Category: Tips & Tricks

Creative ways to use Full Slate to make scheduling appointments and running your business easier

How Full Slate can capture credit card information for deposits or full payment

by Allison DoyleTips & TricksLeave a Comment on How Full Slate can capture credit card information for deposits or full payment

Let’s examine all the ways Full Slate can help you capture credit card information, whether it’s for deposits or full payment on services.

Credit Card Capture

Full Slate allows you to collect credit card information when client schedule appointments, and charge cards if they do not show up for their appointments. When a client enters a credit card number, it passes straight to the payment processer for safekeeping. Full Slate never stores or exposes the full card number.

To keep credit cards on file, you need an account with a payment processor that supports saving cardholder information and charging customers after the fact. Currently, Full Slate integrates with:

  • PayPal
  • Stripe
  • Authorize.net
  • Payflow

Deciding what credit card processor works for your business really depends on your specific needs. Note that Stripe is only available for businesses in the United States, Canada, and U.K. A client also cannot remove a credit card that has been previously added to the system if it’s securing an upcoming appointment. To do so, the client would need to either cancel the appointment, or contact you first.

Setting Up Deposits

One way to cut back on no-shows is to require a deposit (either a flat fee or percentage of the cost of service) at the time of booking. Non-refundable deposits provide a (better) guarantee that your client will show up for their pre-scheduled appointment. Another bonus of setting up deposits: they are less susceptible to dispute and charge-back fines applied after the fact.

Requiring Payments

If you want to require a full payment at the time of booking (or before), you can through the designated processors. These offer seamless integration, so clients can pay for appointments within your scheduling widget or site, without being handed off to another site.

To get step-by-step instructions on how to capture credit card information on Full Slate, check out our Help Center article on the subject.

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Using Full Slate Outside the U.S.

by Allison DoyleTips & TricksLeave a Comment on Using Full Slate Outside the U.S.

Do you live outside the United States or work with international currency? Good news! Full Slate offers currency and language support for businesses around the world. This includes:

  • SMS alerts – Full Slate supports over 1,000 mobile carriers worldwide to complement our text alerts. If you do have an international number, make sure to add it under MY ACCOUNT in the international format: +country code xxx-xxx-xxxx.
  • SMS reminders – If your clients use one of the 1,000 supported carriers, they will receive text reminders. The mobile numbers under the CLIENTS tab do NOT need your country code. For full information on this, visit our Help Center article on SMS international texts.
  • Phone numbers – Our phone number fields include most worldwide formats so you can enter your business, mobile, and other phone numbers in the format of your home country.
  • Currency – Full Slate supports all major world currencies, and you can list your prices in your home currency. Plus, if you use PayPal for transactions, the price will be transferred to PayPal in the proper currency.
  • Input Fields – Our input fields accept international characters so you can customize your account to another language, making instructions easier to read for your clients.

For more information on this, check out our original blog on the topic.

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Why you should create a strong password

by Rachel AugustineTips & TricksLeave a Comment on Why you should create a strong password

Security is one of the most important factors to consider when conducting business online. We lock the doors to our house and our cars are equipped with locks that can only be accessed with a key and/or an electronic device. We need to make sure we treat our cyber-connected accounts the same. Full Slate cares about your security and we want to make sure that you have the tools and knowledge you need to improve your day-to-day cyber security.

Creating Strong Passwords

One of the best ways to protect yourself online is by creating and managing your passwords. In general, your password should contain a combination of numbers, symbols, uppercase letters, and lowercase letters. A password should not contain repetition, full words, usernames, pronouns, or any other predefined number or letter sequence.

One tip for creating a strong password is to start with a phrase as your base. For example, a phrase like “I hope the Giants win the World Series in 2017!” Then, take the initials of each word, and all numbers and symbols, to create your password. So, that phrase would result in this: IhtGwtWSi2017!

What To Do If Your Password is Compromised?

If you have reason to believe your password has been stolen, you should change it immediately on any accounts where you use the same or a similar password.

  • If you have shared your password with a friend, change it.
  • If you saw someone looking over your shoulder as you were typing your password, change it.
  • If you think you might have just given your password to a phishing website, change it.
  • If your current password is weak, change it. If it will make you feel better or if you just feel like it’s time for a change, then, change your password.

Regardless of why you are changing your password, choose a new password unrelated to the old one, and don’t reuse a password from another account. Remember, there may be other steps you should take as well to make sure your system or account has not been compromised in a way that will render your password change ineffective. The Department of the Navy’s Chief Information Officer’s website has a great article on Basic Cybersecurity Tips to Keep Your Data Safe.

Advice for “Shared” Office Passwords

One trend we have noticed at Full Slate is that some companies prefer just one login for the whole office. This is not something we recommend. One shared office password can become a problem if you experience any staff turnover (we have seen some not-so-nice actions by an employee let go from a company), and a shared office password can make it difficult for Full Slate support staff to track down who did what and when in regards to appointment or client data.

Our recommendation remains: anyone who needs access to your account should have their own unique login. Furthermore, staff should be counseled to log out of their workstation computers when they are done for the day to avoid anyone else accessing their profile.

For more on how to invite your staff to your Full Slate account, please click here.

If you have any questions on this or any feature of Full Slate, please contact our support team at www.fullslate.com or visit our Help Center.

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How to increase your pre-booked appointments

by Allison DoyleBuild Your Business / Tips & TricksLeave a Comment on How to increase your pre-booked appointments

While walk-in appointments can help fill in scheduling gaps and unexpected no-shows, no small business should rely on a revolving door of walk-ins as a secure revenue stream. To grow into a more mature business model, you need to encourage pre-booking and more consistent scheduling behavior from your clients. Offering opportunities to pre-book helps you build a more consistent schedule of clientele, which will in time allow you to grow your business and increase revenue.

How to encourage pre-booking to your clientele

When do you ask your clientele to book their next appointment? It shouldn’t be at the end of an appointment, when both you and the client are already thinking of other things. Instead, you should bring up the idea of pre-booking with your clients while you’re still with them.

How might you discuss the benefits of pre-booking? Here are some suggestions:

  • Discuss how your business operates and why it’s helpful for you
  • Focus on the benefit to your client – how they can book the best time earlier, and not have to worry later on
  • Share with them why you want to keep them as loyal clients

The idea of pre-booking might not come naturally to some of your clients, and if you want to really train your clients to practice booking behaviors that benefit you greatly in the end, you might want to consider incentivizing them. For example, you could offer small incentives such as $5 or $10 off their next service if they pre-book, or add on an extra service.

Adding online scheduling to your Facebook page

Another way to encourage pre-booking and build a more consistent schedule for your business is to add scheduling onto your Facebook page. This is a Full Slate feature that you can quickly set up. Just add the Full Slate application to your business’ page, and clients will be able to select from real-time openings synced from your Full Slate appointment ledger.

  • Step one: click on the Web > Facebook tab in your Full Slate account
  • Step two: Select the styling you want
  • Step three: Click the link to add to your page
  • Step four: Verify with Facebook

You’re done! A new tab: Schedule Now, will show up in the navigation of your Facebook page. This tab will list your services and your appointment availability. When clients schedule through Facebook, the appointment confirmations and alerts work the same as if they scheduled from your website.

How to encourage clients to schedule online

There’s an overwhelming movement towards clients booking and requesting appointments online, so offering online booking shouldn’t require much convincing. However, there are definitely ways you can alert your clients that you now offer online booking.

  • Send an email to your clients announcing your online booking options, with an easy link to your online booking page. Full Slate offers a ready-made email template titled “Client Invitation” to make this an even simpler process.
  • Mention online booking as an alternative to, or way to, pre-book – this can be added to the conversation you have about pre-booking during your client visits
  • Update your voicemail to let clients know that you offer online scheduling, and it is a quick, easy way to schedule their next appointment. Be sure to mention your website or that you offer online scheduling on Facebook

These are just some of the ways you can encourage pre-booking to your clientele, and pave the way for a more robust business plan for your salon, spa, or small business. For more tips like this, visit our blog at http://blog.fullslate.com/.

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Drive Repeat Business

by Full Slate TeamTips & TricksLeave a Comment on Drive Repeat Business

Want to encourage past clients to return for another appointment? You can have Full Slate automatically send them a personalized email if they haven’t rebooked within a certain window.

To setup an automated recall, go to Messages > Automatic Messages, click the “Add message” button, and choose “Connect with past clients.” You can then specify how long after their last appointment you’d like messages to be sent. You can even send different messages based upon which service the client last booked.

You might also consider including a special offer or promotion to incentivize long overdue clients to come back.  If you’re worried about discounting your services, you can set up a series of messages.  Say you send a reconnect message after 3 months without any special offer.  Then after 6 months you send a second message offering a discount.  Only the people who don’t respond to the first message will get the second one — just those clients who need a little extra motivation.

You can create different templates and customize the message under  Messages > Templates.

 

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See It Your Way

by Full Slate TeamTips & TricksLeave a Comment on See It Your Way

There’s a lot of ways to view your schedule in Full Slate. You will find these options on the ‘Schedule’ tab under the ‘More’ menu in the upper right. Here’s a quick rundown of the different options you can take advantage of:

  • Color coding – You can choose from 16 different colors to color-code your schedule by provider (which is the default) or by service. More on that here.
  • Zoom – If many of your appointments are shorter than 30 minutes in length, you’ll love the ability to see your schedule in a larger format. On appointments as short as 5 minutes, you’ll be able to see the client, service, start and end time without opening it. More about the zoom feature here.
  • Hide empty columns – Only work a few days a week or only want to see days in your view where you have events scheduled? Then this is the option for you. We’ll hide the columns for the days when you don’t have any events scheduled. For example, if you work from Tuesday-Saturday every week, you can ‘Hide empty columns’ so that the schedule only displays from Tuesday-Saturday.
  • Hide client names – Do clients sometimes look over your shoulder when you’re scheduling their next appointment? You can ensure client privacy by hiding client names on your Schedule tab. More on that here.
  • Full screen – Exactly what it sounds like. You can view your schedule in full screen mode. This is great if you want to avoid all of the other distractions on your screen. It’s also a bit easier on the eyes.
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Sell Gift Certificates and Packages through Full Slate

by Full Slate TeamTips & TricksLeave a Comment on Sell Gift Certificates and Packages through Full Slate

With the holidays right around the corner, now is the perfect time to sell gifts & packages to your clients and their loved ones. Gift certificates and packages are a great way to create extra revenue around the holiday time, plus they act as a built-in referral program!

You can add the gifts & packages you want to sell under Setup > Gifts & Packages.  To enable clients to buy them online with a credit card, make sure you have client payments setup. Then they’ll be able to purchase gift certificates and packages right on your Full Slate landing page, your Facebook page, and your website.

gift certificates

Full Slate’s standard website widget includes a section titled ‘Packages and Gift Certificates’ below your list of services.  If you prefer, you can create a dedicated webpage that just displays your gifts and packages. To get the code for that widget, go to Web > Widget  and choose ‘Gift certificates & packages’ from the Widget Type drop-down.

The Gifts & Packages add-on costs $5/mo, but you can try the feature for free for 30 days to see if it is a good fit for your business. Full Slate does not charge any additional fees per order, and clients will continue to be able to redeem gift certificates sold through Full Slate even if you stop selling them (and stop paying for the add-on).

Answer to many common questions about this feature are here. There’s even a video tutorial you can watch!

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Text Message Reminders to Clients

by Full Slate TeamTips & TricksLeave a Comment on Text Message Reminders to Clients

Did you know that you can send text message reminders to your clients’ mobile phones prior to their appointments? Text messages are a great way to reach clients while they are on the go or without access to email. Text reminders can help to reduce your no-show rate and ensure more clients are on time for their appointments.  There is no additional charge for this feature — it’s included in your Full Slate subscription.

To set up text message reminders, go to Messages > Automatic Messages, click ‘Add message’ and select ‘Appointment reminder’ and then select the ‘SMS (Text Message)’ template. You can even customize the language in the text message and include placeholders to dynamically change the message.

Here’s an example of what a text message reminder to your client might look like:

Screenshot_2015-09-14-09-57-20

We recommend setting the text message reminder for one day prior to each appointment, and an email reminder two or more days prior.

Unlike email reminders, clients must opt in to receive text message reminders during the booking process.  Alternatively, if they’ve given permission offline, you can check off that you have received written consent in Clients > Details. For additional information on the feature, please take a look at our help article.

This is the first post of a series focused on how you can get the most benefit for your business from Full Slate – more to come!

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Add a 'Book Now' Button to Your Facebook Page

by Full Slate TeamBuild Your Business / Tips & TricksLeave a Comment on Add a 'Book Now' Button to Your Facebook Page

Facebook recently made it easy to add a “Book Now” button to the top of your Facebook page. This is a great way to let visitors to your Facebook page know you offer online scheduling and convert them to paying clients. It’s also an easy way for your existing clients to book online with you.

Facebook Book Now

Follow these instructions to add the Book Now button to your Facebook page:

1. Click the “Create Call-to-Action” button near the top of your Facebook business page.

2. Select “Book Now from the drop-down menu.

3. Go to your Full Slate account and copy your landing page URL under Web > Landing Page.

4. Return to your Facebook page and paste the landing page URL into both the Website and Mobile Website fields.

5. On the following two screens, select “Website” from the drop-down menus. This is the default option.

6. Click Create to complete the process and post your new Book Now button.

The Book Now button will be displayed on the web AND on your Facebook Mobile page, so new and existing clients can book from any device.

If you have any troubles, please contact support and we’ll be happy to help.

 

The New Help Center

by Full Slate TeamNew & Improved / Tips & TricksLeave a Comment on The New Help Center

Introducing the new Full Slate Help Center!

We recently upgraded our help content to be more comprehensive, organized and searchable. Now many of the questions you may have about using Full Slate are at your fingertips.

Just click the ‘help’ link in the upper-right corner of your Full Slate account to access the Help Center. You can even bookmark http://support.fullslate.com so it’s always readily available.

If you don’t find your answer there, don’t worry; nothing has changed with our world-class customer support. You can still call, email or chat with us, as detailed here!

Help Center

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