Booking appointments, need advice
Hello everyone!
I'm an owner of a small skin studio and need some advice! I recently ran a groupon and have become really busy. I use genbook and lately I've had about 8-9 people come in or 'reschedule' their appointments, when they weren't even confirmed on my end! Clients have become pretty upset and it's also a little embarrassing on my end. I want to completely stop using online booking, although 85% of my clients use it as I cannot answer calls while I am with clients and do have a fairy hefty amount of missed calls without voice msgs.
I purchased salon iris as well recently because I need to start being more organized with my clients and their appointment history, although I kind of want to return it because $400 is a lot for just keeping track of clients and appt history. Any advice with the online booking? How do you guys keep track of clients and client history? Genbook does a decent job, although it IS online and there IS always a chance that my notes aren't as confidential as I would expect them to be, AND clients are receiving confirmation msgs for appointments, when in fact, they are not on my schedule. I HAVE contacted genbook, and they have not been any help.
I'm new at this business thing, so I'm trying to find my groove with organization and what not Any advice is appreciated, thank you! :)
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cindy Greenwood on
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We use schedulicity for scheduling - plus you can use it for email marketing.
Never had a problem with appts. and they are re-confirmed by email.
It keeps track of the client's appt history and if you want you can keep notes.
I prefer to do my notes on my client intake card though.
If you are a solo I think that schedulicity might be free.
I would dump genbook immediately!
Contact the software seller and see if there are any other benefits to keeping Iris.
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Permalink Reply by Noura Obeidi on
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On a client intake card is it a card or do you use a file system? Just getting ideas, but thanks for your response, I'm definitely trying to get rid of genbook!
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Permalink Reply by Lizabeth Kristiansen on
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I have used both genbook & schedulicity, and I love schedulicity. I consider them a 2 for 1 because not only can you offer online scheduling but you can also send email. A lot of other online booking systems either don't offer email/newsletter or they charge you extra. Plus my regular clients like the fact they don't have to put in credit card info to make an appt. which has been a positive but also a negative for those no shows/no call new clients.
I am also a solo who ran a living social deal back in feb. I use to tell clients that they will receive a confirmation of their appt by scheudlicity and then a confirmation from my personal email saying they are for sure in my books. However after running the deal I couldn't keep up with the confirmations. So now I say if you don't receive your reminder email from schedulicity 24 hours before your appt that means your not on the books.
I also try really hard to make clients book online or when at the spa and not over the phone because I have ran into double bookings this way. On the phone taking an appt and an online client grabs it before I can enter the phone appt. I even have it in my voice mail to go online as well on my website. Now days you have to have online booking or else the new client will jump to another spa that does.
Schedulicity also has a 30 free trial and then its $19/month.
I keep my clients notes with their online schedulicity profile because they have to follow internet security laws. Plus I only see the notes not the clients.
If you do use them, tell them I sent you, :) they have a great referral program, lol
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Awesome, thank you for your response! I will do some research and look into it and get your name in there if I decide to go for it ! Appreciate it!
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Permalink Reply by Robin Lemon on
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I have been using http://www.styleseat.com it's free. It's prob more for stylists, but has estheticians and massage therapists in their listings
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Awesome, I'll check it out!
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Permalink Reply by Laura Cooksey on
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I don't understand... we use Genbooks too; and why do you need to "confirm" on your end? You just show the appointment times in Genbooks that are available and when the client makes the appointment then it's a done deal. Have you used the settings on Genbooks to make sure the times that you are not available are blocked? I also don't understand what "notes" you are talking about that are not confidential. Are you talking about client treatment notes and if so, why would you have the m on Genbooks?
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For example I would be booked out, and a client would show up for their appointment (showing me their confirmation email) and it wouldn't be listed on my schedule (on my computer). It's happened a few times :/. I talked to genbook and have messed with the settings, at first I thought it was user error as far as clients not booking all the way through, but they do in fact have confirmation emails and are not even in my genbook client list either.
And yeah client treatment notes, (just looking for something all togheter where I can schedule and add notes) looking for some advice.
Thank you, I'm new to all of this! :)
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Huh, that's really weird... sounds like you need to talk to Genooks more. I have an acne clinic with 20 to 40 appointments per day and we've never had that problem. As far as treatment notes, instead of paying a bunch of money for another software system, just do your treatment notes in MS Word. That's what we do. You can then add pictures to your client's file.
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Oh wow, I didn't even think of that! Thanks for the advice. I'm going to keep using genbook for a few more weeks and see if maybe its just a computer thing?
Appreciate your response!
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