Limit Provider and Service Options

You can now limit the provider and service options available to clients when they schedule appointments online.

You can choose to not show providers during the booking process and instead automatically assign the appointment to a provider with the selected opening. This works well if your providers are not known to clients or if you use the provider fields to represent non-staff resources.Limit Services Providers

You can also choose to not let clients book multiple services on a single booking. By default, clients can select more than one service when they schedule an appointment. Now, if you want to let clients only book one service on each appointment, you can.

And you can now remove the option to schedule another appointment at the end of the booking process. The default booking workflow includes a link on the “success” page to “schedule another” appointment, which lets clients schedule multiple appointments with ease. But if you don’t want to encourage clients to book more than one appointment, you can now remove this link.

To turn on any of these new limits, go to the bottom of the Setup > Booking Details page.

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Tracking Gift Certificate Redemption

GiftIf you sold some gift certificates over the holidays, you’re probably wondering how to keep track of which ones have been redeemed.  That’s exactly what the new Sales tab is for!  You can view all your vouchers, look up redemption codes, and adjust the balance of gift certificates on the Sales tab.

All of the gift certificates sold through Full Slate are listed under Sales > Gift Certificates.  You can also import redemption codes from other systems so clients can redeem gift certificates purchased elsewhere through your online scheduler.redemption code in online scheduler

There’s a place to enter the redemption code in the booking form, so clients can use gift certificates to pay when scheduling online.  Full Slate checks the balance on the redemption code and automatically deducts the price of the service(s) scheduled.

You can manually adjust the balance on a gift certificate, too, if a client presents it in person or wants to apply it to an offline purchase.  Simply go to Sales > Certificates, click on the redemption code and enter the amount.  Full Slate calculates the current balance left on each voucher and shows the history of credits/debits applied.

You can look up gift certificates by code, from/to name or email on the Sales tab, and print copies or export the whole list as a download file for your records.   Plus, you can issue redemption codes for individual vouchers you give out offline; let Full Slate generate a random code for you or come up with your own unique convention.

Please note that in order to add redemption codes, you must enable Gift Certificates.  This add-on costs $5/mo, but you can try Gift Certificates free for 30 days.  Even if you drop the add-on and stop selling gift certificates through Full Slate, you will still be able to use the Sales tab to redeem any outstanding vouchers.

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Sell Gift Certificates Online

Click to download printoutYou can now sell gift certificates online using Full Slate!  Clients can go to your landing page, choose an amount, pay via credit card, and then email or print a professional gift certificate for friends or family.

Tis the time for giving! So for the month of December, you can sell gift certificates online for FREE.  This is a limited time, introductory special – starting in 2013, this add-on feature will cost a flat $5/mo.  But we’re not charging anything for gift certificates for the rest of the year.  Happy holidays!

Note that you have to have client payments setup using Stripe, Authorize.net or PayPal to sell gift certificate online, and that their standard fees for credit card processing apply.  Full Slate will not, however, 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 no longer pay for the add-on).

Here’s how to set it up: First, go to Setup > Client Payments to enable credit card payments online.  You can still sell gift certificates on your landing page even if you don’t want clients to be able to pay for appointments at the time of booking.  Next, go to Setup > Gift Certificates and add whatever denominations you like.  If you want to be notified when someone buys a gift certificate online, change the last option under Messages > Alerts.

When someone buys or receives a gift certificate, you’ll see an entry in sidebar of Clients > Details noting the amount and redemption code (in case you need to look it up).  Screen Shot 2012-12-03 at 12.10.56 PMThere’s a place to enter the redemption code on the booking form so clients can pay with a gift certificate online, and you can see the remaining balance under Clients > Details, as well.

More bells and whistles to come!  We wanted to get this feature out in time for the shopping season, so we kept it simple to start.  As always, let us know what you think and what’s most important to your business!

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Add Overviews to Your Services Menu

You can now display an “overview” for each service you offer. An overview is a brief description that can help clients determine at a glance which service is best for them.

Clients will see the overview on the list of services on your landing page, website widget and Facebook page.

You can still also include more detailed service descriptions that clients see after selecting a service.

To add service overviews, simply go to Setup > Services, select a service and click ‘overview’.

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Enhanced Client Payment Options

You now have more control over how your clients pay when scheduling appointments.

If you require clients to submit credit card information to hold an appointment time (without actually charging the card at the time of booking), you can now choose to remove their ability to also pay for the appointment at the time of scheduling. This works great if you have a separate payment processor and want to use the Full Slate ‘credit card capture’ feature only for no-shows. This works the same way if you require clients to pay a deposit at the time of scheduling.

Also, you no longer need to have prices on your services in order to use the ‘credit card capture’ feature.

Please see the help file to learn more about collecting credit card information at the time of scheduling.

Thanks for the feedback everyone…please look for more updates to our client payment features down the line!

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Invite Clients to Register

Encouraging your clients to register for a Full Slate account is easier than ever. Using the new built-in email template, you can invite clients to sign up and their account will automatically be linked with your client record.

You can customize the new template — titled ‘Invite Client to Register’ — under Messages > Templates. To send it to a client, open up the client’s record under Clients > Details, click ‘Send message’ and select that template. Or you can send out the template in bulk under Clients > List. The email includes a link with a unique code, which when clicked by your client will take them to a registration page with their name and email pre-filled. They just need to enter a password and they’re done.

You’ll know they’ve registered when their client record says  “Registered as [email protected]”.

Full Slate does not require registration to book an appointment, but both you and your clients benefit from registration. So invite your clients to register today!

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Multiple Locations

Full Slate can help you manage your schedule across multiple locations.  You can keep different hours at each location, have clients choose where they want their appointment to be, and even include the address along with links to a map and directions in the appointment confirmation and email reminder.

Your landing page can list multiple addresses, with each location marked on the map.  Clients can choose the location they want first, or select a service and then see where it’s offered.  (You can also create website widgets and buttons for individual locations.)

To setup online scheduling at multiple locations, first go to Setup > Company, and click “Enable multiple locations.”  You can give each location a nickname – like the neighborhood, building, or intersection – and fill in the address.

Then go to Setup > Staff and assign each staff member to a location.  For staff who work in more than one place, create a doppelganger for each location.  (Don’t worry, we won’t charge extra for staff that work out of multiple locations; just let us know by emailing [email protected] so we can adjust the billing accordingly.)

Once you’ve assigned staff to locations, you can set their hours at each workplace on the Schedule tab (see Help on Change hours for detailed instructions).  Just be sure the hours don’t overlap, since they can’t be in two places at once!

If need be, you can even offer different services at each location (or different prices) under Setup > Services.  Just mark the staff at a given location as performing only the set of services offered there.

Lastly, you may want to add location-specific placeholders – like the address – to the templates for the automated confirmation message and email reminder to help ensure that clients go to the right place!

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Connect to QuickBooks

Now you can connect your existing Full Slate account to QuickBooks to sync client contact information.  In the past, this capability was only available to businesses who created and accessed their Full Slate accounts through Intuit App Center.  Now, any business using Full Slate can connect to QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks for Windows (2009 or later, US only) through Intuit Anywhere.

Just go to Clients > List and click the “Import & Sync” button, then follow the prompts to authorize Full Slate to access your QuickBooks data.  Once connected, clients created in Full Slate will appear in QuickBooks and vice versa.  Plus any updates to contact info like name, email, phone, and address will be automatically synchronized – so no more double data entry!

Unlike most features in Full Slate, the integration with QuickBooks is an add-on that costs a little extra. Intuit charges $5/month to connect to QuickBooks, so we have to pass this charge on to cover our costs.  But hopefully it’s a small price to pay for the convenience and time savings.

For more information and detailed instructions on connecting to QuickBooks, see our online manual.

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Collect Customer Reviews

You can now collect and share reviews of your business right in Full Slate! You can pick which reviews to feature on your scheduling page and even add them to your own website in a reviews widget.

Featured Customer ReviewsTestimonials from your clients can help persuade people who find you on the web to try your services. By including reviews on your website and scheduling page, you give prospective clients a chance to read what others have to say about your business – in their own words.

So how do you get satisfied clients to write glowing review? The perfect time to ask for feedback is right after an appointment. Full Slate can automatically send your client a follow-up afterward to encourage him/her to write a review.  You can use the standard “Request Review” template, customize it, or add a {review link} placeholder to any template. (For more on setting up automated messages and templates, see Help).

If you want more control over what’s posted, you can limit review writing to just the clients you invite and approve each new review before it’s published.

If there are reviews about your business posted on other sites that you want to include on your scheduling page, you can import them into Full Slate under Client > Reviews. Re-importing from time to time will bring in new and updated reviews without creating duplicates.

Please note that although reviews on Full Slate are optimized for search engines, we don’t have control over whether/when aggregators like Google Places include them. If it’s important to your business that reviews appear on directory sites like Yelp and Citysearch, it’s best to have your clients submit reviews there instead and then import them into Full Slate.

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