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Offering actions other than check-in

Learn how to setup receptionist / kiosk mode such that people using your iPad will be able to book online, leave & message & more.

Brendan Kilfoil avatar
Written by Brendan Kilfoil
Updated over a month ago

The iPad kiosk is great for your clinic locations that run light on admin staff — allowing patients to check themselves in on arrival, without any help.

But what about walk-ins looking to book? Or someone wanting to leave a message? In version 6.3.0 we added the ability for an "I'm not here to check in" button to be displayed.

Now, in version 7.0.0, we've added much further customisation capability. Read on!

The other action(s) button

New in version 7.0.0 is the ability to completely turn off check-in (if you so desire), along with the ability to display a button to provide on or more "other actions" to your patients.

You can do this from the bottom of the initial kiosk screen configuration:

When enabled, the "other action(s)" button (or actions button for short) configuration card is displayed, allowing you to configure what happens when this button is pressed, or the QR code displaying on the button is scanned by a patient's phone. Here's what that looks like:

The main point of this button was to cater to walk-ins — allowing them to book an appointment, learn more about your services, or leave a message — without requiring assistance from staff.

New capabilities in version 7.0.0

Previously, this button was limited to displaying any custom URL you entered. However, in practice, many clinics had trouble creating a minimal page with only a few links to key kiosk actions.

As a result, Finger-Ink will now host a "kiosk actions" page specifically for your kiosk. If you have multiple kiosk configurations per iPad, we'll host multiple pages — one for each different set of configuration. There are three main actions we allow you to configure on these hosted pages:

  1. Your online booking URL

  2. A list of questions & answers

  3. Whether or not you want people to be able to leave messages

Here's an example:

You can find the result of the configuration above here: https://forms.finger-ink.com/k/yk_vs49o/

These pages are intended to look good both on the kiosk itself, and on phones (for when the QR code on the button is scanned).

Here's what it looks like on the iPad itself:

The close button is added on top of any web page displayed. It automatically activates after 25 seconds of inactivity. This means that if someone taps the actions button, then walks out of your clinic, the pop up will close and go back to the initial kiosk screen.

Because it only closes after 25 seconds of inactivity, if someone takes 2 minutes to book themselves in for another appointment then the page will stay open. The navigating around, tapping and typing will keep the page open.

An alternate configuration

An interesting outcome of allowing check-in to be turned off, and allowing the action button's title to be changed, and to be configured to any custom URL is the ability to make the kiosk look something like this:

In the example above, the button links to a Finger-Ink form, which is setup to gather honest feedback about the appointment.

Most people are much more likely to tell an inanimate object what they really think rather think — as no one wants to give someone else bad news!

Different buttons for different iPads

All settings can be configured at an iPad level if required. The actions button is no different. Just visit the iPad setup page to configure this:

Next Steps

Now that you've got these other actions sorted, it's time to test the iPad kiosk.

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