Guides › Booking website (add-on)

Client sign-in on your booking website

How clients sign in on your booking website with their phone number and a one-time code, how they are matched to their customer record, and what their account page shows.

Clients do not need a username or a password to book on your website. They sign in with their phone number and a one-time code, at the moment they confirm a booking. This page explains what happens, so you can help a client who gets stuck.

The booking website is an add-on switched on by StyleDesk; see setting up your booking website.

Signing in

Clients can look at services and times without signing in. When they reach the last step of a booking they press Sign in to confirm.

1. The Sign in page says We will text you a code to confirm it is you. They type their Phone number and press Send me a code.
2. A text arrives with the code. They type it into Your code and press Sign in.
3. They land on You are signed in. To finish the booking they go back to the booking pages (Book Online); the services they ticked are still ticked, and they choose the team member and time again.

There is no separate sign-up. The first time someone signs in with a number, their sign-in is created.

If the code does not arrive

• Send a new code sends another. A code lasts 10 minutes, and after five wrong tries it stops working, so they need a new one.
• Asking for too many codes for one number shows Too many codes requested for this number; they should wait a few minutes.
• If your salon can send email and the client's record has a real email address, the code screen also offers Send the code to my email instead.

Codes go out through your salon's SMS sending, so it must be set up for sign-in to work; see setting up SMS.

Matching the client to your records

When a client signs in, StyleDesk looks for a customer at your salon with the same phone number. If there is exactly one, it is linked to their sign-in, and their bookings go on that record.

Numbers are compared digit by digit, with spaces and dashes ignored but no guessing about country codes: 03001234567 and +92 300 1234567 count as different numbers. If you store numbers starting with 0, ask clients to sign in with the number written the same way.

If no customer matches, the client is still signed in. On their first booking they are asked for their first name, and a new customer is created with that name and their number. If two or more of your customers have the number (written in different ways), StyleDesk does not guess between them and links neither. The client may then be told their details could not be matched and asked to contact the salon, or end up with yet another record. Tidy up duplicate customers to avoid this.

The account page

You are signed in shows the phone number they signed in with and their name on your records. If they have not been matched to a record yet, it says so instead. It does not list their bookings: the reference on the confirmation page, and the text if your SMS is set up, are the client's record of each booking.

A sign-in belongs to your salon's site only. A client signed in at another salon's StyleDesk website is signed out on yours.

Signing out

Sign out on the account page ends the session and returns them to your home page.