Interactive Websites
Interactive websites allow the customer to interact – to book a class or service, a holiday or even connect with like-minded people. E-Commerce websites are covered in a separate section.
What's Interactive?
Unlike brochure sites which are generally static with no interaction except perhaps a contact form, interactive websites allow the user to interact with the website. Examples include booking a service, class, hotel, flight etc. This involves requesting information from the client such as the date, duration, service etc and displaying availability, then allowing the client to book available slots.
Who might use it?
We deal with small businesses who need booking information from clients. These would include services such as beauty therapists and hairdressers, group activities like yoga classes or adventure sessions and hospitality like hotels and restaurants.
What will the customer see?
To create an appointment the basic information are the contact details for the customer, the required service, time and date and the number of attendees for group bookings. There are a number of ways to present this. You can list services for the client to choose and the they’ll choose dates and times etc.
What do I need?
For larger, complicated or niche businesses it may be necessary to have bespoke software created but for the vast majority of small businesses a WordPress web site with a booking plugin will be fine. This collects the booking information, sends notifications to the client and the business and keeps a record of the appointment.
How do I learn?
I’ll sit down with the IT person in your company and spend a couple of hours going through how to add and edit pages and how to manage appointments and bookings. This will instil the basics of the system and there are tons of tutorials on the web.
What if I want to upgrade?
If you find that the WordPress plugin can’t handle the volume of bookings or doesn’t have the features that you want the next step up is to have a system written specifically for your business. This is much more expensive but will become necessary if your business expands to outgrow the WordPress plugin.
The Cost
Basic Costs
A basic brochure website with up to 6 standard pages will cost about €1,000 including domain name registration and hosting for one year, a selected theme from the Divi Library and lifetime updates for the Divi engine. On top of this there is the cost of the plugin and installation/setup fees.
Extra Costs
The extra costs with a booking system are the booking plugin and installation. Plugins range from about €80 per year ex VAT and some offer a lifetime subscription for a higher fee. Installing the plugin would cost about €150 but there will be extra costs for installing and configuring extra plugins like payment systems or gift cards.
Domain registration and hosting are paid annually with one year included in the initial website cost. Themes in the Divi catalog are also included free of charge but any paid themes not in the catalog will incur the cost of the theme. Brochure websites don’t usually have any paid plugins.
Is there a cost for content?
I design websites for all business sectors and as such I can’t create descriptions and information about a particular business, this will need to be provided by the customer. Other costs are photos and videos, I can’t recommend using professional media strongly enough, badly taken photos or video will do more harm than good. You can employ the services of a photographer, use images provided by your suppliers or use stock images.
GQ Massage Therapy Booking Website
Algarve Apartment Rentals Booking Website
MP Yoga Third-party Booking Website
Camping & Glamping Brochure Web Site
Let’s Build Something
Let’s get interactive! Contact me with the details of your website and I’ll get back to you with the best advice.