Types of booking

There are two types of performances the platform facilitates:

1. A live performance via Zoom (or other technology if bespoke)

2. A recorded music message

Live performances are the core service and more popular, whereas requests for music messages are occasional but a great addition for when someone is looking to share something personal with someone who might not be able to work a Zoom!

Live performances

These can be booked in two ways:

1. Someone can instantly book on the website based on your synced calendar availability​

2. You can manually book someone into your calendar after you have spoken

The pricing advertised for these performances depends on length, number of artists, and if it is an individual or corporate booking. You can click here to see: pricing.

Recorded Messages

Visitors to the website can send a request for a video recording. Pricing is currently a flat fee of £30.

When someone sends you a recorded video request, you receive an email, and you can either reject the request, or follow the instructions and complete the request within 5 days. It's important you meet the deadline, both for the customer, and because we place a hold for the payment amount which expires 7 days after the request is placed.

Charging bespoke prices / manual booking

There are certain occasions you may wish to charge a customer a bespoke price, such as

• Requests to learn new songs / do a bespoke set (e.g. create a quiz) - see suggested template responses to requests

• Corporate events - see price guidance

There are 3 ways to take bespoke payment from the customer:

1. The customer uses the pay what you want feature when booking

2. You update the price after booking

3. You book them in manually

Pay what you want feature

The customer can book in using the usual online booking system and add the additional fee in the 'Pay what you want' section during payment.

• Note - in the confirmation email you can see how much the customer paid at the bottom of the email. Please check they added the correct amount. We don't see what you quoted them so we can't check!

Additional charge post-booking

If they've already booked and paid, but you want to add an additional charge (i.e. they since asked for a new song to be learnt), you can add the additional cost in Acuity.

Here are the steps:

1. Click the event in Acuity and click edit

2. Change the price to the new price, and untick the Paid checkbox

3. Click the cog top right of the event dialogue box

4. Click Client's Confirmation Page

5. Grab the URL of this page and share with the client on email, along with the reason for the additional fee.

Manually book someone in

It is possible to manually book a gig yourself, and takes just under 2 minutes. Here are the steps:

1. ​Log in to Acuity​

2. In your calendar view, click the date and time desired

3. Choose appointment type from those under the heading Use these if booking manually (this is important as only these trigger a payment link being sent to the customer) - select the one with the right length. Don't worry about the price, you can set that in the next step.

4. Complete the name and email of the client

5. Click to expand section Forms, Code, Notes and complete the Performance details sections

6. Scroll to the bottom and click the arrow next to Schedule Appointment and instead click 'Schedule, but don't sent confirmation email' (don't worry if you accidentally click schedule - it will only have an impact if they pay within the next 2 minutes before you set the payment amount!)

7. On the next screen, scroll down and amend the price to whatever the agreed price is for this gig. Then press save

8. Go to the options button top right, and choose 'Resend client confirmation email'

9. Your customer will automatically receive an email with a payment link.

As gigs booked in this way are not paid straightaway, we must check that the client actually has paid: if a gig has still not been paid for 24 hours before the gig is due to start, an automated email goes out to the customer with a payment link, with you copied on the Cc line. Once the client confirms the payment has been made, you are able to click the same link to see whether payment has been.

If the payment has not been made, we recommend reminding/not performing the gig unless the customer is known to you and you are confident they will complete payment, even if late.

Handling customer queries

A run down of how it works, plus answers to common questions.

How can a visitor get in touch with me?

A website visitor may get in touch with you by clicking the contact performer button on your profile, to ask a question, e.g. a quote for learning a particular song.

To protect your privacy, when a message is submitted, the visitor receives an email from [email protected] with a copy of their message, and you are bcc'ed onto the message.

We do this because we want you to have control over who you engage with, but also to have direct contact with the client. This means you can continue to build up a bank of clients who you might wish to get in touch with later, or they can contact you directly for other work if that is relevant to you.

Template responses to enquiries

"How much does it cost?"

Thanks for asking - you can have a look at full pricing here: https://faqs.lockdownpresents.com/#how-much-does-it-cost You'll also see the price as the first stage of the booking process, when you select the length of performance.

These prices apply if you book any of the standard performances, for example, Artist's choice where I'll put together a set based on whatever details you've shared, or if you pick songs from my published repertoire.

For anything bespoke, like learning a new song, it would be the standard fee plus anywhere from [£30 - £100] depending on the complexity of song, and time to learn it in. In some cases the timeframe may be too tight, and I won't be able to offer this.

For bespoke concerts, we can agree a price on email, and then I'll send you a pending booking confirmation, with a payment link for the agreed fee or you can book on the website and pay the additional quoted fee by adding this in the Pay what you want field when booking.

"Could you be available at [xx] time - I didn't see any availability?"

"Could you perform [xx] song [not in your published repertoire]?"