I am a counselor in the U.S. whose services are provided face-to-face
and am seeking an integrated solution to the problem of allowing
clients to reserve appointments online (with real-time availability)
*AND PAY FOR THEM* (via credit card) through a single web application
service provider. To get an idea of the kind of functionality I am
seeking per component, see Find-A-Therapist's attempt to solve a
similar problem at: http://www.find-a-therapist.com/onlinecounseling/etherapists.htm

1. "Purchase your session" - Find-A-Therapist uses PayPal, which is my
ideal in terms of ease of payment acceptance and availability of
funds. It does not require a merchant account, and this is essential.
I don't mind paying a reasonable percentage per transaction for credit
card/e-check acceptance.

2. "Complete information form" - While I can create my own forms, my
preference would be that this be integrated into the solution if
possible. However, this is not a high priority.

3. "Schedule" - Find-A-Therapist uses Microsoft's BCentral.com, which
is quite acceptable to me in terms of functionality. TimeTrade.com is
another example of an online scheduling service which looks
professional and seems to offer the scheduling features I like. They
do accept credit card payments via their telephone scheduling
component, but not online as far as I can tell.

My problem is in finding an *INTEGRATED* solution that does not
require my client to jump around to different websites for a) payment,
b) scheduling and c) filling out forms.

I should also specify that I am *NOT* interested in services like
http://helphorizons.com which I believe offers the exact functionality
I am looking for but aggregates therapist profiles on a centralized
website.

I might add that I have considered using a shopping cart, but this
becomes complex because specific appointment times are one-only items
and must disappear as options once someone has purchased them.

Microsoft's Bcentral.com Appointment app. would be ideal if only it
collected payments at the time appointments were reserved.

A scheduling app. with fewer features would be acceptable if the
payment angle was seamlessly integrated. Additionally, I would like
the option to require payment online for certain appointments (new
client times) and not for others (existing client times).

However, this question will be satisfactorily answered even if an
application only lets me list 6 appointment times per week and
requires that a fee be charged for each of them.

My monthly budget for such a service would preferably be somewhere in
the range of $49-79 or less but I could go higher if more of my
specifications were reached.

To sum up what I am *NOT* looking for: I am *NOT* interested in online
scheduling services without integrated payment collection, which
require merchant accounts, which do not show real-time appointment
availability for at least 6 appointments per week, which are a part of
an aggregator website, which are unprofessional in appearance, or
which are outside the U.S. 

Thanks in advance for your help.

Great question! I'm a psychologist who currently uses TimeTrade.com
for scheduling (great service, my internet-savvy patients love it).
But the lack of online payment options is a downside. They will take a
potential patient's credit card number and verify that it's good
before an appointment is made but, as you said, they don't provide
payment processing. I've been using QuickBook's credit card acceptance
system, which saves a lot of time if you already use QuickBooks. But
that doesn't solve your problem.

I'm looking forward to seeing if there is a solution. Thanks for your
excellent question.

Thank-you both for your comments. MDW, just in case I end up settling
for the clumsier alternative of PayPal and an online scheduler... Do
you have any comment about Timetrade vs. Bcentral's appointment app.?
Do I need to send you 4.00 for asking this? :)

To MSW: I checked out Bcentral's website and watched the demo. It is
half as much as TimeTrade ($25 vs. $50) and the features look similar.
You have to pay Microsoft $10 per month for phone support, which
TimeTrade offers for free (I've received excellent support from
TimeTrade thus far). Thus, $35 vs. $50 would be a more accurate
comparison. I like TimeTrade's look but that probably reflects my
anti-Microsoft bias. It seems like you might be able to solve your
dilemma if you sign up for Microsoft's ecommerce service and the
scheduling service together. They use PayPal. But you might have
already checked this option out and found it unsatisfactory.

Greetings!

I realize that this doesn't really answer your question in the way
that you'd like it answered, so I'm posting it as a comment, despite
the fact that I believe that it would probably be a viable solution
for you. If you are interested in hearing details on it, please let me
know and I'll be happy to post them as an answer for you.

First of all, Paypal as a prefered payment solution makes this problem
a lot more simple than you'd think. The reason for this is that Paypal
doesn't really process payments in the same way as most Payment
Authorization companies.

My solution would be to have you use bCentral (or TimeTrade) and
integrate your payment processing into the e-mail confirmation rather
than have it all happen from the web site. The process would end up
working like this:

1) Customer Requests an appointment.
2) Customer receives a confirmation e-mail instructing them to make a
payment to complete the process.
3) Customer makes payment.
4) Customer receives confirmation of payment and you receive
confirmation of the appointment and payment in your e-mail. If payment
doesn't come in, you'd have to manually cancel the appointment,
though.

The cost of setting this up, depending upon your host, might include a
slightly higher monthly fee on your hosting plan (usually no more than
$5 or so) - most of the time, you've already got the ability to do
this.

The skill level required to set it all up yourself would be "Medium".
You'd need the ability to work your site's "Control Panel", set up
e-mail accounts, autoresponders, and post links. If you can't do this
on your own, a web design firm would probably charge somewhere in the
area of $50.

You could probably add additional functionality through a web
interface using simple scripts that interact with the e-mail to make
things a bit more personalized and have more of a "feeling" that
everything is happening right there. This would probably cost an
additional $50-75 for a web design firm.

Understand, that Paypal doesn't really have a completely "automated"
process of accepting payments. They have means of performing
shortcuts, but the user still ends up on their server and entering in
information there, so your request for a completely "Integrated"
solution using Paypal simply won't happen no matter what you do.

In essence, they'd schedule an appointment. They'd click a "payment
link" in an e-mail. They'd be done.

This letter might give you enough to go on without further assistance
from me, but if not, please let me know and I'll flesh it all out for
you.

WebStock

Webstock, I like your idea for its simplicity. While it doesn't quite
accomplish what I had in mind, it does streamline the process enough
that I think clients would be less confused by it and I like the fact
that both appointments/payments would be easily verifiable by e-mail.
This is something that I could accomplish myself. I am pretty sure
that Bcentral's follow-up e-mail could be modified to include a
payment link. Please do post this as an answer and claim the fee.

MDW, Thank-you very much for your feedback. I did check with Microsoft
and they have no way to integrate the Appt. app. with PayPal right
now. Not sure, but I suspect that part of the problem is that the
Appt. app. is extremely flexible (allowing cancels/reschedules for
example) and this would present headaches when it comes to refunding
payments.

Hi MSW,

Just wanted to make a comment about PayPal. I recently made an online
purchase via PayPal and it seemed like a very unprofessional way to
complete the transaction. For example, when I received my initial
confirmation and had to confirm my password, the link didn't work
correctly. Neither did the "help" links on the PayPal site. After
finally getting the blasted PayPal password to work, I was turned off
by the enticement to join PayPal in the email receipt that followed. I
don't like ads in my receipts!

I very nearly didn't make the purchase because it was such a hassle.
The reason I went ahead and bought the product was because it was the
only product of its kind, it was the only way to buy it, and there
were outstanding recommendations for it. Had there been any other
option, I'd have terminated the purchase after getting midway through
the PayPal screen. I think you run the risk of having some of your
clients feeling the same way.

I don't mean to undermine Webstock's creativity :) But as a mental
health professional myself, I can imagine some of your clients getting
almost through the online scheduling process and then closing their
browser window in frustration with PayPal, particularly if this is
their first time paying for anything online. If making the payment
feels like a hassle, what impression does that give about the rest of
your online options?

Additionally, if your PayPal receipts go out with the enticement to
join PayPal, I think you run the risk of giving the impression that
you are promoting affiliate programs ... even if you aren't. And
that's not a good impression to give, particularly in the initial
stages of client contact. The client may not understand that's a
PayPal thing and not something you are trying to promote directly.

Just wanted to give my two cents worth about my recent PayPal
problems! I had briefly considered it for one of my web sites, but
after my recent experience, there is no way I would risk losing
customers who might experience the hassle I did!

I wish you the very best with whatever option you choose. And I hope
you'll post it here so we can see how you finally solved your dilemma.

fsw

I already use PayPal with clients and have had no complaints.