Test a booking journey
Walk through your own booking process as a customer and check timezone, confirmation, cancellation and duplicates.
8 min · BeginnerRead guide
Leads & bookings
Check a booking experience
Define your booking journey, then inspect timezones and availability, confirmations, and changes or cancellations, and log what to fix.
Before you start
What you’ll work toward
You will have a log of problems found in your booking experience, each with a fix and a date.
What you’ll need
- A way customers book with you now, such as a form, calendar link, email or phone
- A notes app, a document or paper
- A friend or second email address to act as the customer, if possible
Cost
- No paid tool required
Scope
- A manual check of your own process; nothing is connected or changed for you
- Use a test booking and delete it afterwards if you can
STEP 1 OF 5
Define the journey
Write the steps a customer takes from finding you to being booked.
- List each step in order, starting from where customers first find you.
- Note what the customer sees at each step.
- Mark the steps you have never tried as a customer.
Worked example. 1. Finds link on Instagram. 2. Opens booking page. 3. Chooses service and time. 4. Enters details. 5. Receives confirmation.
Expected result
A numbered customer journey of five to eight steps.
Check your work
Check that each step is something you can try yourself.
If something goes wrong
- If you cannot say what happens at a step, that is the step to test first.
Read all steps
Define the journey
Write the steps a customer takes from finding you to being booked.
- List each step in order, starting from where customers first find you.
- Note what the customer sees at each step.
- Mark the steps you have never tried as a customer.
Worked example. 1. Finds link on Instagram. 2. Opens booking page. 3. Chooses service and time. 4. Enters details. 5. Receives confirmation.
Expected result. A numbered customer journey of five to eight steps.
Check your work. Check that each step is something you can try yourself.
If something goes wrong
- If you cannot say what happens at a step, that is the step to test first.
Inspect timezone and availability
Check that times and open slots are shown correctly.
- Open your booking option and look at the times displayed.
- Check that the timezone is stated or obvious.
- Check that a slot you have already filled is not still offered.
Worked example. Times show no timezone. Added “Sydney time” to the page.
Expected result. A note of whether times and availability are right, and what to fix.
Check your work. Compare the times shown with your own calendar.
If something goes wrong
- If your tool does not let you add a timezone label, add one to the page text or the confirmation.
Check the confirmation
Make sure the customer knows the booking worked.
- Make a test booking.
- Check the confirmation on screen and in the inbox.
- Check it states the day, time, place and how to contact you.
Worked example. The confirmation arrived in two minutes but had no address. Added the address and a phone number.
Expected result. A confirmation that carries every detail the customer needs.
Check your work. Read it as the customer. Could you turn up at the right place without asking anything?
If something goes wrong
- If no confirmation arrives, check spam, then check how your booking method sends them.
Test a change and a cancellation
Find out what the customer experiences when plans change.
- Try to change your test booking to another time.
- Try to cancel it.
- Check what the customer is told about cancellation terms.
Worked example. I could not find how to cancel. Added a line to the confirmation: “To change or cancel, reply to this email.”
Expected result. A clear route to change or cancel, described in plain words.
Check your work. A customer should be able to find it in under a minute.
If something goes wrong
- If your booking tool does not allow changes, make the manual route clear.
Log the fixes
Write down each problem and what you will do about it.
- List every problem you found, one line each.
- Write a fix and a date beside each.
- Fix the quickest ones now and retest them.
- Delete your test booking.
Worked example. Timezone label: done. Address in confirmation: done. Cancellation line: done. Duplicate bookings: check each morning.
Expected result. A fix log, with the quick fixes already done and retested.
Check your work. Every problem should have either a done mark or a date.
If something goes wrong
- If the list is long, fix first whatever stops a customer from turning up.