Bing has added a new feature to their local knowledge panel that allows searchers to book appointments directly through Bing rather than contacting the business independently.
Here is what it looks like:
The new book link appears between the usual directions and website boxes below the map for the business, or next to them.
When you click on it, you are sent to a third party site that has a new partnership with Bing, Pingup. They offer two types of appointments – one for appointments taking place at the business and the other for appointments taking place in the customer’s home.
For the standard type of appointment, it starts from a booking link on the local knowledge panel.
First the customer chooses the appointment type:
Then the day and time is chosen.
Lastly, the personal information to complete the booking:
Here is the booking landing page for appointments at the customer’s house:
There are many more appointment choices beyond this in this example. Once the user selects the appointment type, the user submits and address to ensure the business can service the area, and then finally enter in the customer information to book the appointment.
Google added their own version of local booking last year in the local knowledge panel. So it is not surprising to see Bing follow suit with their own version of the same.
This does seem to be showing for all searchers, and is not a test. It appears as though only those businesses based in the US have access to the feature.
Jennifer Slegg
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