Workflow Trigger – Service Booking (Services v2)
What is the Service Booking Workflow Trigger?
The Service Booking trigger is a powerful automation tool that activates a workflow when a complete service booking is created or modified. A single booking can contain multiple individual service appointments. This trigger operates at the overall booking level, not the individual appointment level. For example, if a customer books a package containing three separate services in one transaction, this workflow will run only once for the entire booking, rather than three separate times for each appointment.
Key Benefits
Using the Service Booking trigger offers several advantages for streamlining your business processes.
- Avoid Duplicate Actions: Since the workflow runs once per booking, you prevent sending multiple, redundant communications for a single customer transaction.
- Comprehensive Communication: You can send a single, detailed confirmation that lists every service, add-on, staff member, and scheduled time within the booking.
- Precise Targeting: Use filters to ensure the workflow only runs for bookings that meet specific criteria, such as a particular service category, location, or status.
When the Trigger Activates
This workflow trigger will fire in two primary scenarios:
- When a new service booking is created by a customer through a public booking page.
- When a user (such as a staff member) manually creates a new service booking within the CRM.
Differences from Appointment Status Triggers
It is important not to confuse this trigger with appointment status triggers. The key distinction is the level at which they operate.
- Appointment Status Trigger: Activates based on changes to a single calendar appointment.
- Service Booking Trigger: Activates based on the creation or update of a service booking, which can encompass multiple appointments. It provides a holistic view of the entire customer order.
Available Filters
You can use the following filters to control precisely which service bookings will start your workflow:
- Appointment Status (e.g., Confirmed, Cancelled, No Show)
- Created By or Modified By
- Has Tag
- In Service (a specific service)
- In Service Category
- In Service Location
Trigger Visibility and Requirements
The Service Booking trigger is only available if the Services (v2) feature is enabled for your sub-account. If this feature is disabled:
- You will not be able to select this trigger when creating new workflows.
- For existing workflows that already use this trigger, the trigger will not fire for new bookings.
- Existing workflows may still trigger if the status of an older, existing booking is updated.
Interaction with Order Submission Trigger
When a service booking is created, an order is automatically generated. To prevent duplicate automations, the standard Order Submitted trigger is designed not to fire for orders created from service bookings. If you specifically want an order-based workflow to run for service booking orders, you must add a filter to the Order Submitted trigger: Order Source = Calendar.
Supported Workflow Actions
When using the Service Booking trigger, certain appointment-related actions are supported:
- Update Appointment Status: You can update the status for all appointments within the booking.
- Create Appointment Note: You can add a note that is associated with the entire service booking.
Note that actions like "Book Appointment" or booking bots are not supported with this trigger.
Using Custom Values
You can dynamically insert detailed booking information into your emails and SMS messages using custom values. The available data includes service names, prices, durations, dates, times, timezones, assigned staff, and any selected add-ons. If a booking contains multiple services, you can use a loop in your template to list each service and its details sequentially.
How to Set Up the Trigger
To add this trigger to a workflow, navigate to the workflow editor and select "Service Booking" from the list of available triggers. After selecting it, you can then apply any desired filters to narrow its focus. Once saved, the workflow will be active and ready to run based on your specified booking criteria.