We are extremely excited to release our first iteration of Book a Buddy!

So many of you have asked for a means to allow clients to book for their friends, family members and buddies so how could we resist? 

OVERVIEW

Use Scenario

• As a client, I want to establish a Book a Buddy link with my friends and family.
• As a client, I want to book my friends or family members in a class that I am attending.'
• As a client, I want to book my family members into their own sessions while I am booking myself for my sessions. 
• As a client, I want to disconnect from a buddy and not book or be booked by my buddy. 

System logic

• While booking for a Buddy, your Buddy's credit will be used, not your own. 
• Your buddy cannot be booked should they not have the appropriate package or membership credits for the class session you are booking. 
• Clients and buddies can cancel their own session once booked, regardless of who booked it.
• Clients cannot book a Buddy in a full session
• Clients can book a Buddy for a waitlist should it still have room. 
• Clients will see the sessions they booked on behalf of their Buddy in 'My Bookings'
• Clients and Buddies will be notified as per Location configurations for all bookings made or cancelled. 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE

How to enable Book a Buddy in Account settings 

Business view and process:

Clients will need to be connected with a Buddy in order to book for them and/or for the Buddy to book on their behalf. While the invitation and Buddy process is designed to be initiated by your clients, via the custom app, there are a few options within Core to establish a Buddy connection. In the screens below, we designed some efficiencies for you as the business user to see Buddy connections and be able to manage them, should the client have any difficulty navigating the APP processes. 
 

Adding and Deleting a Buddy in the client record

Navigate in Core to the Clients Module > Select a client click on their Information tab and scroll to the new Book a Buddy section.  

Here you will see a list of clients as Book a Buddies as they become established. To add a Buddy to this client, Click the + sign on the right-hand side and enter the client's Email, Phone # or Barcode, then click the Search Buddy button. 

If the system finds a match to your Search, then check the box next to the client record and click Save...

...the new Buddy will be added to the list:

To Remove a Buddy on the client's behalf, click Delete in the client row.

Adding a Buddy during a New Sale

When you are at the New Sale screen, it is possible to add Book a Buddies before you proceed to the Checkout Screen.  We added this function to New Sale as a means of efficiency during child or kids membership and activity sales. For example, if a parent were buying a package or membership for their child in your facility, establishing Book a Buddy privilege for the parent now saves them the time to have to establish it via the app and invite sequence (outlined below this section). 
 

Navigate in Core to Payments > New Sale, and begin the sales process for a child or family member account. In the following example I have created or selected the account of Lesley Brake, place into her cart a Junior Sessions package and I wish to create a Book a Buddy relationship with her father Chris Brake before I proceed to the Checkout screen 

Click on the + icon for Add a buddy, and enter a barcode, email or phone number to match Chris Brake

Check the box next to his name and click Save. You will see an alert for the successful add of Chris as a Buddy

Complete your Sale as you normally would. A quick inspect of Lesley's account will show us proof she is now a Buddy with Chris:

Here is a view of the APP workflow and screens your clients will navigate to use Book a Buddy. 

Step 1: Establish a Buddy via the App experience. 

Please instruct your client and members in your branded app to navigate to the session they wish to book for a Buddy under Explore> Classes. Select a session via the Book button and look for the now enabled Book a Buddy option, just below the instructor name:

Clicking the Book a Buddy option will reveal a list of Buddies (should they already have any) as well as an option to *Book for a new account. Clicking the Book for a new account option will bring up the phone/ device messaging options and apps. Clients can select any of their messenger, text or email apps they wish and we will embed a message and link to be sent to their "Buddy to Be".

In this example Chris sent an invite to his friend Philip via text and Philip received the following message:

Had Philip not already been a member of your facility, he would have been directed to the App store to download and install the app. As he logs in for the first time since clicking the link, Philip is presented with the following sequence of messages and options...

Clicking on the accept request button will present a Success message of their accounts being linked. 

Chris will then receive in return the following push notification alerting him that his new buddy has been linked. 

Booking your Buddy

Booking your Buddy is as simple as booking yourself.  Navigate to Explore> Classes. 

Select a class. 

Click Book a Buddy, and choose your Buddy from the list. 

The system will show a Success banner and display the session in My Bookings just as it does for your own bookings.

If during the booking process, you are presented with the following message, then you may not book this Buddy until they have appropriate and sufficient credits. 

As a client, you may want at any time to Unlink a Buddy from your list. This is achieved by Navigating to More> My Buddies and click Unlink next to your Buddy's name.