If you've wondered how online booking works on a service business website when the price depends on the size of the house, the size of the lawn or how many dogs there are, this is the walkthrough. Most generic booking tools assume a fixed-price appointment. Service work isn't like that, so ProTyz was built around a booking flow that quotes the job as the customer describes it, then only offers times you can actually do.
Below is the whole customer journey on a ProTyz site, from landing on the services page to the review request after the job, followed by what you see on your side in the Bookings tab.
Step 1: The customer picks a service
Your site has a services page and a detail page for each service, both pre-filled from a catalogue for your vertical when you onboarded and edited by you since. The customer taps "Book" on the one they want. If you run several service lines under one account (say cleaning and lawn care), all of them appear on the same site.
Want to see the flow live before reading further? Every vertical has a sample site at /demo/<vertical>, for example /demo/cleaning.
Step 2: Priced inputs
Each service can have priced inputs, the questions that change the price. Typical ones:
- Bedrooms and bathrooms for a standard or deep clean
- A square-footage tier for carpet cleaning or pressure washing
- Lawn size for mowing
- Quantity, such as number of windows, number of pets, or number of items to haul
You set the price effect of each answer in Services & Pricing. The customer just answers the questions.
Step 3: Extras
Extras are the add-ons: inside the oven, inside the fridge, edging and trimming, gutter guards, a second dog on the walk. Each has its own price and the customer ticks the ones they want.
Step 4: Frequency discount
Recurring work is the backbone of most service businesses, so the frequency choice is built into the flow rather than bolted on. You define a ladder, for example a set percentage off for weekly, a smaller one for bi-weekly, a smaller one again for monthly, and the customer sees the discounted price for each option as they choose.
Step 5: Coupon
If you've given out a coupon code, on a flyer, a door hanger or a referral card, the customer enters it here and the discount applies to the running total. Promos and coupons are managed in Pricing & Policies.
Step 6: ZIP service-area check
The customer enters their ZIP code and it's checked against the service area you defined. If they're outside it, they find out now rather than after you've both spent time on a booking you can't fulfil.
Step 7: Live itemized quote
Throughout steps 2 to 6 the customer sees a running, itemized quote that updates with every answer: base price, each priced input, each extra, the frequency discount, the coupon, and any fees, minimum price, tax, tip or deposit you've configured. Nothing is hidden until the end.
When the booking is created the price is snapshotted onto it. If you change your prices next month, existing bookings keep the figure the customer agreed to.
Step 8: Real availability
This is the step that saves the most phone calls. The customer picks a date and sees only slots that are genuinely free. Availability is computed from:
- Your working hours (set in Availability)
- Existing bookings
- Team members' schedules and unavailability
- Which team members are qualified for this service line
If you run multiple service lines, the same person can't be shown as available for a lawn job while they're already booked on a cleaning. The cross-line conflict check handles that.
Step 9: Customer details and confirmation
The customer enters their name, email, phone and address. If they've booked with you before, the client record is found by email and the new booking attaches to it; otherwise a new client is created. Either way you end up with one record per person across all your service lines.
They then receive a confirmation email. On the Pro plan they also get a confirmation by SMS and can reply CONFIRM or CANCEL by text.
Step 10: Reminders
Twenty-four hours before the appointment the customer gets an email reminder on every plan. Pro adds a one-hour SMS reminder. If a booking is cancelled, a cancellation notice goes out.
Step 11: Review request
When the job is marked complete, the customer receives a signed review-request link. Their review appears on your site's reviews page, contributes to the rating stats shown there, and you can post a response from the Reviews tab.
The quote-first alternative
Some work can't be priced from a form. Junk removal depends on what's in the garage; a handyman job depends on what's actually broken; a landscaping project needs a site visit. For those, you mark the service as quote-first and the flow changes:
- The customer fills in a quote request (details, photos if you ask for them, contact info) instead of picking a time.
- It lands in your Quote Requests tab.
- You build a line-item quote and send it.
- The customer opens the link, accepts, and the booking is created.
You can mix both models on one site. A cleaning company might have instant-book standard cleans and a quote-first "move-out with hoarding cleanup" service.
What you see in Bookings
On your side, every booking from either path appears in the Bookings tab and on the calendar. For each one you see the service, the snapshotted itemized price, the frequency, the customer and their address, the assigned team member, and status. From here you can reassign staff, reschedule, cancel, mark jobs complete (which triggers the review request), and open the client's full record.
The Overview tab gives you today's and this week's jobs at a glance; Routes builds an optimized order for a day's jobs; team members see their own list in the mobile app at /mobile, where they check in with GPS, add photos and mark jobs started and complete.
Two-way communication happens in Messages. Email replies from customers land there on every plan; SMS conversations join them on Pro.
What's not part of the flow yet
To be clear about the edges: ProTyz does not capture card payments during booking. A deposit amount can be recorded on the booking, but you collect it the way you do today. There is also no invoicing module. If either is essential for you right now, we'd rather you know before you set up.
Setting it up
Configuring all of this is part of the 15-minute onboarding: pick your service line, review the pre-filled services and their inputs and extras, set your working hours, and publish. The frequency ladder, coupons, fees, tax and deposit rules live in Pricing & Policies and can be adjusted whenever you like.
Start free at protyz.com — no card, about 15 minutes to a live booking page. Or look at a working example first at /demo/cleaning or /for/<your-vertical>.
FAQ
Can customers book a time that's already taken? No. Only free slots are shown, calculated from your hours, existing bookings, and team schedules and qualifications across all your service lines.
Does the customer see the price before they book? Yes. A live itemized quote updates as they answer the priced inputs, choose extras, pick a frequency and enter a coupon. The final figure is snapshotted onto the booking.
What if a job can't be priced from a form? Mark the service as quote-first. The customer submits a quote request, you send a line-item quote, and they accept via a link to create the booking.
What reminders do customers get? An email confirmation and a 24-hour email reminder on every plan. Pro adds SMS confirmation, a one-hour SMS reminder, and the ability to reply CONFIRM or CANCEL by text.
Is payment taken at booking? Not currently. Deposits and totals are recorded, but card capture isn't built yet. You collect payment as you do today.