The internet has fundamentally altered every aspect of running a business, and that includes the way we make and take bookings. The days are gone in which customers would pick up the phone, you pull out our diary and pick a date which worked for both parties.

In 2016, many more people booked online through social networks, dedicated websites and third party comparison sites. Our calendars automatically update to reflect the bookings we make and we’re instantly emailed a reminder to keep us from missing them. Put simply, we’ve entered an age of overwhelming simplicity for the customer, but what about for the business?

If you’re interested in online booking systems but don’t know how booking works or any other detail around online booking, you’re in luck. In this guide, we’re going to break down everything you need to know in this beginners guide to online booking systems.

What is an online booking system?

Put simply, an online booking system is a piece of software which allows a potential customer to book and pay for an activity or service through your website. Advanced booking systems allow customers to book through social networks and even on their mobile phones, helping deliver bookings wherever your customers happen to be, at whatever time they desire.

Online bookings have grown rapidly to supersede traditional phone booking systems, which required members of staff to be on hand to take bookings and manage them manually.

How does an online booking system work?

An online reservation system exists entirely within your website and requires no installation from your customer to continue with their purchase.

A customer will land on your website and choose which activity or service they’d like to book, and then will click through to the booking page. At this stage, the customer will fill in a booking form. Custom forms can also be set, allowing you to harvest whatever information you require in order to complete the booking.

The customer will then pay through a secure payment gateway, and the payment will be transferred to you. This information is displayed in our secure Content Management System, which is only accessible via a login and password, offering greater security than competing booking methods.

Online booking systems, sit on a private server and allowing your customers to make reservations within your business. With BookingLive, your customers can visit your website or social media page and make a reservation, either paying online or paying in person once they arrive at your business.

Are online booking payment secure?

Computerised booking systems are, on the whole, extremely secure. Gone are the dark days of the Internet where every transaction felt like it might be a scam, replaced instead by a broadly secure framework which supports consumers.

All transactions placed through BookingLive’s software are very secure. Every payment gateway that we use is chosen to help keep payments secure and customers safe from fraud. That means the use of HTTPS and proprietary security protocols which ensure trust in your business is never eroded by unscrupulous scammers.

How does BookingLive keep my data secure?

Data security has never been more crucial than it is right now. Hacks have become global news, so the prospect of having your customers’ data revealed to hackers is a real worry. That’s why at BookingLive we go the extra mile to ensure the safety of our customers’ data.

Our servers are PCI compliant and have regular data backups and SSL enabled technology to ensure absolute security for our clients. Coupled with mandatory and automatic HTTPS encryption on every website with BookingLive booking software and you’ll find that many online booking systems prioritise keeping data secure.

Finally, our servers are structured so that every customer has their own database. This means that in the extremely unlikely event of a hacker gaining access to our servers, they would only be able to access information for one site – this is something which is which most of our competitors don’t do.

What payment methods do online booking systems accept?

Online booking software enables payments through a variety of methods, accepting all Visa and Visa Debit cards, credit cards and trusted online payment providers like PayPal and Google Wallet.

Which types of businesses can benefit from an OBS?

If your business, company or organisation takes bookings of any kinds, it too can benefit from an online booking and reservation system. The following are examples of businesses which we’ve helped implement successful online booking platforms:

• Schools
• Local government
• Childcare providers
• Activities companies
• Cookery Classes
• Courses
• Events
• Meeting Room Hire
• SMEs
• Training providers
• Tour operators

So, if you’re wondering what impact an online booking system has on your business, the answer is a huge one. Put plainly, if you’ve got a business that takes bookings and a website, so keep up with the online booking trend, and more importantly – ahead of your competitors.

How much do online booking systems cost?

Online booking systems are cheaper than many imagine them to be, and are scalable for businesses, making them a compelling option for businesses of all sizes.

A key advantage of BookingLive as on online booking system provider is that we have pricing plans that fit businesses of all sizes, starting from £50 a month.

Do online booking systems take a cut of my bookings?

Many free online booking software platforms make their money by taking a slice of your transaction in return for connecting you with your customer. However many online booking systems which you pay for on a monthly plan don’t usually charge per transaction, instead of working on a flat, fair rate that works for everybody. This is something which we do here at BookingLive.

Can customers book via their smart devices with online booking systems?

The simple answer to this is yes, of course, they can. Many online booking systems rely on old code, which offers a fantastic booking experience on desktops and laptops, but a poor one on mobile devices.

That’s not good enough, especially for a business which is interested in generating online bookings and reservations well into the future. That’s why we’ve built BookingLive to resize to fit perfectly on whatever device you’re using. Whether you’re on a computer at the office or using your phone on the train, BookingLive’s booking and reservation system are designed to be perfectly flexible.

Advantages of online booking software

Online booking software platforms have a huge number of potential benefits for businesses and consumers alike. Here are just a few examples:

Does my business need an online booking system?

By now, we’ve covered every aspect of online booking systems and answered many of the most commonly asked questions that are put to us on a near daily basis. However, we haven’t touched on perhaps the most vital of all – does my business need an online booking system?

The simple answer is; if you have a business that takes bookings and you have a website, absolutely, yes. The big trends in e-commerce over the last 5 years has been a simplification. Research has revealed that the more steps between your customer and their purchase, the less likely they are to go through with it.

By forcing your customer to book over the phone, you’re severely limiting the number of bookings you can receive, and in tough economic times, that’s an ill-advised position to take.

Getting started with an online booking system couldn’t be easier. Simply request a free demo from our team and we’ll work with you to meet your businesses needs. A dedicated member of our staff will be with you every step of the way and before you know it, you’ll be taking orders and managing customers online with ease.

Have more questions? Look at BookingLive’s frequently asked questions or contact us.

As we pass the mid-point of 2017, the status of our online security has never been more important.

Huge hacks have continued to dominate the news cycle over the last few years as companies, organisations and individuals as high profile as the NHS, Sony Pictures, the DNC, the World Anti-Doping Agency and even Facebook’s own Mark Zuckerberg have fallen foul, proving that nobody is immune to hacking.

Indeed, Mark Zuckerberg sparked a debate around online security when he shared a photo of him celebrating Instagram reaching their 500 millionth user milestone. In the background of this image was his laptop, with tape over his webcam and microphone.

Why? To prevent hackers attacking his webcam. Hackers do this by using attachments that contain malware, once these files are opened the hacker will have access to the functions on the computer, including the webcam and microphone meaning that anything done or said in front of the computer could be observed.

Put simply, the state of the security of what we do online is now at the very forefront of how we all think. However, even with those security fears in mind, online booking is now such an established part of our lives that it’s almost impossible to imagine going without it.

Clearly, a secure online booking system is required to help mitigate the uncertainty that surrounds buying and booking online in this day and age. But how does BookingLive’s online booking software ensure a secure booking system, and do customers really care about security as much as we believe?

Why Secure Online Booking is Utterly Essential

Shockingly, 91% of us perceive public WiFi as unsecure, and yet 89% of us still use it anyway. Free public WiFi has gone from something that few of us connect to, to an essential part of our everyday lives.

We use it in coffee shops, on transport, in hotels and just about anywhere in public, we can connect, despite the fact that almost all of us don’t believe it’s secure. Amazingly, 42% of us still put our bank card details in whilst on public WiFi. All of which means that today, millions of us are booking things over unsecured networks.

So, when things go wrong, who do people blame? Themselves, the WiFi provider and where they booked from. It’s an unfortunate fact, but often customers just don’t understand how payment security works. In BookingLive’s secure booking software we don’t keep any form of card details, instead of passing off secure payment gateways like SagePay and PayPal, amongst others.

That generalised lack of understanding can lead to a deluge of social media complaints and a swift blow to the public perception of your business. In more serious cases, threats of legal action and loss of business can occur for something which, essentially, wasn’t your fault.

By offering secure bookings, your business gains instant credibility and trustworthiness, as well as safeguarding your reputation. As a business, those are three things that money simply can’t buy, especially if you’re based exclusively online. It can take years to build up a reputation, only to potentially see it destroyed by a booking platform that wasn’t secure. So the last thing you would want is to have that destroyed by not having a secure booking system.

Perhaps most interesting of all, is the fact that studies have found customers will actually move services or businesses to get better online security systems. Although not directly linked to secure online booking, it remains telling that 70% of consumers said that they would switch hotels for greater security, whilst 68% and 30% respectively said they’d switch cafes or change airlines for it.

Clearly then, the best booking system not only helps your client book online but keeps them secure in the process. Clients and customers need to be confident that their details including, passwords, bank details and self-details are completely confidential! Our secure booking system never keeps any of your customers bank details and we will always guide our customers towards a secure and trustworthy payment gateway when setting up their secure booking system. PayPal and sage pay being our most popular chosen choice for online payment, both focusing on fraud and hidden details.

Security from Front to Back

When you sign up for BookingLive, you’re signing up for a secure online booking platform.

It begins with SSL certificates on your booking page, which creates a secure environment from which your customers can make their purchase. SSL certificates are tiny data files which bind a cryptographic key to your organisation’s details, which allows for secure connections between your customer and our server – protecting credit card details, data transfers, logins and more.

From there, we offer the widest range of secure payment solutions of any online booking platform, including hugely popular and deeply respected platforms like PayPal and Sage Pay, but that’s not all. To find our full list of payment gateways we use, head over to out integrations page.

If you’d prefer not to use hosted payment gateways, then we’ll work with you and your requirements to set up a dedicated server with PCI compliance as the preferred secure payment method.

For other customers, all data is kept in a fully secure environment. Credit card details are maintained with your chosen payment gateway provider and further mitigating any potential danger of hacks.

With our secure online booking system, you’re in control of your secure booking system security, so you can set permissions to areas of the software or web page like some private information. You can also hide pages from the public that are more members only, setting exclusiveness.

Of course, those are just some of the top tier security features that BookingLive offers. Designed to offer a complete, feature rich and secure booking method for businesses of all sizes, BookingLive supports businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re a small tour operator or a large cooking school, certain requirements of a booking system remain fundamentally the same – it must be secure, it must be flexible and it must be reliable. That’s exactly what BookingLive is.

How Can People Protect Themselves Online?

As mentioned earlier, people use public Wi-Fi everywhere – despite not knowing if it’s secure or not. Indeed, many people automatically connect to Wi-Fi wherever it’s available.

However, connecting those open Wi-Fi spots can be exceptionally dangerous, and open the door to serious crimes like fraud or identity theft. So, how can people protect themselves when on insecure networks?

• Update your anti-virus software: There are ways that customers can mitigate their chances of falling into cybercrime; one of the most common ways for people to stay secure online is to keep your computers antivirus protection up-to-date. Antivirus software is a program that makes your system secure from worms, harmful viruses and attacks through the scanning process. It helps identify websites and files that could contain harmful programs before they are able to enter the computer and block them from being downloaded to your computer.

• Invest in a VPN: If you have worked in a large company before you may be aware of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and what they do. VPNs encrypt and protect your data as it travels from a server to your device, decrypting it at the other end. This will help protect you on public Wi-Fi by preventing hackers from capturing personal information. VPNs may not be as easy to install as antivirus software but it is worth it in the long run.
• Use a secure online booking system: On an unsecure network, the security of your transactions is often quite debatable. However, with BookingLive and other secure booking platforms, that’s not the case. We’ve already gone to great lengths about the security benefits that BookingLive offers customers, but with HTTPS compliance on every booking page, partnerships with secure payment gateways and so much more, by using secure booking your customers can avoid fraud.
• Update your device’s firmware: If the NHS ‘WannaCry’ hack showed us anything, it was that outdated firmware for PCs and for smart devices can easily be hacked. In that particular case, large swathes of the NHS had not updated their computer’s software beyond Windows XP, which had long since stopped being supported and patched with fixes for security issues. To avoid this, update your software on all your devices. The newest versions are built to mitigate any security risks, and they’re almost always free to upgrade to, so there’s no reason not to update.
• Use strong passwords, and a password manager: Strong passwords are something that many websites, and programmes, are making customers employ as standard by ensuring your password includes an upper-case letter, a number and a minimum of six characters. However, that’s often not enough, with many of us reusing the same passwords over and over again. But how would you remember all the passwords for all the logins you have? The answer is by using a password manager will enable you to put all of your passwords in one database, meaning that you only have to remember one password! A reliable password safe is KeePass. KeePass is free and encrypted with secure encryption algorithms.  This will prevent you having the same password for every login.

Those are just some of the ways in which your customers can avoid getting caught out whilst online. They range from the slightly technical (VPNs) to the simple and free (updating your firmware), but as a business, there’s simply no excuse for offering an unsecured booking platform.

It’s the one aspect of security on this list which isn’t in the hands of the customer, and, as we discovered earlier, customers are quick to apportion blame when something goes wrong whilst they’re on unsecured internet.

To learn more about how to implement a secure booking platform online for your business contact us today.

For many companies that take bookings, there’s an unspoken rule – if it’s working well enough, don’t fix it. When it comes to taking bookings, that means many don’t stray from old fashioned telephone-based systems, which typically require members of staff on hand or coordinate and organise bookings by hand.

Needless to say, there’s a better way of doing things, however. We speak, of course, about online booking. Online booking systems like BookingLive work by providing a secure and customisable booking platform by which your customers can see event availability, book and pay all on your site.

As a supplier of online booking platforms for customers both big and small, we’ve seen the impact an online booking platform can have on a business, boosting sales and greatly simplifying the booking procedure for both customers and staff.

We’re also aware that sometimes, the advantages of online booking might not be immediately obvious. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to share with you the advantages and disadvantages of an online booking system.

Advantage: Online booking systems save your staff time

When you think about the workflow of your customer service staff, it’s plain to see that an awful lot of time is taken up handling phone calls from people looking to book, explaining options to customers and managing schedules.

The demands of a phone-based booking system require a member of your staff is constantly available to handle bookings. You might not consider this a problem with customer service staff on hand, but consider the man hours which could be released by moving to an online booking platform.

Because BookingLive is fully automated, if there’s space available for a given date, your customer can choose their options, pick a date and time, pay and receive an email confirmation without any human interaction on your end – freeing up your staff to do more valuable things with their time. That’s a huge advantage of online booking platforms, and one which can greatly benefit your business.

Advantage: Removing the bottleneck of phone booking systems

One of the major advantage of online booking is that with a phone-based booking platform, you’re introducing a huge bottleneck into your business that can prevent customers from placing their bookings with you.

Most telephone booking systems rely on customers calling during office hours, but for many people, they simply don’t have the time to book whilst they’re in the middle of their work day. Not to mention the fact that only one caller can book at a time, unless your operating multiple phone lines (which, in turn, require more staff to deal with). This will not only free up your time but also may open up a new revenue stream.

No matter which way you cut it, that’s a bottleneck that can stifle success and reduce revenue.

Online booking platforms like BookingLive, on the other hand, offer the distinct advantage of letting customers book anytime and anywhere they see fit, on whatever device they’re using. It means immediately removing any bottleneck within your booking procedure and unlocking the true potential of your business.

There’s no disadvantage to be found from boosting your booking availability, so don’t hold back on making an online booking platform a part of your online business strategy.

Advantage: Greater sales and marketing synergy

How often do you find yourself saying “all our information is on our website” a day? We’re willing to bet that it’s more than a handful. These days, our websites are more than mere contact information for our brick-and-mortar locations, they’re huge repositories of information regarding our business, what we offer and more.

So, why not offer the opportunity to book alongside that compelling copy? By making your customers leave your product page or website in order to place a booking order, you’re introducing unnecessary complications for your customers, cutting their chances of making the kinds of impulse bookings which bring so much revenue in.

Advantage: A modernised approach to booking

Today’s customers aren’t discovering companies through telephone books, and they aren’t finding information about your products and services by sending off for a catalogue. No, they’re increasingly finding out everything they need to know about you’re offering by heading online.

There’s no shortage of reasons why that’s the case, but you’d be missing out on a huge advantage by not making the most out of the tremendous opportunity the internet offers businesses. By integrating your booking platform with your product pages, you can go where, increasingly, all of your customers are.

As telephone booking trend slowly dies, the competitive disadvantage of not having an online booking platform will widen, leaving you behind. So keep up with the booking trend and move online.

Advantage: Increased revenue thanks to upselling

In any business, you’re going to face immense competition, which typically leads to something of a race to the bottom in regards to price. That’s why it’s so important to upsell goods and services to your customers. That might mean a meal included on a tour, items available to hire for an activity or a follow on course.

Online booking platforms like BookingLive introduce upselling into the booking process, letting you offer context specific items and offers to customers who might have come across them otherwise. It’s just another advantage of online booking platforms, and another way to help to grow your business in an age of internet-first bookings.

Disadvantage: Can come at a cost

One of the major disadvantages of online booking platforms is that, for all their positives, they do come at a monetary cost – don’t believe the promises of free online booking systems.

Some charge you per transactions, whilst others charge a flat monthly fee, so you’ll always know how much you’re paying. Custom made online booking platforms will charge you a hefty lump sum up front, as well as recurring costs for bug fixes and support.

Ultimately, the benefits of an online booking system for your business far outweigh the small monthly cost it would take to implement one, but the notion of cost is something you’re going to have to come to terms with. To find out more about our pricing click here.

Disadvantage: Online booking platforms require internet access

Though internet access is widespread these days, it remains true that one of the major disadvantages of online booking systems are their reliance on internet connections. In order to book through an online booking system, your customers will have to have access to the internet. This can be on their smartphone, tablet, computer, laptop or any other internet-enabled device.

That’s why at BookingLive, our system enables you to maintain telephone bookings, plugging the information directly into our system so you can easily maintain and manage your bookings, even from non-online bookings.

Online booking systems open your business up to a range of opportunities, from saving your staff time to a new revenue stream through offering to upsell items.  So keep up with the online booking trend today and contact us, where a member of our staff would be more than happy to discuss how we can help you implement an online booking system.

To see what our current customer’s experience of an online booking system then watch this video!