MetaLocator can provide a facility for users to schedule appointments with your locations either using our built-in forms or via external integrations with scheduling platforms such as Calendly or Dispatch. This guide discusses both methods.
Creating a Schedule Appointment Form
When creating a Schedule Appointment form using the Lead Form builder, the outcome can look similar to the below:
This example includes multiple scheduling choices for the end user and the location's time zone increasing the likelihood that the selections include an available time for the recipient representative at this location.
In the Interface Builder, click the Leads settings group to begin configuring your Lead Form which we will customize to include these scheduling fields.
To configure these "Schedule Choice" fields, add them as Custom Fields and choose the Date/Time option as shown below.
Be sure to add the scheduling options and any other custom fields to the Lead Email Body Template so the user's choices can be seen directly in the resulting email body.
For more details on how to create and customize your Lead form, see the this article.
Linking to External Calendar Services
When crafting links to external calendar and scheduling services, there are a few scenarios to consider:
The schedule link is a static link
The schedule link varies by location and should be drawn from the imported data
The schedule link should be dynamically generated, such as when a location ID must be included in the link.
These scenarios are discussed below.
For Scenarios 1 and 2
In these cases, it is easiest to configure the Schedule link as a value in the location's Link field as shown below:
If the link field is already used for the location Website, a second Hyperlink-type field can be created under Fields > New as shown below.
Then the Field containing the link can be added to the results as shown below.
Shown above as a simple link, but the field options can be adjusted to show it as a button with a call to action such as Schedule Appointment.
For Scenarios 3
To generate a link to a scheduling service dynamically, use our Field Templates, available to Pro & higher accounts to generate the link using Handlebars templating.