On-site visits

On-site visits let you book a repair at the customer’s home or business straight from the calendar. BenchKey keeps drive time free around each visit, tells the customer when you’re on the way, and keeps the visit on the ticket like any other repair. On-site visits are part of Pro and Business and stay off until you switch them on.

Turn on on-site visits

Before you start: on the same page, under Booking schedule and rules, switch on Enable appointment booking, open at least one day in Business Hours, and choose Save Changes. Visits have to fit inside those hours.

1. Open Settings → Business → Appointments and scroll to the On-site visits card.
2. Switch on On-site visits.
3. Choose your defaults:
   • Usual visit length (15 minutes to 8 hours).
   • Arrival window you give customers: Exact time, or a window of 30 minutes, 1, 2 or 4 hours.
   • Drive time before each visit and Wrap-up / drive-back time after each visit. The calendar keeps this time free.
   • Who can be sent on visits: All team members or Selected members.
   • Postcodes you serve, separated by commas. End a code with * to cover every code that starts with it. A visit you book outside your list only shows a warning; it is never refused. (Customers booking online from outside your list are offered the shop instead.)
   • Working alone? Visits also block in-shop booking: switch this on if the same person runs the counter and the visits.
   • Under In-shop appointments, optional Prep time before each appointment and Cleanup time after each appointment.
4. Choose Save on-site settings. If a change now overlaps bookings you already have, BenchKey lists them for you. It never moves a booking on its own.
5. At the bottom of the card, Arrival times and the customer’s visit page has its own Save these settings: Arrival times from the technician’s location (on by default; when it’s off, technicians pick about 10, 20, 30 or 45 minutes) and a Before we arrive note that customers see.

To let customers book visits themselves, open On-site visits from the booking page in the booking page settings on the same page, switch on Let customers book on-site visits online, choose Where you go, add an optional Trip fee, and choose Save booking settings.

If the card says On-site visits aren’t available for this shop yet, check that Enable appointment booking is on with at least one open day and that you chose Save Changes. If it still shows and you’re on Pro or Business, the feature hasn’t reached your shop yet; your choices are kept.

Book a visit

1. In Calendar, choose Book appointment, then On-site (next to In shop) at the top of the Book Appointment window. The New appointment sheet opens. Owners and admins can dispatch visits; others need the Dispatch on-site visits permission.
2. Pick New repair, or Existing ticket and search by ticket number, name or phone.
3. Enter the address (street, city and postal code, plus state or region where needed), add any private access notes, and tick Confirmed with the customer.
4. Choose who is going, then pick a date and a start time. BenchKey lists everyone who can be sent on visits and shows who is free or busy; people who are off or not working that day can’t be picked, and a clash suggests the next free start times.
5. Under Messages, leave the confirmation box ticked (it reads Text + email (name) a confirmation, or text or email only, depending on the contact details you have), pick the Language, check Reminders, then choose Book visit.

If nobody can be sent on visits yet, the sheet says so; choose who can in the On-site visits card.

On the day

Open the visit from the calendar. The visit sheet walks the technician through it:

• On my way sends the customer the on-the-way message; Arrived and Finish visit record the rest of the visit on the ticket.
• Navigate opens the address in Apple Maps or Google Maps.
• Running late (once you’re on the way) lets you pick a new Arriving in time and Send new time to the customer.
• Text and Call reach the customer from the visit.
• Ask the office to invoice hands billing back to the shop when the work is done.

Customer messages

Visits come with their own messages, in English and Spanish: On-site Visit Booked, On-site Visit Reminder, Technician On The Way, Technician Running Late, On-site Visit Moved, On-site Visit Cancelled, and On-site Visit Missed (sent when the technician marks Customer not home and ticks Text to rebook). You can edit them with your other message templates in Settings → Communications, under Templates. Texts need a connected texting provider (see Texting customers in the US); otherwise customers get the emails, which work without setup.

The customer’s visit page, Today and Team

Each visit also gets:

• A visit page for the customer: one link that shows Booked, On the way, Arrived, Repair and Done, the expected arrival time, and buttons to call or text the shop, review an estimate and pay an invoice (messages and photos on the page need your walk-in customer portal turned on). It never shows the technician’s location or a live map. The link works until 30 days after the visit, and longer while the repair still waits on the customer (an estimate to approve or an invoice to pay). Sending a new link ends the old one right away.
• My visits (a view in Calendar, shown as Today on a technician’s phone): the technician’s next stop, On my way, quick “running late” buttons, directions in Apple Maps, Google Maps or Waze, and Route my day.
• Team (a view in Calendar, for owners, admins and dispatchers): the office sees who is running late, behind or at risk of missing an arrival window, and which visits need approval or a technician.

If neither My visits nor Team shows in Calendar, check that on-site visits are switched on and that you can be sent on visits or dispatch them.

Related guides

• Appointments and booking
• Customer portal
• Texting customers in the US (10DLC)