Mindbody users... a question
For anyone who uses Mindbody, I've got some frustrations with a couple areas they lack in (though, overall I am impressed and will continue to use the service).
However, can anyone who uses MB tell how they deal with time between appointments? MB does not have a feature for 'cushion' or prep time that allows you to put breaks between appointments. Its super frustrating!
Right now I have it set so that I only take appointments at Bold times (a feature in MB), but now that I'm adding staff, that won't work well. I know I can add extra min to each treatment and that would give me break time between appointments, but then when clients book online they see, say, Custom Facial 10am-11:15am, when the Custom facial is really only 1 hour long.
Any thoughts? Between this issue and not having a way to easily add on services, I just about quit MB recently, but the hassle of changing again (within a year) was too much at this time.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by coldsalineplexus on
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Hey Nicole,
Bold times must have been introduced since I set up my software. I'm not familiar with that component, and will have to look into it.
I add an extra 15 minutes for cleanup, but I include the length of the service prominently in the title and/or description (if it is a time-based service) to avoid this confusion. This means facials, massages, body treatments, acupuncture sessions, and nutritional consultation sessions have times in the titles, but things like waxing, standalone peels or microderm, injectables with our visiting derm, and nail sessions (because the manicurists prefer to incorporate their cleanup into the service time) do not. You can also remove the end time from the confirmation emails very easily.
Also, have you spoken to tech support to run through adding on services? I actually find it pretty easy, you just have to avoid the (understandable) impulse to add them in the retail screen.
I looooove MindBody so much, and could even see creating a group on this forum to discuss it (if there is not one already).
My only other complaint is that if you change someone's commission, it will change it in all your payroll reports back until the end of time. For this reason : export your payroll reports every time you do payroll.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by NBSkinCare on
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Hi Christine, thanks!
Yes, the Bold Times only is a feature where you Bold, say, 9am, 10:15 am and 11:30 am and only those times can be booked. BUT, its is for ANY service, so a brow wax at 9 am, would waste the rest of that block, etc. For me, it worked, because my facial services are all 60-75 minutes and I didn't do any waxing, but now my new employees have various services and waxing is going to be heavily promoted so the BOLD feature wouldn't work well.
I will mess around with the title and descriptions and see if that makes sense. I thought when clients go to book it gives them the time range (say 9am to 10:15am) at the time of booking. I don't want to confuse clients, or have them think they are getting a 75 min when it clearly says 60 min in the description. But, I will mess with it and see what I can come up with. Changing the auto email is a great idea, too!
We should create a Mindbody group, for sure. Go for it! I created a Rhonda Allison group because there wasn't one, but I haven't been active in it since I've been so busy. :)
Re: add on services.. Adding on services when booking in Business mode isn't tough, I was referring specifically to Clients adding on services. It seems they have to book each one separately, or log back in and add the service.
I once used an online booking/POS that, after clicking, say Custom Facial, the next screen asked "Would you like to Enhance your Service with any of those following?" and listed add-ons/tx enhancements (add arm and hand massage, peel with micro, etc) that clients could easily click and add. It was wonderful, and basically upsold to clients for you, or at least put it in their mind that there were ways to make the tx even better :) I wish MB would do it... seems like an easy fix and according to the MB forum, one that a lot of people have been asking for for awhile (same as the prep/clean up/ break thing- seems like an easy thing to add, lol)
Start up that MB group and I'm there! :) For the most part, I LOVE it. A couple simple additions and I would be even more happy.
Have you tried Perkville (it integrates with MB)?
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Ahh, I see what you are saying regarding adding services. I didn't know other services offered that, and it sounds heavenly, but my workaround is to have a news item at the top of the page letting clients know that if they would like to add brows, lash tinting, or other add-on services, they may do so by leaving their request in the appointment notes.
Yeah, Bold doesn't sound so useful to me since all my providers have a wide range of service times.
Perkville - no, haven't tried it... is it expensive or does it involve giving things away for free? I'm kind of a full-price maniac, LOL... especially now that all my clients are trained to expect full price all the time (and honestly we have a very "full price" type clientele, if you know what I mean)... BUT I'll take a look at it, thanks for the tip :)
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Perkville is an app of sorts that integrates with MB. It is a Rewards Points System. Once you set it up, you don't have to do anything- it keeps track of EVERYTHING. Clients don't have to do anything either (no cards to carry or points to track).
Though having a Rewards System for clients is great, the real reason I have it is because after clients visit me for services, Perkville emails them and tells them 'hey, you earned xx points for visiting XXXX skin Care' and then it gives them the option to earn more points by a) sharing their visit on their FaceBook b) inviting friends to visit and get services and c) gives them an option to earn points by leaving reviews on Yelp or Twitter or Facebook.
So... it does a lot of advertising with core clients, those that are visiting and purchasing.
When clients make a purchase in MB, the amount they spend is automatically sent over to Perkville (or if they book online, when they fulfill that appointment the rewards points are transferred to Perkville; or, when they refer a friend, when that friend actually visits and pays for a service, the referrer gets referral points) BUT all of it is automated, so I don't do a thing.
Its $19 a month, I believe, but I've gotten so many referrals and exposure I think its great.
I have it set that when a client reaches 1000 points they get a free $50 gift card that they can use or give as a gift for services only. Good clients can easily get to 1000 points within the year. If you want to see my website page re: my points program its at: http://makingyouflawless.com/earn-rewards/
I can see though that if you have clients that are that well-trained and paying so well, you may not need a rewards program. The great thing is that you get to pick what you will reward them with, and what actions earn points, so it can be as varied or limited as you want. My clients like that they are 'earning' something, and I like that I don't have to ask for referrals too much because they are reminded after tx.
I think they give a free 30 day trial to mess with it, too. :)
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Thanks! I would definitely be willing to reward referrals that resulted in a full-price sale... is that an option?
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Yep, you can set it up in just about any way you want. The client refers, and when the referred person completes an appointment (at any price level, though, so even just a brow wax. But, even that I think you can exclude some services from earning points... not sure) the client that referred gets their points automatically. I happen to give new clients $10 off their first service, so its not completely full priced, but if you don't offer it, then its whatever they book.
Also, though, MB has a Rewards Points program built in to it that would do that for you too, for free.
The reason I picked doing it through Perkville is because it integrates with Facebook and Twitter and so I get a lot more potential for marketing and client referrals, and it has more options for things to reward for (ie birthdays, reviews, signing up for program, etc) that MB doesn't do. And, MB doesn't send them emails and 'prompt' them for reviews.
You can definitely mess around with it and see if its worth doing what you want to make it do. MB's option may be sufficient, but not if you want the extra FB and Twitter exposure.
I grabbed up the first month free and messed around with it, made some 'dummy' purchases under my own name in MB and watched how it emailed me from a client's perspective and tweaked it until it worked how I liked :) There's always limitations to stuff like this, but so far I've enjoyed using it and I've received 26 referrals and reviews from clients in public forums like FB without 'me' having to ask :) (since April)
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Also, great site!!! I love "blemish bootcamp"!!
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Thanks! I just revamped the site to what you see there now because of my move to my new place and I really love it a lot more than what I had going before. It just didn't fit with the direction my skin care practice has been heading (less fluff than when I first started, more clinical/corrective).
Thanks!
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