Using Microsoft Bookings to Manage Individual or Group Appointments

Microsoft Bookings is an online and mobile app to create and manage appointments. Examples of how it is used on campus:

Distributed Education has students and faculty book virtual support meetings for eLearn.
Student Services in the Upper Cumberland is using it to manage appointments for new student advising sessions.
The Language Center is making appointments for students with tutors.
The Library is connecting students to Research Librarians to aid with course research projects.
A faculty member uses it to create one-on-one video conference meetings with online students during his virtual office hours.

Bookings is especially helpful for virtual/online meetings as it uses the power of Microsoft Teams to provide all participants with the meeting link automatically.

Bookings has three primary components:

A booking page where your customers (faculty, staff, students, potential students) can schedule appointments with the faculty/staff member who should provide the service. You can share the page via a link to the booking page, embedding it in website, sharing it on Facebook, etc.
A set of web-based dashboards where you can record customer preferences, manage staff lists and schedules, define services and pricing, set business hours, and customize how services and staff are scheduled.
A business-facing mobile app where business owners can see all of their bookings, access customer lists and contact information, and make manual bookings.

Here is a 2-minute overview of Microsoft Bookings:

Set-up a Bookings Calendar

Note: Bookings is turned on by default for most Vol State employees; if you do not see Bookings in your apps, submit a Software Request ticket and select Office 365 A3 Account under the Requested Application dropdown.

Microsoft has created a guide for setting up your own Bookings site. You may find these links helpful as you create your bookings calendar.

Step 1: Enter your business information

Step 2: Set your scheduling policies

Step 3: Define your service offerings

Step 4: Create your staff list

Step 5: Set employee working hours

Step 6: Schedule business closures, time off, and vacation time

Step 7: Publish or unpublish your booking page

Step 8: Create and staff your bookings

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