Change / improve the Booking process for staff and patrons
Hi all,
We wish to submit a proposal to change the current booking process for staff creating a booking request in Alma AND for patrons creating their own bookings in PRIMO VE.
Now, Alma’s option to submit ‘’ Booking ‘’ requests requires us to first search an item, select it and then enter booking times for each piece of equipment desired, which is very time consuming.
When patrons book equipment, they often need up to 10 or more pieces of equipment for the same booking period. This is quite inconvenient and increases the risk of mistakes in the process.
In our proposal, we wish to suggest a booking sequence in the following order:
- Client login
- Set checkout and return date
- Select items
- Submit the booking request
If possible, send a Booking confirmation email to client and to operator. A 36 hours in advance booking would also be quite helpful for operators to give them time to prepare the items before checkout date.
This process would improve the workflow, reducing the risks of mistakes, facilitating the process for both patron and operator. At the same time, this would most likely regroup all items to the same Booking request rather them having many different requests for the same patron.
llacel@lacitec.on.ca
shared this idea
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Stacey Knight
commented
We recently migrated to Alma from Voyager, and our Media Services team greatly misses Voyager's Media Scheduling which allowed batch booking of items. Unfortunately, booking requests have become more time consuming with Alma. Most patrons need to book multiple pieces of equipment for the same booking period, and it is extremely frustrating to have to book requests for each piece of equipment separately. Allowing batch booking of items would be a great improvement and streamline our booking workflows
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Katie Wheeler
commented
We currently check out short-term laptops on an individual basis, but also as part of a cart of laptops. Current booking processes are laborious when we need to reserve the entire cart. This would be very beneficial to allow batch booking of items.