The Contact Portal and Online Scheduling

Overview

The Contact Portal serves two functions: allowing customers to view their account information and to self-schedule their appointments. You also have the choice to enable the online account feature while disabling online scheduling features, which would still allow your contacts to view their appointments, proposals, and invoices.

This article will review:

The primary settings for the Contact Portal and Online Scheduler are located under Control Panel > Scheduling. Scroll to the Online Scheduling section to configure how customers interact with your organization online.

Setting	Description	Use Case
Online Scheduling	Enables self-service appointment scheduling, customer account creation, and appointment cancellation functionality.	Enable this if you want customers to schedule appointments online.
Account Creation	Allows contacts to create and log into a Contact Portal account.	Can be enabled without Online Scheduling if you only want contacts to view appointments, invoices, and proposals.
Scheduling API Key	Associates an API Key with the Online Scheduler.	Commonly used to track lead sources, campaigns, and marketing performance. See Tracking Leads below.
Scheduling URL	The URL customers use to access the Online Scheduler.	Add this link to your website, emails, advertisements, or social media.
Account URL	The URL customers use to access the Contact Portal login page.	Useful if customers need account access but are not scheduling appointments.
Self-Service Radius	Defines the maximum distance (in miles) a customer can be from your warehouse and still schedule online.	Customers outside the radius will be directed to contact your office instead.
Show Team Slots Only	Displays availability based on Teams rather than individual Service Agents.	Use this if your organization schedules appointments using Teams mode.
Exclude Internally	Hides self-service services when creating appointments or proposals internally.	Useful for services that should only be offered through the Online Scheduler.
Self-Service Phone	Displays an alternate phone number on the Online Scheduler.	Allows scheduling inquiries to be routed to a different phone number than your primary office number.
Hide Queued Appointments	Prevents portal users from seeing queued appointments.	Scheduled appointments remain visible.
Confirmation Redirect URL	Redirects customers to another webpage after completing the scheduling process.	Commonly used for thank-you pages or additional instructions.
Contact Me Redirect URL	Redirects customers to a specific webpage when they choose to be contacted instead of scheduling online.	Often used to send customers to a contact form or customer service page.
Custom Fields	Displays selected Custom Fields during the scheduling process. Learn more about custom fields.	Commonly used to collect information such as square footage, acreage, number of windows, or other pricing-related data.
Require Payment Info	Requires customers to enter payment information before scheduling.	Stores a payment method on file and can be used alongside deposits or prepayments.
Proposal Templates	Makes Proposal Templates available as scheduling options. Learn more about proposal templates.	Allows customers to choose pre-built service packages that include services, parts, and add-ons.

You can enable the Account Creation option by itself if you would like your customers to have the ability view invoices, make payments, and check appointments but not schedule appointments.

Individual Services

After configuring the scheduler, navigate to Control Panel > Services and edit any service you want to offer online and locate the Self-Service Scheduling section.

Enable for Self-Service Scheduling: Makes the service available through the Online Scheduler.
Require Capture of Payment Info: Requires payment information specifically for this service, regardless of the global scheduler setting.
Time Slot Limit: Limits the number of appointment slots shown to customers.

This can help simplify the scheduling experience and prevent customers from being overwhelmed by a large number of available options.

Customer View

Customers will be asked to enter their contact information in order to proceed and view your available services. This will generate a contact in the serviceminder system, allowing you to follow up with prospects who do not complete the booking process.

After they have entered their contact information, customers will be prompted to fill out any custom fields that you have designated. Depending on your pricing structure, these custom fields may help with automatically calculating the price and/or duration of a service.

If you have added any proposal templates to your online scheduling settings, they will display in the Service Packages section. Individual Services will display below that.

Service Packages

Service Packages provide a more flexible and customer-friendly scheduling experience. They are particularly useful when you want to:

Build pricing based on multiple components instead of a single service price
Offer tiered service options (i.e., Bronze, Silver, and Gold packages)
Allow customers to select optional upgrades or add-ons

Behind the scenes, Service Packages are built as Proposal Templates using services and parts/add-ons allowing you to create a more complete representation of the work being performed.

Learn more about creating Proposal Templates.

Scheduling

The Online Scheduler only displays appointments when ServiceMinder can find an available Service Agent who meets all scheduling requirements.

Service Agent Availability

The scheduler uses the same availability rules used when scheduling internally. Service Agents must:

Have availability configured
Be available during the requested time
Be eligible to perform the selected service

Internal Only Service Agents

One of the most common causes of scheduling issues is marking all Service Agents as Internal Only.

When a Service Agent is marked Internal Only:

They can be scheduled internally by office staff
They are hidden from the Online Scheduler
Customers cannot schedule appointments with them

If all available Service Agents are marked Internal Only, no appointment slots will appear.

Skills-Based Scheduling

Services and Parts can require specific Skills.

If a service requires a skill, only Service Agents assigned that skill will be considered available.

Example:

A service requiring a specialized license may only be available if a licensed Service Agent is available.

GeoZone Restrictions

Service Agents can be restricted to specific Geo Zones.

If a customer's address falls outside the Geo Zones assigned to available Service Agents, the scheduler may not be able to offer appointment times.

In these situations, customers are typically directed to contact the office for assistance.

Tracking Leads

Tracking which campaigns generate the most revenue is essential for refining your marketing strategy. The online scheduler supports Channel and Campaign tracking, enabling detailed performance analysis.

Your scheduler URL can include two parameters: channel and campaign. For example:

https://serviceminder.io/service/*unique-id*?channel=*channel-id*&campaign=*campaign-id*

When included in the URL, these parameters help attribute lead sources to specific campaigns, even for contacts who do not schedule an appointment. You can then use the Lead Source Revenue Report to measure the success of various campaigns.

Learn more about Channels, Campaigns, and Revenue Forecasting.

How to Track Leads

There are three primary ways to track leads from the Contact Portal:

Default Online Scheduling Link: This will use the settings defined in Control Panel > General. Learn more at General Settings.
API Key Link: This uses the settings from the chosen API key (if present), or defaults to what's set in General.
Custom URL: You can manually append Channel and Campaign parameters to the URL. This is not recommended unless you have a web team handling redirects and tracking.

Using an API key is the most effective method to track and customize leads from your scheduler. More on this below.

Using an API Key

The online scheduler allows you to add API keys, which offer several benefits:

Contacts and appointments created via the scheduler are tagged with the API key for easier tracking.
You can differentiate performance across different sources by using unique API keys (e.g., one for your website, another for a digital ad campaign).
API keys automatically apply the specified Channel and Campaign to new contacts and appointments.

To set up:

1. Create an API key in Control Panel > API Keys (Learn more about that process HERE).

2. Go to Control Panel > Scheduling, and in the Scheduling API Key dropdown, select your API key.

3. Copy the new Scheduling URL that populates.

Important: Do NOT click Save immediately. Instead, copy the new URL, which will include the unique API key at the end. This URL can now be used for scheduling links on emails, websites, etc.

The API key allows you to track leads from specific campaigns, helping you measure the effectiveness of different marketing channels.

FAQs

How do I get the online appointment scheduler to show something other than the first available slot?

In Control Panel > Scheduling, look for Open Time Granularity. If left blank, it defaults to showing the first available slot. Setting it to an hourly or custom interval will allow customers to choose specific timeslots, and this setting will apply across all appointments.

Can a contact reschedule an appointment via the self-scheduler?

No, contacts cannot reschedule once an appointment is made. They would need to call the office (or a specific scheduling number) to reschedule.

How will I know if an appointment was scheduled via the online portal?

Appointments scheduled through the portal will appear immediately on the calendar, and both the customer and the office will receive automated notifications.

What if I have a large territory and want to limit how far agents travel?

In Control Panel > Scheduling, you can set a territory radius to limit scheduling. For example, if you set a 30-mile radius, customers outside of that area will be prompted to contact the office directly.

Why aren't any appointment times appearing?

Review the settings for the Service Agents in your organization. Common causes include:

All Service Agents are marked Internal Only
Required Skills are not assigned
GeoZone restrictions prevent scheduling
The customer is outside the Self-Service Radius

Do we need to enable both Online Scheduling and Account Creation?

They are separate features but often enabled together. Account Creation allows customers to view their past appointments and invoices. Online Scheduling lets customers book appointments, either with or without an account. Both features can be used independently, but using both streamlines the scheduling experience.

What can a contact (customer) do without requiring a portal login?

Contacts can perform several actions without a contact portal account. All of the following items are accessed via a link that is sent to them via email or text.

Schedule services (if you have self-scheduling enabled)
View and accept Proposals
View and pay Invoices
Update a card on file after a failed payment
Confirm an appointment
View "real time status" of an appointment (i.e., current ETA, how many stops ahead of them)
Leave tips
Update communication preferences
Review appointment reports sent to them