When you are booking tickets online for a concert, the first thought that would come to you is asking your friends or anyone in your social circle and inviting them to join you. Normally you would call them, tell them about the dates/timing of the concert you have chosen & also about the website that’s selling the tickets. Even after giving these details, they might still be unsure of what to do. And it’s possible that when you call, your friend is busy with something & they might not be able to answer you right at that moment.
In that case, all you need is an invite that you can send your friend. They can get the direct link to the concert booking page with the date & time already filled-in & with a lovely invitation message from you. All your friend needs to do is book it. In this post, we are going to see how to send these booking invites to your friends with the WooCommerce Booking & Appointment Plugin by using our newly launched Send to a Friend Addon.
Send to a Friend Addon is a free plugin that is available from the WordPress Plugins repository. It works only with the WooCommerce Booking & Appointment Plugin. It allows customers to send booking invites via email. It also allows the invitees to click on links in the email that open the booking page with the booking dates & times pre-filled. Thus, it helps increase your sales by getting more bookings for an event. This is also the first free addon for the WooCommerce Booking & Appointment Plugin.
Let’s take a quick overview of the Send to a Friend Addon.
User Experience: How to send booking invites to your friends
There is no change in the User Experience for a booking until the order is placed. It will work the same way as it does with the Send to a Friend addon disabled.
The Send to a Friend addon adds 2 buttons on the Thank You page & in the email notification that is sent to the customer. It also shows how many spots are left.
Book Another Space button – When you click on this button, they will be redirected back to the product page with the booking date pre-filled. Below is how the product page will appear when this button is clicked.
It lets you make a new booking of the same date & time. It will just redirect you to the product page and you can add the product to your cart and checkout.
Send to a Friend button – When you click this button, a new page will appear which will ask you to enter the details of the people whom you want to invite, as shown below.
In the case of multiple events (products) being booked, they will be listed with an option to invite only for selected events. You can enter multiple email addresses separated by a comma. And lastly, you can also enter a personalised message.
Once you click on the “SEND TO A FRIEND” button on above page, the emails will be sent to the invitees. The customer will then be shown the option to either send more invites by clicking on “SEND TO ANOTHER FRIEND” button or to continue shopping by clicking on “RETURN TO SHOP” button.
The invitees will receive an email with a direct link to the product page with the date field populated. The email also mentions the available spots that are left for that event. The invitee will just need to click on the Book me in button. That will take them to the events page with the date already pre-populated as chosen by the person who sent the invitation. All they have to do is add the product to cart and make the payment.
After placing the order, the 2 buttons are also shown in the email notification that is sent to the customer. The email will also show the number of spots left for the event. Thus, it gives a chance to the customer to book an extra spot anytime for the event by just clicking on these buttons from their notification email.
Admin Experience: Addon Settings
Unlike other addons, the Send to a Friend addon doesn’t have any settings at the product level.
All the addon settings basically involve changing the text of various buttons or changing the appearance of buttons.
Conclusion:
This addon is an excellent addition which directly helps in increasing the number of bookings for your products, thereby resulting in increased sales.
Send to a Friend addon is freely available here. Install it right away & see your revenues increase at no extra cost.
Note: This addon was first developed for one of our customers: https://www.benefacto.org . They are a social enterprise that allows you to book your spot to volunteer your time for their various charitable activities. We feel very proud that our WooCommerce Booking & Appointment plugin is used for such a good cause. Lots of love to them for the work they do from the entire Tyche team. Do visit them & contribute in whichever way you can.
