Microsoft Teams' Bookings App to Transform into a Virtual Appointments Powerhouse

Microsoft is taking another step forward in its commitment to enhancing user experience with the upcoming update to the Microsoft Teams Bookings app. This evolution will ensure feature parity across all entry points, bringing a unified experience to users. Say hello to the Virtual Appointments app – a solution that's set to redefine how businesses schedule and manage their customer engagements.

A Unified Solution for Virtual Appointments

The Virtual Appointments app, a seamless end-to-end solution for business-to-customer meetings, is poised to revolutionize the way you manage your virtual appointments on Microsoft Teams. Integrating Bookings schedules, analytics, and management options in one central hub, this app offers an unmatched user experience that is consistent across all endpoints.

What's New with the Virtual Appointments App?

The Virtual Appointments app introduces a host of advanced meeting features, including real-time meeting state updates, rich analytics for tracking virtual appointment trends, and the ability to chat with attendees in the waiting room lobby via the queue view. These features aim to drive positive business outcomes, such as reducing the number of no-shows.

Furthermore, certain features like Forms, Queuing, and scheduler-initiated SMS reminders for appointments will be exclusively available on the new Virtual Appointments app on Teams.

Experience Consistency across Web, Teams, and Outlook

The Bookings experience in Teams will soon match the web version on https://book.ms, ensuring consistent features across all endpoints. This means users can expect the same level of functionality and user experience, whether they are using the Bookings web app or the Bookings Teams app.

The Rollout Timeline

The rollout for these updates will begin in late June 2023 and is expected to complete by early July 2023. Users should anticipate a change in their Bookings Teams app experience as we transition to the new and improved Virtual Appointments app.

What does this mean for your organization?

With the Virtual Appointments app, users currently using the Queue tab, Forms integration, and SMS reminders for scheduler-initiated scheduling from the Bookings Teams app will need to transition to the Virtual Appointments app. However, they will not miss out on any feature as the Virtual Appointments app will be a superset of the current Bookings Teams app experience. Users will be guided to the new Virtual Appointments app through banners on the existing Bookings Teams app.

How to Prepare for this Change

Organizations are advised to inform current Bookings Team app users about the upcoming update. Users can leverage Bookings documentation found here: Microsoft Bookings.

It's important to prepare users who are currently using Queue, Scheduler initiated SMS notifications & Forms integration feature to transition to the Virtual Appointments App (VA App). The current experience in Bookings will still be available and embedded within the VA app.

To ensure a smooth transition, consider adding the VA App to your Teams rail so that users can find the app with ease. Additionally, communicating to users how to utilize the full benefits of the VA App is essential. Users can enjoy existing Bookings functionality without any additional training, and the home page of the VA App provides quick links to key functions, such as creating new calendars and viewing a quick summary of appointments for the day.

Deep Analytics for Business Insights

One of the standout features of the Virtual Appointments app is its deep analytics view, offering insights into usage activity and trends that can help optimize your virtual appointments and deliver better business outcomes. With metrics such as the total number of appointments, appointment duration, lobby waittime, and no-shows, organizations can draw meaningful business insights and identify areas for investment.

A Sneak Peek into the VA App's Features

The Virtual Appointments app consists of several tabs, each designed to streamline your appointments process:

1. Home: Provides easy access to key actions and information, including a quick view of the Bookings schedule, a summary of the queue of appointments, a snapshot of appointment analytics, and management options.
2. Bookings schedule: Allows you to access your Bookings calendar to schedule virtual appointments such as healthcare visits, financial consultations, interviews, virtual fittings and consultations, and more.
3. Queue: Lets you view and monitor all scheduled and on-demand virtual appointments in the Bookings calendar that you pinned, with updates in real time.
4. Analytics: Offers insight into usage activity and trends to help optimize Virtual Appointments and deliver better business outcomes.
5. Manage: Enables you to manage your Bookings calendar settings, including updating your business details, customizing appointment types, adding staff and assigning roles, and configuring your booking page settings

Setting Up the Virtual Appointments App

The Virtual Appointments app is enabled by default for all Teams users in your organization. However, if you wish to turn it off or on at the organizational level, you can do so on the Manage apps page in the Microsoft Teams admin center. To allow or block specific users in your organization from using the app, create a custom policy for app permissions and assign it to those users. You can also use an app setup policy to pin the Virtual Appointments app to Teams, making it easily accessible for your users.

Conclusion

The evolution of the Bookings app into the Virtual Appointments app is a testament to Microsoft's commitment to providing a unified, consistent, and feature-rich user experience. As businesses continue to adapt to the digital era, tools like these are not just useful, but essential for seamless business operations.

Stay tuned for more updates as we navigate this exciting transition together.