If you want to offer written consulting services in addition to standard in-person meetings, this module is the perfect solution for you
How does it work?
- Paid response: The client pays to ask a question or describe their problem, and you provide expert advice directly via email.
- Fully automated: Zencal handles the payment process and collects the necessary information from the client before it reaches your inbox.
What do you need to sell email consultations?
Before you start selling email consultations, make sure you have these key elements in place:
- Integrated payment gateway
Online payment processing is essential for automatically selling packages, individual sessions, and events. It allows the client to pay for their order immediately upon booking.
- You can find more information about configuring payment gateways here: Step 0: Payment Gateways Step 1: Payment Gateway Integration
- Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
When selling services online, having these documents is a legal requirement. Customers must accept your Terms of Service before making a payment.
- You can learn more about how to prepare and link your Terms of Service in this article—Step 2: Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
How to Set Up Email Consultations Step by Step
Go to the Email Consultations dashboard and click the “Create Offer” button
The panel is divided into four sections—Offer, Pricing, Form, and Settings
- Offer
- Basic Information—name your email consultation offer and add a thumbnail
- Description—add a description that explains what your offer includes
- Pricing
In the Pricing tab, you can define different pricing options for the same offer. Each option can have its own price and turnaround time, allowing the customer to choose the option that best suits their needs.
To create a new option, fill out the fields below:
- Variant Name – enter the name of the variant, e.g., Basic, Premium, or Express.
- Price (gross) – enter the price the customer will pay for the selected variant.
- Currency – select the currency in which the price will be displayed.
- Turnaround time – specify how long it will take to complete the service.
- Unit – select the unit of time, e.g., business days, calendar days, or hours.
Good to Know: An offer can include multiple pricing options, allowing the customer to choose the option that best suits their needs when placing an order. Only after saving the offer will all added options be available to customers.
- Form The Form tab allows you to add custom fields that the customer will be required or allowed to fill out when placing an order for an email quote. This lets you collect all the information needed to provide the service even before the collaboration begins.
To add a new field:
- Select a field type from the drop-down list (e.g., Short Text).
- Click Add.
- Enter the text of the question that will be displayed to the customer.
You can add multiple fields to create a form tailored to your offer.
- Settings
The Settings tab allows you to configure additional options related to the email offer. You can specify what data will be collected from customers, limit the number of available orders, and integrate the offer with external systems.
- Invoice Form
Enable the Invoice Form option if you want customers to be prompted to provide the information necessary to issue an invoice when placing an order.
- Limits
The Limits section allows you to specify how many times an offer can be ordered.
You can set an availability limit to:
- limit the number of services sold,
- stop sales once the specified limit is reached,
- make the offer available only to a specific number of customers.
Once the limit is reached, the offer will no longer be available for ordering.
- Webhook
The Webhook section allows you to integrate the offer with external systems and automation tools.
In the URL field, enter the address to which Zencal will send notifications about events related to the offer. You can read more about webhooks and automations here: Step 1: Webhooks