How to Add & Manage Service Categories
Structuring your service catalog into clear, intuitive categories is one of the fastest-acting UX wins you can make in any booking platform. Research shows that well-designed taxonomies shorten the customer journey, reduce errors during checkout and increase conversion across ecommerce and field-service apps. OctopusPro lets you create unlimited categories, edit them at any time and assign the same service to more than one category—giving you the flexibility to mirror how real customers think about the work you perform.
Why service categories matter
| Benefit | What it means in practice | Supporting insight |
|---|---|---|
| Faster customer navigation | Users scan a concise list instead of scrolling every service | Category menus cut decision time by up to 50 % |
| Cleaner quotes & bookings for staff | Admins and fieldworkers pick from a filtered list, avoiding mis-selection | Service-catalog best practice emphasises tight taxonomies |
| Higher search visibility | Each category page can target keywords (“Air-con Repairs”, “End-of-Lease Cleaning”) | Well-named categories boost organic clicks by 15-25 % |
| Future-proof scalability | Add new trends (e-bike repairs, EV charging) without clutter | Continuous catalog tuning is an ITIL recommendation |
Step-by-step: Create a new category
- Navigate: Settings › Service Settings › Services › Categories
- Click Create New
- Name & describe the category (e.g., “Hybrid & EV Repairs”)
- Add an image to improve visual scanning in the portal (optional)
- Assign services now or later—one service can live in multiple categories
- Save
Your new category is immediately available to customers, admin users and fieldworkers when they create quotes or bookings.
Example
Beauty salon
- Category Hair → Blow-dry, Haircut, Color
- Category Body → Body-scrub, Wrap
- Category Nails → Manicure, Gel polish
Managing existing categories
| Task | How to do it | Up-side of doing it |
|---|---|---|
| Rename or add image | Categories list ▸ ▼ ▸ Edit | Rebrand “General Cleaning” to “Standard House Clean”; refresh icons so the Customer Portal looks current |
| Re-order | Drag-and-drop rows in Categories list | Put best-selling categories first so customers see them immediately |
| Add / remove services | Categories list ▸ ▼ ▸ Modify Services | Move “Tile Sealing” into both “Floor Care” and “Bathroom” for cross-selling |
| Bulk add services | Services tab ▸ tick items ▸ Assign to Category | Launch a new “Winter Specials” bundle across dozens of services in seconds |
| Quick re-tag a single service (new) | Services tab ▸ Manage Categories link in the Category column → tick/untick → Save |
Fix mis-filed items or update a service’s category without opening the full edit screen |
Tip: in the Services tab you can multi-select rows with the checkboxes, click Assign to Category, and bulk-move everything at once—ideal for large seasonal reorganisations.
Deleting a category (safely)
- Modify Services and un-assign every service
- Return to Categories list ▸ ▼ ▸ Delete
- OctopusPro enforces at least one category, so keep a fallback like “Miscellaneous”
Fitness studio example: Discontinue “Yoga” classes ➜ remove “Hatha Yoga”, “Vinyasa Yoga” ➜ delete “Yoga” category.
Impact on service selection
- Admins & fieldworkers – Quote/Booking wizard shows a tidy, collapsible tree, so staff choose the right item first time.
- Customers – Inquiry form and portal display categories (toggle in Settings › Customer Portal › Inquiry Form). Large catalogs become browsable instead of overwhelming, driving higher completion rates.
Example:
When Massage at Home category is clicked:
When Corporate Massage category is clicked.
Tips & best practice
- Keep names customer-friendly (“Carpet Steam Clean”)—avoid internal jargon.
- Limit top-level categories to 7±2 items for optimal recall.
- Review analytics quarterly—merge low-volume categories to reduce noise.
- Use the Display Order field to surface seasonal promos (e.g., “Gutter Cleaning – Autumn”).
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