massage and bodywork professionals

a community of practitioners

Which online scheduling works better for your clients--Schedulicity or GenBook?

I am curious to see how many therapists are utilizing online booking companies to enhance their businesses! Have you used these companies or another one? Have you had a good or bad experience? Most importantly, how do your clients like the "convenience" of booking appointments themselves?

Views: 17955

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I have used genbook for almost 2 years and have thoroughly enjoyed it so far!!! Clients have loved it because it's user friendly. The only thing I don't like about it is that there isn't a feature to add-on a service. For example if someone books a 60 minute massage i would love if they could add on a 30 minute Reflexology or a hot stone add-on. Mindbody, and spabooker have that as a feature which is awesome. I don't know about appointments-plus or fullslate. 

Hi - Just  wanted to point out that Full Slate does support multiple services and add-ons.  Clients can schedule multiple services at the same time.  You can also specify 'zero duration' add-on services (e.g. hot stones) that may affect the price, but don't affect the duration of the appointment.

does schedulicity send clients text reminders? Genbook only does email reminders, and my clients are used to getting texts and some don't check email regularly, so I need a booking option that has text reminders.

Hi Cassie - Full Slate allows you to send text reminders to clients.  And ABMP members get a great discount: http://www.abmp.com/home/featured_benefit.php.  

Hello, I am using ClickBook on line schedule, for 1 person it is free, there are small fees for more employees or several locations. It is working well for me and there is an option to provide email or text reminders.


I did use Genbook until they got rid of the free version then I switched to clickBook!
LeahF said:

I have used genbook for almost 2 years and have thoroughly enjoyed it so far!!! Clients have loved it because it's user friendly. The only thing I don't like about it is that there isn't a feature to add-on a service. For example if someone books a 60 minute massage i would love if they could add on a 30 minute Reflexology or a hot stone add-on. Mindbody, and spabooker have that as a feature which is awesome. I don't know about appointments-plus or fullslate. 

I have experimented with and used several scheduling platforms.

I started with OpenCal about a year ago (apparently they've been acquired by Groupon? Eww). They were nice enough, but the software at the time was too basic and my schedule, too erratic. For example, I couldn't set just one date as open -- they suggested I change my daily hours and put in blocks to prevent people from scheduling when I was unavailable. I gave them a lot of feedback, but even over a few months, I didn't see much improvement. So, I quit.

I moved to FullSlate when they partnered up with ABMP. So far, I'm in love. They solved the problem I had with OpenCal: I can have as flexible a schedule as I need to without messing with my operating hours. It has its limitations, especially with the designs and layouts. I love the automated e-mail reminders and text messages to my phone when someone books or cancels. I'm no longer self-employed, but I intend to keep my membership with FullSlate when I need a scheduling service in the future.

I volunteered at a local collective of massage therapists, reiki practitioners, and other healers. When I started with them, they were using SpaBooker. The main complaints from the staff and clients were the fact that it was entirely too expensive for their needs and it was too complicated to book sessions. I thought it was alright, but not for the price.

Finally, the collective switched over (back, apparently) to GenBook. To me, this seemed to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from SpaBooker -- it was almost too simple. Trying to merge employee, client, and service data from one system to the other was nearly impossible and took me days. Even then, it wasn't usable until my boss went in and completely reorganized the staff and services, undoing my hours and hours of work. In the end, it looked neat and booking was somewhat simpler. And then the collective closed, so none of it really mattered -- but at least I could share this experience with someone. :P

unfortunately I am an AMTA member.
 
Bill Lange said:

Hi Cassie - Full Slate allows you to send text reminders to clients.  And ABMP members get a great discount: http://www.abmp.com/home/featured_benefit.php.  


does webappointments give flexibility of setting up text reminders for clients?


 Don Aldrich said:

Tried Schedulicity for a while, but had a problem that never got fixed. I was told that it was going to be looked into but never received an e-mail or phone call, this was back in April? That's why I went to web-appointments.com, better customer service, easy to use site, clients like it and lower cost.

1- one problem I have is how to get the scheduling for my calendar. if I have a 5 hour block say from 1-6, and someon picks 1:45 pm, that means that I will have 45 minutes lost at the start time, and then if they do an hour (I have 15 minutes  between) and someone books at 3:30 instead of 3. that means in my scedule I have wasted the time for 1 appointment, instead of 4 appointments in my 1-6 time slot, due to the client picking any time they wish, I have no control.

Is there any system that helps with this? Genbook doesn't have text reminders for clients or the flexibility.

 

with Scedulicity, the amount they give for emailing a personal message is too brief, I can' t have a thank you and a cancelation policy, which is needed in my area. I don't know that they have the control for appointments.  Plus all they allow is appoinment name, not allowing a brief description, making clients click between pages won't make their lives easier and they will move on. or call,

 

Hi Cassie - I don't mean to pester or pressure you, but did want to address your questions as relates to Full Slate. 

Full Slate offers a number of options for determining the available appointment times.  Our default is to let Full Slate calculate the optimal way to fill your schedule.  This option would prevent the scenario you describe and not leave the 45 minute gap at the beginning of your availability or the 30 minutes after.

Alternatively, we allow you to specify start times (e.g. 'every hour on the hour', etc.) or to enter custom start times (e.g. 1pm, 2:15pm, 3:30pm, etc.) on a service-by-service basis.  You can also specify setup and cleanup time to give you buffer between appointments, if desired.

Regarding your other questions, we give you full control over the contents of email messages with no limit on the size/length.  We allow you to send automated 'thank you' emails and to establish your own cancellation policy.  And you can have a description of each service.

I hope this helps.  Feel free to contact me directly if you have additional questions... or to tell me to stop responding to your questions! ;-)

Thanks,

Bill

Bill, I like the custom and specified start times, as well as the option to use clean up times as buffers. Thanks for that handy feature! For on-site services, it helps me travel from point A to point B without worrying about double-booking.

Bill Lange said:

Full Slate offers a number of options for determining the available appointment times.  Our default is to let Full Slate calculate the optimal way to fill your schedule.  This option would prevent the scenario you describe and not leave the 45 minute gap at the beginning of your availability or the 30 minutes after.

Alternatively, we allow you to specify start times (e.g. 'every hour on the hour', etc.) or to enter custom start times (e.g. 1pm, 2:15pm, 3:30pm, etc.) on a service-by-service basis.  You can also specify setup and cleanup time to give you buffer between appointments, if desired.

Reply to Discussion

RSS

© 2024   Created by ABMP.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service