
  • The system will then redirect you to the Custom fields page. Add any custom fields you want then click on “Save”.
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