Overview
You can now create variants of the same service that differ by duration, pricing, names & descriptions.
This cleans up your customer's experience -- they no longer have to scroll through long lists of similar looking services. They just pick from a short list of services and view the variants.
To add variants to a service, click Appointments > Services > edit a service > toggle on 'Service has variants' > scroll to the bottom and Save.
From the service details page, scroll to 'Add Variant' > name it describe it > set a duration and a price.
If you're already using Price Levels, you'll have control of this aspect from this page.
Lastly, choose whether the service variant will:
have buffer time before and/or after
have overlap with other services, allowing your staff to start or wrap up other appointments
follow the board's existing settings, or
have no special settings (none)
Similar settings can be customized, using the tabs for 'Customize staff presence' and 'Customize location occupation.
When you're done, click 'Create' at the bottom and create additional variants as needed.
2 things to note:
Once a service is marked as variant-based, it cannot be changed back to a basic (non-variant) service.
If you toggle on 'service has variants' but then forget to add variants of the service, the service will not be viewable or bookable until at least one variant has been added.
How do price levels work with variants?
By default if you create a variant of a service, then all staff assigned to that service can be booked at the level its priced at. If you have Staff that are seen as higher value at performing the same variant than other staff, you can charge a premium using price levels.
For instance, this customer is scheduling an appointment, and booking a variant of the service where we've assigned an advanced price level to just one of the teachers.
The base price of the service is $40. But the customer will see that if they choose one staff member over the other, the price goes up to $60. This is because that staff member has a price level assigned to them for that particular service.
Can multiple Variants be booked in one transaction?
Yes, if the customer indicates this at the beginning of their scheduling experience, they'll be able to select more than one Variant and pay just once. At the start, they'll see a blue message that reads 'Looking to book multiple services back-to-back? Click here.'
They'll be prompted to choose the service variants first, and then will be asked to pick staff and times that fit with the current availability.
When finished, a confirmation page will display the service variants selected, the teacher, and day and time.
What's a private variant?
This means only staff can book this variant. It won't be visible to customers when they are self scheduling.
During the creation phase you'll see a toggle to make sure they can only be booked by staff.
What if I have a public service, but a private variant?
This means that only that private variant will be hidden from public booking. All other variants will be publicly visible and bookable.
Since services can also be private, what happens if I create a private service with a public variant?
This variant will not be visible. The service's private setting will hide all variants under it, regardless of if their public or private.
Is there an easy way to see if I've forgotten to create variants for a specific service?
Yes. From your services index page (Appointments > Services) you'll see which services have been marked as having variants (blue icon).
A red question mark icon will indicate if you've forgotten to complete some aspect of the setup process
What's the staff experience in booking a variant service?
As soon as staff select a service that has variants, an additional dropdown will appear, just for the variants.
How do I change the order of the variants -- the way they display to customers?
Click appointments > services > click on a service to see its details page (do not edit the service) and grab these drag icons to move the services around.
Can I control a staff's pay rate per variant?
Currently you can only have one pay rate assigned per service per staff member. This means that all variants of that service will result in the same pay rate.
If you have a variant of a service in mind that requires a higher pay rate, you'll need to spin up a separate service, assign that higher pay rate for that staff member, and remove that original variant.
Can I specify different prices per variant?
Yes. Variant-specific pricing adjustments can be controlled from Appointments > Services & add-ons > Service detail page > under the Staff section, click Edit teacher price.
Current Limitations / What's next for service variants?
We'll soon roll out functionality that incorporates the mobile experience for customers (for now, services with variants will not display to customers on the mobile app).
We'll also soon be releasing functionality that incorporates service variants smarts into our AI features. For now, the AI Agent can't work with variant-based services and a human will need to step in to assist with variant related questions.