The headline on our story reads "We've got a New Online Booking System for our Open Source courses" ... but there's a story behind that headline.

We pride ourselves in our flexibility - the ability to treat each customer as an individual and offer him a solution to meet his or her needs. And that means that we're likely to ask each and every delegate booking a course with us a whole string of questions - some to establish that he or she is booking on the right course (not something too advanced or basic), whether she or he prefers to work at a Linux system, with a Mac, or with Windows Vista, whether a station pickup is required and if there are any special dietary requirements, and whether a hotel room is wanted - if so, bath or shower preferred? But our flexibility leads to the danger of a very complex online booking system!

"KISS" - "Keep it Simple, Stupid" ... a 4 letter acronym! A booking system needs to be simple and easy to use - and our new one is.

• On the first page, simply fill in the names of the delegates you want to send on each course, and if necessary check a box if they don't want a hotel room.

• On the second page, fill in the contact details of the person who's making the booking, and an order number.

• And on the third page, tell us how you want to pay. If that's by credit or debit card, the whole of the booking system is using a secure site so you can enter the details.

• The final page isn't a form - it's a confirmation. Yes, it's that easy! You'll get an automated email to let you know that your order is in the system.

You'll also get a nice note from Lisa, thanking you for your booking and dealing with many of the things that we're very flexible about - and it will be personalised. Book from outside the UK and Lisa will ask you whether you need directions from the airport, or a taxi. Book from one of our regular client companies, and she'll know how you PO system works .. or from a new company but requesting to pay on account, and she'll set that ball rolling.

Our conundrum of how to keep it straightforward, and yet provide the flexibility, isn't unique to us - in fact it's a common feature of most customer-aware businesses. When I book a train ticket and I'm offered (as I was the other day) 37 different fares for the same journey on the same train, I take an object lesson and say "please let this be a reminder to me to make sure that our system NEVER gets like that".

Go on - try it out ... why not find a course and book it today!
(written 2008-05-07 12:22:41)

 H302 - PHP - MVC, 4 layer model and templating
H116 - Shopping Cart Application in PHP
G301 - Well House Consultants - Booking a Public Courses
G902 - Well House Consultants - Web site techniques, utility and visibility

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Pictures far apart
Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so.
What to do if the Home Page is missing
Spring in Devizes
Kiss and Book
Changing a screen saver from a web page (PHP, Perl, OSX)
Lua - a powerful, up and coming scripting language
Looking back through some photos
To provide external links, or not?
A short introduction to our courses
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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