Allow customers to cancel bookings through the customer portal and email links

OctopusPro allows your customers to cancel their bookings on their own, providing them with a positive experience represented by our properly implemented cancellation flow. A difficult cancellation process or lack of the ability to cancel for users makes them less willing to use your services again in the future.

• How do the admin users allow customers to cancel bookings through the customer portal and email links?
• How do customers cancel bookings from the customer portal? 
• How do customers cancel the booking from the email links?
• How do the admins/fieldworkers cancel the bookings? 
• How do fieldworkers notice that the bookings are canceled?
• How do the admin users disable their customers’ to cancel bookings through the customer portal and email links?

How do the admin users allow customers to cancel bookings through the customer portal and email links?

Admin users can enable this flag to allow your customers to cancel their bookings through the customer portal or through the booking confirmation email as you can include the cancellation link in the email body.

To enable this flag, please go to Settings > Customer Portal > Flags & Permissions. You will be redirected to the customer portal flags and permissions settings page. In the booking flags section, enable the “Allow customers to cancel bookings through the customer portal and email links” flag.

How do customers cancel bookings from the customer portal?

Customers can cancel their bookings from their account by visiting the targeted booking view page on the customer portal and clicking on the Cancel booking button as displayed below:

A popup window will appear when customers click to cancel their booking. Customers are required to add a comment to let them know further information about canceling.

Click on “Cancel” as a final step to cancel your booking.

The “Cancel booking” button will be converted to “Schedule an appointment” to allow the customer to create a new appointment if needed.

How do customers cancel the booking from the email links?

Customers can cancel their bookings using the cancellation link provided in the booking confirmation email sent to them at the time of the booking creation as displayed below:

Your customers will be redirected to the booking view page on the customer portal where the booking will be viewed as “Canceled” and the “Schedule an appointment” button will appear.

How do the admin users cancel bookings?

Admin users can cancel bookings by navigating to Bookings > All bookings 

Select the booking you need to cancel then click on “Edit bookings”, and change the status from the drop-down menu to “Cancelled” as displayed below:

A pop-up window will be displayed with an option to add a cancellation fee.

If you want to apply a cancellation fee, admin users need to set up the cancellation fees by navigating to Settings > Financial Settings > Tax and fees and setting up the fees as displayed below:

To learn more about cancellation fees, please visit Add a Cancellation Fee

Once the booking is canceled, your customer will receive a notification email about the cancellation with a link to view the booking details, which will display the status “Canceled” as displayed below:

How to inform the assigned fieldworker about the booking cancellation?

If a certain booking is canceled, the assigned fieldworker will receive a push notification on the mobile app, and also be able to view the same notification under the “Notifications” section on the app, as displayed below:

How do the admin users disable their customers’ to cancel bookings through the customer portal and email links?

 If you don’t want to allow your customers to cancel through your portal you can disable this feature from your customer portal settings and remove the cancel links from your email confirmation and reminder email templates. 

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