How to set up online booking for a bike repair workshop

Booking a repair is nothing like booking a haircut. The customer doesn't need a 9:15 with you; they need to drop the bike off and come back when it's done. Most booking tools were built for meetings, so they force repairs into half-hour slots. Build yours around how a workshop runs: drop-offs in, work on your own schedule, pickups out.

Start with drop-off windows, not time slots

• Offer arrival windows, not times: 9 to 12, 12 to 4
• Give each window a capacity, the number of jobs you'll take into it
• A capacity of four means four customers can pick that window before it shows full
• In Velobook this is the default for a repair shop, set per weekday with date overrides for holidays and closures

List the work people book

1. 1Name your services the way a customer would: tune-up, flat fix, brake bleed, full overhaul. Most shops land between 3 and 12.
2. 2Price each one. If the final cost depends on what you find, use "from" pricing ("from $80").
3. 3Add a turnaround label the customer can plan around, like "Same-day" or "1 to 2 days". A promise about turnaround, not a slot length.
4. 4Add the common upsells as optional add-ons with their own prices: brake pads, a drivetrain clean, bar tape.
5. 5Hide seasonal services rather than deleting them, so old bookings keep their labels.

Decide how you'll handle rush jobs

Decide up front whether speed costs extra, and put it in the booking flow rather than negotiating at the counter. A rush surcharge works: the customer opts into a same-day turnaround and pays a loading. Velobook's rush option defaults to 25% on the service and add-ons; set the rate per shop, down to zero. It's never automatic, so nobody feels gouged.

Quote before you commit to the big jobs

• Overhauls, crash repairs and mystery creaks: take the booking, assess the bike, then quote in writing
• In Velobook, build a line-item quote and send it by email or text with an approve-and-pay link. Once accepted, it becomes the booking
• Mid-job surprise? A repair-approval video link gets a yes from any phone, no login
• With a POS connected, the agreed numbers push across: a parked sale on Lightspeed or Ascend, an order on Shopify

Set reminders and keep customers off the phone

Most calls to a workshop are "is it done yet?" or "when was I meant to come in?". Set these up once:

• A confirmation email the moment they book
• Reminders a week out and 24 hours out. Velobook sends both by default, and the day-before wording is yours to edit
• A ready-for-pickup email the moment you mark the job done
• A live repair tracker on the customer's manage link: booked in, on the bench, ready
• Self-serve reschedule and cancel from the same link, with the shop told every time

Blunt the cost of no-shows

• Reminders cut most of them
• A deposit at booking cuts most of the rest. In Velobook it goes through your own Stripe or Square account, straight to you, and a refund runs back through the same provider
• Turn on inline card payment so the customer enters the card on your own booking page, not a separate checkout screen
• Mark no-shows. Velobook keeps a count per customer, so a pattern is a number

Pitfalls to avoid

• Copying your competitor's service list. Your booker should reflect what your bench is good at and what your suburb rides.
• Window capacities set to what you can survive. Start lower and raise them once turnaround holds.
• Fixed prices on open-ended work. "From" pricing plus a quote step protects both sides.
• Leaving your booking link off Google. Most "bike repair near me" searches end on your Google Business profile. Put the link there, in your Instagram bio and on your site.
• Ignoring walk-ins. Velobook checks in walk-ins and phone bookings from the admin in a few taps, plus a kiosk mode for a counter tablet.
• Leaving the diary open forever. Velobook's booking horizon caps how far ahead the booker goes: a rolling window or a fixed cutoff date.