Genbook

Yesterday's Outage - Message from Genbook's CEO

2012-01-26T15:43:00.001-08:00

Below is an email I have sent to each of our customers regarding yesterday's outage:

Dear Genbooker,

Genbook experienced a significant outage yesterday beginning just before 11am EST. Full service for all users resumed just after 7pm EST.

While not all users were affected in the same way for the entire period, for many users, Genbook was down for a large part of their working day. We failed you yesterday and that’s unacceptable. I would like to offer my sincere apologies for what was undoubtedly a very frustrating and difficult day for you and your customers. Although it’s of little consolation, it was a terrible day for us too.

During the crisis, I followed the speculation on Facebook as to the cause of the outage. Some asked why we didn’t have backup servers in place. The answer is that we did, and they worked just fine. Rather, the problems yesterday ultimately came down to a load-balancer which manages the way our traffic is distributed across our servers. In this case, a faulty load-balancer was redirecting much of our traffic to out-of-date versions of Genbook. This is why some users were able to login while others were repeatedly denied access. Although our engineers were instantly aware that Genbook was not operating normally, and immediately began working with the critical support team at Rackspace (our hosting partner), this issue took much longer to diagnose and fix than anyone expected.

I want to personally thank the many Genbookers who contacted us or posted on Facebook and Twitter with very kind words of support and encouragement. It’s humbling to know that we have such wonderful customers who are there for us even when we stumble.

Looking to the future, the lessons learned from yesterday’s incident have been absorbed and we’re immediately increasing our investment in our server and network infrastructure to cater for our growth. And all of us here recommit to our goal of making Genbook the leading business tool for appointment-taking local businesses.

Yours faithfully,

Rody Moore
Founder & CEO
Genbook, Inc.

The Analytics Tab

2011-12-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

Genbook's Analytics tab is a robust resource that allows your business to see and track appointment metrics over various periods of time. You can view trends in both number of appointments and revenue, and even isolate the data you look at by staff, service and booking type (online vs. offline).

The best way to fully understand and get the most out of the Analytics tab is to play around with it within your own online booking account. Below, you'll find a brief overview on how to use it.

You'll notice right away when looking at the tab that you have both a line graph on which you can view data, as well as bar chart/table Staff and Service Summaries below that.

Time Frame: The first thing you want to do is select the time frame you wish to draw information from.

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The time range you select at the top will apply to both the graph and the summaries below it.

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The default time frame will be the most recent 4 weeks. However, click on the date range and you will be able to select shorter or longer spans of time at which to look. Depending on the amount of time you're looking at, you can also choose to view the graph in increments of Days, Weeks or Months. For example, to see an overview of your monthly earnings or appointments over the course of one calendar year, you would click the "Month" button after selecting the date range.

Views: Next, you will need to decide whether you wish to view data about Revenue (Amount of money earned) or Appointments (number of bookings) in the top graph. (There are similar options for each of the summaries).

One important thing to note about the Revenue views is that all details are based on what is listed in the Revenue field on your appointments. This field is found on each Edit Appointment box. If you list a cost for a service, the Revenue field is automatically filled in with the service's listed cost. When you're creating an Offline appointment, you can edit the revenue field.

Once you have selected a time frame and view type for your graph, you can also choose to view the graph by Services or Staff, which allows you to select from either of those categories.

Within either the Staff or Service subviews, you can narrow the graph further by choosing to view only Online or Offline appointments, from the drop-down menu to the immediate right. You can even select to view appointments/revenue for a particular service, juxtaposed with the staff member's totals.

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In the example above, we're viewing all of Rae's appointments (orange line), and juxtaposing that with her appointments for only the Cleansing Facial service (blue line). This allows us to quickly see what portion of her bookings (below) were for Cleansing Facials. (TIP: It is possible to choose multiple services from the drop-down menu, having each line appear in a different color.)

There are numerous options and combinations of options for viewing data in your Analytics tab. Whether you want to home in on which services bring in the highest revenue, or which months of the year see the most appointments for a particular service, or even which of your staff members takes the most Online appointments, there's a way to do so using this feature. As always, don't hesitate to reach out to our Customer Care Team (via the Support links in your account) if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Finally, a few things to keep in mind:

Staff members (when they are in the account using their designated logins) do NOT see the Analytics tab. If you have not granted your staff members their own access rights to your account, you can find instructions on doing so here.
Analytics data is not valid for taxation purposes.

Credit Card Capture: Card Security Codes

2011-10-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Many Genbookers ask us why we do not capture card security codes (also called Card Verification Value codes, or CVV, CVV2, CVC2 and CID) — the 3 or 4-digit codes found on the backs of credit cards — as part of our Credit Card Capture feature. The answer to that is 2-fold: We do capture the codes, however we cannot store them (and thus cannot make them available to businesses using Genbook).

The Credit Card Capture feature requests the card security code when clients input their credit card details. That code is then used as part of the credit card validation process.

However, it is a violation of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) to store card security codes after a transaction. The transaction, in this case, is the validation of the credit card. Once that is performed, the code must be discarded.

If you encounter difficulties charging cards Genbook captures, we recommend contacting your merchant services provider for information and instructions on circumventing the need for the card security code. While it is not always necessary to have the code in order to charge a card, added steps may be required when charging a card without it. We regret any inconvenience this causes.

More detailed information about PCI DSS rules regarding credit card security codes can be found here. For more information on all PCI DSS guidelines, please visit PCI Security Standards Council website.

A Guide to Online and Offline Appointments

2011-09-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

You may hear our Customer Care Team refer to "offline" or "online" appointments, or even see appointments listed as one or the other when you're doing a search. There are some key differences between these two types of appointments and how Genbook handles them.

ONLINE appointments are created by clients via your online scheduling form. These appointments appear green in your calendar.

The green bar denotes an Online appointment

They also appear in the Inbox, until the end of the day on which they take place (if canceled, they'll appear in red italics). If you or your staff have text message notifications enabled, you will receive a text when a new Online appointment is made. If business-wide email notifications are enabled, an email notification will also be sent for these appointments.

The following video shows the process clients go through when creating an online appointment.

OFFLINE appointments are ones you (the business owner/staff member) create manually, directly in your calendar, while logged into Genbook. These appear blue in your calendar.

The blue bar denotes an Offline appointment

Offline appointments do NOT appear in the Inbox, and do NOT prompt text message notifications or business-level email notifications. Email notifications for Offline appointments are sent only to staff members, and only if they have "Synchronization via Email Updates" enabled.

The following video shows you how to create and edit offline appointments.

TIP: When creating an Offline appointment in your calendar, remember to enter the client's email address so that s/he may receive a confirmation and (if applicable) reminder and review invitation email.

Genbook Mobile: Live in Android, Improved for iPhone

2011-08-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

Genbook Mobile for Android is live! Genbookers using Android-powered smartphones can now view and edit their calendars on the go. To access Genbook Mobile, type "m.genbook.com" into your mobile browser's address bar. Once logged in, you'll see 3 buttons at the bottom of your screen — "Calendar", "Inbox" and "New Appt" — which will allow you to easily see, make, move and otherwise edit your business's appointments.

If you encounter any problems, first try refreshing the page (click "Menu" and "Refresh"). If that doesn't clear up the issue, navigate to a different website (type "google.com" in the address bar, for instance), then clear your browser's cache (tap "Menu", then "More" and "Settings". Scroll down and tap the arrow beside "Clear cache" and hit "OK"). Once you've cleared the cache, you should go to m.genbook.com once again.

Those accessing Genbook Mobile on their iPhones should also notice improved functionality, responsiveness and load times.

Unhiding your BookNow Facebook Tab

2011-08-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

During the process of adding the BookNow! button to your Facebook Business Page you may come to a screen that states "You can now add your Genbook Booknow! button as a tab on your Facebook Pages." (see below), without prompting you for your Genbook login email address or allowing you to go any further.

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If you do come upon the above page, it means that you've already added the application, but somehow accidentally hidden the tab on your Page. Not to worry, because there's an easy way to bring the tab back.

On your Business Page, click the "Edit Info" link at the top of your screen. Next, click the "Apps" link along the left side of the Edit screen and locate the Genbook BookNow! Application. Once you've located the app, click "Edit Settings" under it.

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If the tab has been accidentally hidden on your Facebook Page, the following edit screen will give you the option to add it. Click the "add" link to do so.

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Once you've selected to add the tab back to your Page, you should see the following box, which confirms the tab has been added and gives you the option to "remove" it. Do NOT click the "remove" link, simply click "Okay" to confirm the current settings.

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Return to your Page and you should now see the "BookNow!" tab along the left side.

Factors that Determine Online Appointment Availability

2011-07-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

There are a number of settings that affect your business, staff and service availability in Genbook. The following is a comprehensive list of these settings and features, with links to blog posts that elaborate on how they operate and how to edit them.

Business-wide settings - Affect all availability for the entire business (all staff and services).

Operating Hours (Settings > "Operating Hours"): These dictate all the times your business is open for appointments, and determine the hours you see on your calendar when you are logged into your Genbook account.
Closed Dates (Settings > "Closed Dates"): The dates listed here will be unavailable for online booking. This is where you'd list holidays, vacation dates, and other dates your entire business will be closed. Learn more about Closed Dates.
Appointment Lead Times (Settings > "Appointment Lead Times"): These determine a minimum and maximum number of hours/days prior to an appointment that a client can schedule it. The more restrictive you make these, the less availability clients will have to choose from. If your calendar fills up fast you should consider making these more wide-reaching. Learn more about Appointment Lead Times.
Online Start Times (Settings > "Online Start Times"): These dictate either the exact start times at which appointments are displayed (Manual mode) or start time increments (Automatic mode). If you're using the Manual mode, you MUST enter all the available start times you wish to offer. Only those start times listed will be displayed on your scheduling page. Some businesses get into trouble when they use the Manual mode, but don't list all the start times they want to show, because it causes the availability clients see to not match up with what is actually open in their calendars. Learn more about Online Start Times.

Staff-level settings - These work within the business-wide settings listed above, affecting only the availability of a particular staff member.

Staff Hours (Settings > Staff > staff member's name > "Staff Hours"): This feature dictates individual staff members' availability and schedules within the business's operating hours. This is a weekly recurring setting, but can be overridden directly in the calendar, on specific dates, without being affected at any other time. Learn more about Staff Hours.
Away Dates (Settings > Staff > staff member's name > "Away Dates"): The dates listed here will be when the staff member in question will be unavailable for booking. This is where you'll list your staff members' vacation and other non-working dates. Learn more about Away Dates.

Service-level settings - These work within both the staff and business-level settings to determine availability for a particular service.

Online Availability (Settings > Services > service title > "Online Availability"): This feature dictates the schedules for particular services. These work in conjunction with staff and business level availability. For instance, if a particular service is available from 2pm until 6pm on Mondays, but the only staff member to which the service is assigned is Offline at that time, the client will still not be able to book the service at that time (because the staff member is unavailable). Learn more about Online Availability for services.

If you notice availability discrepancies or problems in your account, you should check that all the settings listed above are configured correctly.

Setting Online Availability for Services

2011-07-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

It's possible to set specific online scheduling availability for each service you offer, or to make a certain service only bookable offline (ie: internally, by you).

On any given service's Details page, you'll see a second tab labeled "Online Availability".

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To make a service completely offline — ie: unavailable for booking by clients on your online scheduling page — simply un-check the box next to "Online" at the top of the page. A dialog box will alert you that the service isn't available online. To undo the change, click "Enable". Otherwise, just leave it as is and click nothing. (Tip: There's no "Save" button on the Online Availability settings, so any changes you make go into effect automatically.)

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Your service list (under Settings - Services) has a column titled "Online" where you'll be able to quickly see whether a service is available for online booking.

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You can also set schedules for your online services, as you would for your staff members.

Click any time at which you wish to make the service unavailable and the time slot will turn red with the word "Offline" written in it. In the example below, Microdermabrasion is not available for clients to book in the morning and late afternoon on Mondays and Wednesdays, in the afternoon on Tuesdays, or the morning and early afternoon on Thursdays. (Tip: Online Availability has no effect on your ability to manually schedule appointments in your calendar).

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The Online Availability settings should reflect on your customer booking pages. For example, the service "Dead Sea Facial" is not listed on the booking page for the account edited here, because it's a strictly offline service.

"Microdermabrasion" is only available at select times.

Additional Tips:

Service availability works with your staff members' Offline Masks, your business's Operating Hours and your Online Start Times. That's to say, a client still can't book a service with a staff member who isn't available, or at a time when your business is closed, etc.

Always allow enough time between Offline slots for at least one appointment containing the service to fit. Appointment lengths are based on your service's Duration (set up on the Details page of the service). For example, you do NOT want to make a 90 minute service Offline all morning until Noon, then again for the rest of the day starting at 1:00pm.

Known Google Calendar Issues Affecting Genbook Sync

2011-06-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

Some Genbookers who subscribe to their Genbook calendars via our private URL option may be affected by one or more known issues in Google Calendar.

From that list, the main problem we've seen is that, at times, "iCal feeds are not refreshing" (ie: web calendar subscriptions, like the one to your Genbook calendar, are sometimes not updating). This means that your Genbook calendar may import smoothly when you first add it, but there may be a longer than usual delay in Google Calendar updating it with new information (appointments, cancellations, etc.) from Genbook. (Remember that Google Calendar normally refreshes your subscribed-to calendar (ie: Genbook) only every 6 hours.)

Another issue Google is aware of and we've noticed happening with some Genbookers is "Difficulty importing calendar using 'Add by URL'" (ie: an inability to add your Genbook calendar subscription to Google Calendar at all). Google reports you may encounter an error message as follows: "Settings Error: Warning: did not successfully merge all events" and that your import may then fail. If this happens, they recommend simply trying to re-subscribe using the same URL. Genbook recommends this, as well. If using the same URL fails again, we then recommend trying to "Generate a new calendar URL" (on the Staff Details page where the subscription URL is found) and using the new URL.

One issue we've noticed and reported is that "Specific Days" recurring appointments aren't being correctly handled/imported by Google Calendar. We've also seen mention of Android and desktop/laptop Google calendars not syncing properly, so that may be something to look into if your Genbook calendar isn't appearing on your Android phone's calendar. You can check out the Google Calendar Help forum for a look at issues users are reporting, and to report your own.

If you're encountering one or more problems with the URL sync, we recommend using the email updates synchronization option, since we haven't seen problems with that.

Removing the BookNow App from Facebook

2011-06-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

You will need to do 2 things to remove the Genbook BookNow! App from your Facebook business page. (Note: You should perform these tasks in order, for best results)

1. Remove the application tab from your Facebook page

2. De-authorize the BookNow application.

Here's a step-by-step guide to both of these processes:

1. Removing the BookNow! tab from your page.

A) Click the "Edit Info" link at the top of your Facebook page.


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B) On the Page Info screen, select the Apps tab. Then, click the "x" next to the "Genbook BookNow! Application" to remove that tab from your Page. Be sure to confirm that you wish to remove the application when asked. (Note: This will NOT fully remove the application, it will only remove the sidebar tab from the page.)

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2. De-authorizing the Genbook BookNow! Application.

A) From the Account menu at the top right of your Facebook screen, select "Privacy Settings". (Note: You can only do this if you are using Facebook as yourself, not as your business page.)

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B) At the bottom left of your Privacy Settings page, you'll see an Apps and websites section. Click the "Edit your settings" link under that heading.

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C) On the following page, click the Edit settings button.

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D) Click the "x" at the far right of the Genbook BookNow! Application.

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E) Finally, click the "Remove" button in the dialog box that asks if you wish to de-authorize the application. (Note: Despite this warning, the tab is not automatically removed. Be sure to take the steps outlined above to remove the tab yourself.)

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You should then see a dialog box confirming that the Genbook BookNow! Application has been completely removed from your account.

Sharing and Subscribing to your Genbook Calendar

2011-04-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

There are two ways to set up Calendar Synchronization, so that your Genbook calendar updates an external calendar on the Web or on your computer. The first, via email, is explained here. The following directions are for sharing and subscribing to your Genbook calendar via a webcal/iCalendar URL.

1. Go to your Staff Details page (Settings > "Staff").

2. Turn on Synchronization and select "Use a private URL". This will show you your private Genbook Calendar URL. (If you've shared your calendar with others before and wish to stop sharing, you can regenerate the URL.) Be sure to save your changes.

3. Click in the textbox to select the URL and copy it (Ctrl+C on a PC or ⌘+C on a Mac)

4. You're now ready to paste the Genbook calendar's private URL into the appropriate place in your external calendar, so long as that calendar allows you to subscribe to other calendars' feeds via a URL. Below, we've outlined the process for subscribing to your Genbook calendar in Google, Outlook, Thunderbird and iCal.

a. Google Calendar

Under "Other Calendars", along the left side of the screen, click "Add"

Then, select "Add by URL"

Paste (Ctrl+P on a PC or ⌘+P on a Mac) the URL into the box and click "Add Calendar."

It may take a while (sometimes even up to 24 hours) before Google actually downloads your Genbook calendar.

TIP: If you're experiencing problems with your Google Calendar sync, please have a look at some known issues we and some Genbookers have encountered to see if they apply.

b. Outlook 2010

Click in the ribbon on "Open Calendar" and choose "From Internet…". In older versions of Outlook, click on the "Tools" menu, then "Account Settings", and the Internet Calendars tab.

Paste the URL into the box that pops up and press OK.

Finally, click "Yes" and Outlook will start importing your calendar immediately.

c. Apple iCal

Open iCal and click on Calendar and then "Subscribe…"

Paste the URL in the window that pops up, and click "Subscribe"

On the last screen, you can change the calendar name, description, etc. We recommend setting the Auto-Refresh rate to "Every 5 minutes".

When you're finished, click OK. iCal will immediately begin to download the calendar.

Setting up Recurring Appointments

2011-04-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

Recurring appointments are essential to a wide array of business types and service providers — from psychotherapists to massage therapists, chiropractors to estheticians, dentists to lawyers. That's why Genbook makes setting up these appointments simple, straightforward and hassle-free.

1. Begin by clicking the "Recurring" tab on the appointment details form.

Click on an appointment in your calendar to see its details.

2. Next, select the type of recurrence you'd like (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Specific Days).

3. Once you've selected a recurrence type, you'll be able to select the frequency at which you'd like the appointment to recur, from the "Repeats every" drop-down menu.


Daily appointments can recur every 1-6 days

Weekly appointments can recur every 1-8 weeks

Monthly appointments can recur every 1-6 months

For Monthly recurrences, you can also choose whether you'd like the appointments to recur on the same day of the the month (ie: the 5th of every month, regardless of day of the week on which it falls) or on the same day of the week (ie: the first Tuesday of every month, regardless of the actual date).

If you selected the Specific Days option, you'll be able to input the exact dates and times at which you want the appointments repeated.

4. Next, choose either an end date or a number of times for the recurrence. If you only want the appointment to recur a set number of times (between 2 and 12), select the Repeats option and then the number of times the appointment will recur.

This is especially useful when clients buy service packages — 6 sessions of electrolysis, 8 personal training sessions, etc. — as it allows you to have only as many recurrences as dictated by the package or deal in question.

To have the appointment recur until a specific end date, you should choose Ends and then use the calendar to select the date on which the last appointment will take place. You can select an end date as far as 30 months away. (NOTE: You must select a date by clicking on it in the calendar provided, not by typing into the field.)


Use the double arrows (>>) to move to the next month

This option will work well for service providers who may need to offer indefinite standing appointments (therapists, for example).

5. Finally, look over the appointment's recurrence details and be sure to save your changes.

A recurring appointment is always denoted by a looped arrow in the upper right corner.

Note: The arrow won't be highlighted.

By the way, the setup works the same whether you're repeating an Offline (input by you in the calendar) or Online (made by a client via your booking page) appointment.

Grant Staff Login Privileges

2010-09-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Genbook account holders can provide separate account logins to Staff Members and Office Managers. You maintain control of your Genbook account, while being able to designate specific access privileges to your staff, so they can update their schedules, clients, and other settings as you determine.

To set up a staff member's login and access, go to his/her Staff page in Settings, and click the Access Rights tab.

On the Access Rights page, enter the staff member's email address in order to set up her login.

Then, choose what you allow her to see and, more importantly, edit in your Genbook account.

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You have an array of options — from full viewing and editing privileges, down to the ability to only view and manage one's own appointments. Grant or restrict access to other staff members' calendars, client reviews, client credit card details and the Customers tab, as well as the ability to change one's own and the business' settings.

Once you save a staff member's access settings, Genbook sends her an email with a link allowing her to set up a password. TIP: If that initial password setup email is lost or doesn't reach your staff member, she can always go to the Genbook login page and click "Forgot password" in order to be sent a password reset email.

Here's what the Settings tab would look like for Cynthia, whose access is set up in the above example:

Cynthia is able to, edit her own settings. However, she has no viewing/editing privileges to anything else in the Settings tab and a "Restricted Access" message appears at the top right of her screen.

If, for instance, you choose to only allow a staff member to view and manage her appointments, but not view or edit her settings, she'll be able to view and move appointments within her calendar and Inbox, but unable to edit her Offline Mask, Away Dates or contact information.

If a staff member has no viewing or editing privileges to a certain tab (Customers, for example), she'll see following message after clicking on that tab:

Watch our video tutorial for step-by-step setup instructions:

If you have any questions about this feature, don't hesitate to send a message to the Customer Care Team from the Support tab within your Genbook application.

Add and Move Appointments

2010-09-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

We've improved the way you manually add new appointments and edit existing ones in the calendar. The updated appointment details form gives you more control over appointment lengths, dates and times, lets you easily choose a staff member and provides an alternative to the "drag and drop" method of moving appointments.

There are now drop down menus from which you can choose the staff member, date and time of an appointment, not just the service. Even better, you can actually make appointments longer or shorter than their services' allotted durations. Just choose the length from the menu beside the hourglass. Blocks can be extended this way, too — just click on the blocked time slot and edit only the length, then hit the Save button.

You can easily and quickly move the appointment to a different date using the newly added drop down calendar. The orange outline denotes today's date and the highlighted date is the one on which the appointment is currently set.

We hope you like the improvements we've made to your Genbook Calendar. As always, if you have any questions, please send a message to the Customer Care Team from the Support tab in your Genbook application.

We guide you through it in the following video tutorial:

Reviews — Privacy Protection for your Customers

2010-07-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Some Genbookers and their clients may want to limit the amount of personal information attached to reviews. We heard this loud and clear from many of you, which is why we've improved the privacy protection in our Reviews feature.

You can elect to not publish names that your clients have attached to their reviews. This means that you have the final say on whether client names are published. Many health and medical practitioners using Genbook have requested this capability to protect the privacy of their patients. Go to the Settings page in your Genbook account, then click on "Customer reviews" and check the box next to "Suppress personally identifiable information" to ensure client names don't show up on their reviews.

In addition, your clients now have more options for how their names appear on the reviews they post (assuming you allow their names to be published). They can attach their full names, first names and last initials or just their initials.

Because we understand that clients of certain businesses may prefer total anonymity, there's also the option to use a different name altogether. Clients can simply choose "Other" from the Name drop down menu and enter an alias of their choosing.

As you see highlighted below, client names appear as they've been entered when the reviews are published on your scheduling page.

Post your BookNow Button on Facebook

2010-07-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

You can place your BookNow button on your business's Facebook Fan Page, to combine the power of social networking with that of online appointment scheduling and let your fans schedule their appointments right on Facebook.

Before you do anything else, make sure that you are using Facebook as yourself (the Page's admin) and NOT as your Page. You will be able to select this from the right-hand column when viewing your Page. At the very top right corner of your Facebook screen, you'll also see the name under which you're using Facebook. In the example below, it's "Lotus Zen Spa".

To switch from using Facebook as your Page, click on the "Use Facebook as [Your Name]" link. In the example above, we would click on "Use Facebook as Cornelia".

Once you've made sure you're using Facebook as yourself (as above), you're ready to start the process of adding your BookNow button to the Page.

1. Go to Genbook's Facebook Page. (TIP: You can always get there by entering "Genbook" in the search field, or entering the direct address — http://www.facebook.com/GENBOOK — into your browser's address bar).

2. On Genbook's Page, click the "BookNow! App" link (along the left side of the page). Then, click the blue "Add Genbook to your Page" button at the bottom.

3. Select the Facebook Page to which you want to add the BookNow! Application tab and click "Add Page Tab".

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4. Go to the Page you selected and click on the BookNow! tab along the left side of your screen. Enter your Genbook login email address where prompted and click the Submit button. This step is very important, as it connects the BookNow! application to your Genbook account, and allows your business's BookNow button to be posted.

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That's all there is to it! Your clients and fans can now make appointments with you directly on Facebook. Here's an example of what the BookNow button will look like on your business's Facebook Fan Page:

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TIP: It's important not to confuse a business Page with a personal Profile on Facebook. The button cannot be added to a Profile, so if you're having trouble adding it, make sure that you have a Page and aren't trying to post it to your personal Profile. If you don't have a Page, do a Facebook search for "Pages" and select the "Ads and Pages" app to create one.

Embed your BookNow Button in a Constant Contact Email

2010-06-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

Does your business send email newsletters or promotions? It should! Genbook has partnered with Constant Contact, a leading provider of email marketing software. With Genbook and Constant Contact you can create, customize and send emails to your customers that include your BookNow! button. That way your customers can schedule directly from the email newsletter or promotion.

It’s as simple as copying the BookNow button image and URL into your Constant Contact email template. Just follow these detailed instructions:

First, start your 60-DAY FREE Constant Contact Email Marketing Trial. Constant Contact has step-by-step instructions and a complete set of email templates to choose from (not to mention full Customer Support and Help resources)!

To add a BookNow button to an email template, you will need to edit one of the Article Blocks in the template by clicking the “Edit this Block” icon (top left hand corner), then “Double-click to insert an image”. Most templates have several places for you to add an image so you can choose where you want the BookNow button to be displayed.

This will open up a new window “Select Image”. Click the “Enter Image URL” tab. Paste following link into the Image URL field: http://www.genbook.com/manager/images/booknow.gif

Enter “BookNow!” in the Description line.

Copy the HTML Link found at the bottom of the “Add a BookNow button to your homepage” page in your Genbook Resources tab. (Make sure to use the HTML Link from YOUR Genbook account).

Click Insert Image.

Voilà! The BookNow button is now clickable to your scheduling webpage.

How to Block Clients from Scheduling Online

2010-06-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

You have the option to block specific clients from making online appointments with your business. To give you more control over your online scheduling, we've implemented a way to let you identify existing clients who are either nuisances — whether that means constant no-shows or pesky pranksters — or ones you'd just rather book over the phone, and keep them from booking online. This new feature is found in the Customers tab.

All you have to do is click on the name of the client you wish to block, then click "Edit details" and check the box next to "Blocked?" Don't forget to save your changes.

The system will then recognize the email address associated with the client you've blocked and it won't allow the client to finish scheduling an appointment, prompting them instead to call your business.

Even if blocked clients enter names or telephone numbers different from those you have on file, as above, the system will still flag and block them based on the email addresses. The message they'll receive looks like this:

To block someone who isn't already in your client database, simply add them by clicking the "Add customer" button on the upper left corner of the Customers tab (just above the list), then follow the instructions above to block them.

Genbook Mobile Now in Live Beta!

2010-03-30T04:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Genbookers! We are delighted to announce that we've just released Genbook Mobile for the iPhone. You can now access your Calendar and Inbox from your iPhone while on-the-go. Check, change or add new appointments, or update customer details from anywhere, anytime.

Genbook Mobile is available to all Genbookers. Just open the browser on your iPhone, go to "m.genbook.com" and follow the instructions.

This is a Beta release (i.e. there may still be some bugs) so expect a constant stream of updates and improvements.

How to Close Your Genbook Account

2009-11-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

We know that sometimes Genbookers need to close their accounts, for one reason or another. This can be done by clicking Your Account at the top right of the application screen, then selecting "Account Status".

If your account is Active, you'll see a page that looks like the following:

To close the account, click Deactivate. You'll be taken to a brief survey about why you're closing your account:

You must complete and submit this survey (by clicking Deactivate again at the bottom of the survey page) for the deactivation to take effect. If you skip this step, the account will remain active. If you change your mind and wish to keep the account active, you can simply click "Cancel" instead of "Deactivate".

Once you've deactivated your Genbook account, you'll still be able to log into it. So, if you should ever decide to start using Genbook again, you can just go to Your Account, Account Status and click Activate in order to reactivate the account.

Credit Card Capture Clarification

2009-10-05T11:26:00.001-07:00

Sometimes Genbookers ask whether or not Genbook processes credit cards. While our online appointment scheduling tool does have the ability to capture, verify and store credit card details for you, we do not provide a payment gateway.

So there's no need to worry about clients accidentally being charged for the appointment. This also means it won't matter if the client decides to use a different form of payment at the time of the service. Furthermore, it means there also aren't any processing fees or hidden/extra charges attached to the credit card capture feature.

Weekly Calendar View

2009-09-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

Exciting news Genbookers — we have released our week view of the calendar! We'd like to thank all of you who took notice and gave us your feedback on it. Now, here's a crash course in what you're seeing.

If you have a one-person business, your default view of the calendar will be the week view. It looks like this:

You'll notice that the current week is highlighted above the dates and there are other weeks to choose from. as well. If you click on the double arrows, you'll skip to the highlighted week's equivalent in the next month.

You'll notice two icons next to each date when you're in this view.

The one that looks sort of like a broken circle will, when clicked on, mark the staff member whose schedule you're viewing as "Away Today". The other, which looks like a calendar with one day highlighted in red, will take you to a day view of the calendar.

If you have multiple staff members, your schedule will default to the day view:

The icons next to the staff members' names will be the same as those next to the dates in the week view, except now the calendar icon will take you to the week view of a particular staff member's calendar.

If you have staff categories, you'll also notice that there are no longer tabs at the top of the calendar, where you can click in order to switch the category you're viewing. There is, instead, a drop-down menu at the top left of the calendar.

One more difference between the week and single day view is that in the single day view (where you see multiple staff members) you have two sets of arrows. The single arrows will take you back or forward one week in time, whereas the double arrows move you one month. You will, of course, still land on the corresponding day of the following/previous month.

If you are in the week view and have multiple staff members, you'll see a drop-down list of staff members where the categories would be in the single day view, from which you can choose to see another staff member's schedule week by week.

Another difference you'll notice is that the staff members no longer have drop-down menus under their names (ie: you can no longer hover above a staff member's name and see a list of options for settings). The Away Today icon took care of one of the previous options, but the others — like the Offline Mask — will have to be accessed by going to Settings, then Staff who provide your services and then clicking on the staff member's name.

Deleting Staff Members

2009-09-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you'll need to delete a staff member from your online appointment scheduling account. This is not difficult and can usually be accomplished in just a few easy steps.

Locate the option to delete the staff member on his/her details page, under Settings, Staff and the staff member's name. At the bottom of this page, right under the Save Changes button, you'll see a link saying "Delete this staff member". You'll want to click this link.

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Please remember that your staff member must not have any future appointments OR blocked times in the calendar, in order to make it possible for you to delete him/her. If there is a future appointment or block, you will see the following error message:

You'll need to go through the calendar, week by week, to see whether there are appointments, blocks, or both still set up for that staff member. You may wish to move appointments to another staff member. However, in the case of blocks, you should simply delete them.

In the example above, you'll see that Keri has two future blocks in her calendar. These need to be removed before the system will let us delete Keri from our staff list. Deleting a block is just like deleting an appointment. First, click on it once.

You'll see an appointment details box pop out, where all the fields are empty because it's not really an appointment. Click the "Cancel this appointment" link at the bottom of the box. Once you confirm that you wish to delete the block, it will be removed from the calendar.

When you're sure there are no future appointments or blocked times in the calendar for the staff member you wish to delete, go back to his/her details page and try again.

The $1 Credit Capture Hold

2009-09-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

Genbookers who use our Credit Card Capture feature sometimes ask why clients see a $1 transaction on their credit cards immediately after booking an appointment via Genbook.

The most important thing to remember is that it's not a charge, but a hold. A temporary $1 hold is placed on the card as part of the verification step of the credit card capture process. It will disappear back into the account within a few business days.

So please let your clients know it's nothing to worry about!

Your Tabs

2009-09-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

We've already tackled the things you can do with the Customers and Reviews tabs, so it's time to take a look at the Inbox, Settings and Support tabs.

The Inbox is where all current and upcoming online appointments will appear (ie: not those you make manually, directly in the calendar).

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Here you'll see the appointment date and time, the staff member chosen for the appointment, the client's name, the service and the time/date the appointment was received, along with a unique confirmation code. One of the best things about your Inbox is that you can sort the appointments by any of the headings. If, for example, you want to see appointments grouped by staff member, simply click the "Staff" heading.

To view contact details, click on the client's name. This will also give you the options of seeing the appointment in the calendar, canceling it or choosing to "complete" it.

Your Settings tab is just what it sounds like, the place where you adjust all the settings for your business.

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This is where you'll go whether you need to adjust your business' operating hours or appointment lead times, turn a feature like Credit Card Capture or Appointment Reminders on/off, input dates when your business will be closed for vacations/holidays, add your logo and much, much more. It's also where you'll set up and edit your staff and services. Best of all, you can check the outcome of any changes you've made by clicking the BookNow button to the right and doing a test appointment.

At the bottom of the Settings page, you'll find the different ways to make it easy for clients to book online with you.

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You'll see your customizable scheduling page URL and have access to the Customer Invitation Tool. You'll also find your BookNow button code and instructions on how to get the button on your site, as well as Facebook.

Support is where you'll find links to blog articles that provide information on features, solutions to problems and tips on how making Genbook work better for your business. The articles are sorted under headings that help you quickly and easily find what you're looking for — whether you're just "Getting Started with Genbook" or looking to "Manage availability settings".

This is also the tab from which you can reach out to our Customer Care Team if you have a question or problem that isn't addressed in those articles. Just scroll to the bottom of that page and click "send us a support message".

Combining Services

2009-08-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

You've probably noticed that Genbook only allows one service to be booked each time a client uses your BookNow button or link to schedule an online appointment with your business. The way around this is to set up a few "combo" services that actually include two or more services being booked as one.

In the example below, "Lotus Manicure" and "Lotus Pedicure" are separate services, with their own durations and costs. A combo service has also been created — "Lotus Mani-Pedi" — with the duration and cost to cover both individual services. The same is true for "Eyebrow Wax" and "Lip Wax", which can be booked as standalone services, or as one combination service: "Eyebrow and Lip Wax."

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Remember, Genbook lets your business have an unlimited number of services. You can create as many different combinations of single services as you'd like!

The Reviews tab

2009-07-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

You already know you have the option of publishing client/customer reviews. Now, here's a bit about more the Reviews tab, where you can see and manage all of your reviews.

Here's what your Reviews tab will look like:

On the upper right, you'll see the option to preview the review invites your clients receive, so you can see what they see when being asked to provide feedback about their appointments.

Clients will have the option of associating their names (either the full name or first name and last initial) or choosing "Other" and entering a name they feel gives them more privacy. And, as the note at the bottom says, identifying information isn't included in the review. The level of detail clients give about themselves and their appointments is totally within their control when they submit reviews.

In the Reviews tab itself, to the left of "Received," you'll see a little dropdown menu that, when you've got a review selected (ie: the box next to a review checked), will give you several options of what to do with that review.

As you can see, you have the option of publishing the review you selected (if the review were already published, then "Unpublish selected reviews" would be an option). You're also able to choose whether you'd like new reviews your business receives to be published automatically, without giving you a chance to look at them.

Many businesses choose to see the reviews before allowing them to be published to their online appointment scheduling pages. Manually publishing and unpublishing reviews can take up to 24 hours, so don't worry if you see "Pending Publication" under Status after you've made a change.

Publishing reviews is a great way to let newer clients see what existing clients think of your business and inspire confidence in your services.

Check out our video tutorial on capturing and publishing client reviews:

See and Change Your Account Information

2009-07-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

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The Your Account page — accessed from the top right side of your Genbook screen — has important information about, and allows you to make changes to, your online appointment scheduling account.

Clicking "Payment summary" will show you a list of all your payment dates, as well as when your account is paid through (ie: what your next billing date will be). If you need to use a different credit card than the one Genbook has on file, you can easily update that information under "Change your payment details".

If you need to change your login email address or password, you can also do that under Your Account.

Genbook on Twitter

2009-07-14T04:02:00.000-07:00

Twitter is a great, succinct and very popular tool for getting the word out about your business. And what better way to do it than by letting everyone know they can make fast, easy online appointments with you via your Genbook scheduling page?

You'll want to use the customizable URL found under Resources, as the BookNow button won't display in a tweet. Keep your business tweets breezy. Try something like this:

Once you've introduced your online appointment scheduling capabilities to your Twitter friends/followers, you can later draw their attention to specific services by linking directly to a pre-selected service in the scheduling tool. Just click on the custom URL yourself, then choose a service.

You'll need to shorten the URL, as it will likely be too long for a tweet. The good news is that TweetDeck makes it very easy for you to do that. All you do is type the URL into the "Shorten URL" field and then just type your tweet above. Like so:

Once you publish, your tweet will look something like the following:

Just remember not to bombard your friends and followers with a slew of dull, redundant tweets. You can, for instance, feature one service a day and post about it a few times throughout the day, just to keep it front-and-center. But avoid throwing up ten back-to-back, identical tweets in the span of an hour. Keep it fresh!

And don't forget to follow GenbookTeam on Twitter, while you're at it.

How will I know when I have a New Appointment?

2009-07-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

There are multiple ways Genbook can notify you when a client makes a new online appointment with your business.

First, it's important to remember that there are two levels of notifications you can set up — "Staff" and "Business".

Business refers to the ones set up under Settings and "Appointment Notifications".

These notifications are sent whenever anyone makes an online appointment (those made via the BookNow button/link, as opposed to those you enter into the calendar manually), with any staff member in your account. The email notification you receive will contain the full appointment details, as well as an .ics file attachment that you can download into an external calendar (Google, iCal, Outlook). An email is also sent when a client cancels an appointment with your business.

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You have the option of receiving a text (SMS) message on your cell phone, notifying you of new appointments, and containing the appointment details.

Staff notifications are set up on the Staff Details page, and sent to that staff member when he/she receives a new appointment.

If the calendar synchronization via email option is selected, the staff member receives an email with an appointment that's automatically accepted in the email address's corresponding calendar (ie: a Google Calendar, if the address is a Gmail one). It's also important to note that a notification is sent whenever any appointment is made, edited, canceled or moved — regardless of whether it was made online or offline.

Autofill Client Details

2009-06-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

Did you know Genbook can fill in the contact details of clients already in your client database, when you enter appointments into your calendar manually (as opposed to when your clients make online appointments using your BookNow button)? It's true!

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All you have to do is type a client's first name in the "First Name" field of the appointment box and you'll see a drop-down list of matching names. Once you choose the client you're scheduling, the rest of his/her contact information will appear in the appropriate fields.

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What Can I Do with the Customers Tab?

2009-06-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

The customer/client database (found in your Customers tab) is one of the most comprehensive and useful features of Genbook's online appointment scheduling tool. It automatically saves the client details of anyone who makes an appointment with your business, as well as any client you input manually.

In addition to the client's contact information, the Summary section contains a list of recent appointments and notes you've made (done by clicking "Notes" at the top right). You can also edit contact information, add a secondary email address and even store the client's date of birth by clicking "Edit details" or simply "Details" at the top right.

Here's a hint: Clicking the vCard icon at the right (under "Appointments") allows you to download the client's details and then save the entry in an external address book.

It only gets better, because you can actually export your entire client list to a file on your computer! All you need to do is click "Export all customers as an XLS file" at the bottom of your list. Once you have that file you can, for example, import all of your Genbook clients into your email account.

You can, of course, also do the opposite -- import contacts from your email account or a file on your computer into Genbook -- by clicking the "Import" button you see right next to "Add customer" ("Add customer" lets you manually add a new client/customer to the database).

Check out video tutorial on the Customers tab:

Capture Customer Addresses

2009-06-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Whether you're running an entirely mobile business, or you only provide a few services at the clients' locations, Genbook makes it easy to capture your clients' addresses during the online appointment scheduling process.

To enable the feature for any service, simply check the box next to "Capture customer address" on service's Preferences tab (which appears right below the Details tab, when you're viewing/editing a service) and save your changes.

Test Appointments let you see what clients see

2009-06-16T22:24:00.000-07:00

Genbookers sometimes wonder if their clients see the details -- client names, services, etc. -- of appointments already in the Genbook calendar. The answer, fear not, is a resounding no! Clients only ever see a business' availability and choose from among the available time slots and staff members.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself exactly what your clients are seeing each time they click on your BookNow button. Do a test appointment! Here's how: Go to Settings and then click on the Booknow button in the box on the right side of your screen.

Everything will look the same as it would to client scheduling an actual appointment, except that there the words "Test Appointment" will be highlighted in green below the progress tabs on every page.

If you complete the scheduling process and enter a valid email address that you check, you'll receive an email confirmation. It looks the same as the email confirmations customers receive, with the exception that this one will have "TEST" written multiple times at the top of the email.

Once you're satisfied that you know how the scheduling process works for your clients, you can go ahead and cancel the test appointment in your account. Simply click on it in the Inbox and then choose the "Cancel Appointment" option. If you decide you don't want the test appointment showing up in your Inbox until the end of the day for which you scheduled it, check out our previous post about getting canceled appointments out of your Inbox.

See a test appointment in action in the following video tutorial:

When does Genbook Email My Clients?

2009-06-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

Genbook only emails your clients in relation to appointments they have scheduled, never with third party offers or other spam. Emails are generated from our servers automatically. Here are the types of emails we send your clients:

Confirmation email: This email goes out automatically, once a client has finished booking an appointment. It is always sent and contains all the relevant details of the appointment -- service being provided, staff member, the time/place of the appointment -- as well as customer confirmation messages you've added and client details. If you have enabled online cancellations, it will also contain a link that can be used to cancel the appointment. Here's what it looks like:

Reminder email: This email goes out 24 hours in advance of the appointment and contains only the appointment details, no client details or confirmation messages. Keep in mind that this one only goes out if the client made the appointment more than 48 hours ahead of time. If it's too close to the appointment, no reminder email gets sent, but the confirmation still goes out. Reminder emails need to be enabled by going to Settings, then "Customer reminders" and choosing to turn on email reminders. Here's an example of the reminder email:

Review email: An email that goes out a day after the appointment has occurred, asking the client to click on a link and provide some feedback on his/her experience. This type of email also has to be turned on by you, under Settings and "Enable/Disable customer reviews". On that page, you'll be able to see preview the review form clients are asked to fill out. This email goes out after a client's first appointment with your business, as well as 6 months down the line if the client's continued to make online appointments with you, or you've continued entering in their information via Genbook. If you're entering the appointment into your calendar manually, be sure to put in the client's email address at that time, instead of adding it after the appointment's set.

You also have the option of publishing these reviews on your full screen scheduling page.

Get the Most out of your BookNow Button

2009-06-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Genbookers, are you making your BookNow button work for you? To get the most out of your button, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Use the actual BookNow button, instead of a link, if you can. As an industry leader in online appointments for small businesses, our BookNow button is quickly becoming synonymous with quick, easy and reliable online scheduling. It's something clients of businesses across the US and Canada are getting familiar with and trusting. Here are tips on how to get the BookNow button on your site, if you haven't already done so.

2. Put it on your homepage! Your BookNow button belongs, first and foremost, on your homepage, not just hidden on a "Contact Us" page. Having the button front and center on the first page clients see will increase your chances of turning someone who's browsing into someone who booking -- appointments with you, that is.

3. Put it everywhere else, too. The BookNow button is a call to action. Clients may be scouring your site for a phone number to call, or some other way to make an appointment, and the button gives them just that! So, once you've made sure it's on your homepage, don't be shy about putting the button on your Pricing, Services or other pages as well.

Here's a great example of a BookNow button used right:

Notice how the button is right on the Morgan Massage homepage, which is the first page you see when you go to the website. Also notice how it's instantly visible and he draws attention to the fact that it's the vehicle for scheduling an appointment.

Also, take a look at the BookNow button at work on the Pricing page of the site:

Once your clients have read about your services and seen your prices, what else is left for them to do but book an appointment?

What's that Green Block?

2009-05-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

If you're a Genbooker who's always in your calendar, then you've probably noticed that a light green block with the words "Appointment pending" in it shows up every once a while. When it does, you're unable to click on or edit the time slot it's covering.

This simply means one of your clients is in the process of making an online appointment, using the BookNow button or link you've cleverly posted on your site or elsewhere! That time slot is temporarily unavailable, to ensure you don't end up double booked. If the client completes and confirms the appointment, the block will darken and say "New Booking" (see below).

If the client doesn't finish making the appointment for whatever reason, the green block will disappear and the time slot will once again be available in a few minutes.

Genbook now live in Canada

2009-03-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

Today we released a new version of Genbook which includes support for Canadian businesses. Signing up as a Canadian is simply a matter of selecting your province in the registration form. Once selected, the google map we show on your booking page will now show your Canadian address, your business will operate in the correct Canadian time zone, and your customers (if you so desire) can enter Canadian addresses when they make appointments.

We've also released an important performance improvement and bug fix to our booking algorithm. Customers should see a noticeable improvement in performance when choosing an appointment time.

Calendar Synchronization via Email Notifications

2008-12-22T17:07:00.000-08:00

Our one-way calendar synchronization updates external calendars (Google, iCal, Outlook) whenever an update is made to your Genbook calendar. You can turn it on for each staff member on their Staff Details pages, by checking the boxes next to "Email" and "Synchronize your Genbook appointments...", then selecting the "Use email updates" option.

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Genbook then sends a notification for every new booking, cancellation or change that occurs in your calendar, regardless of whether the change is created by you or your customers. Blocks, moved or deleted appointments, and of course, any new appointments all trigger a notification.

The calendar invitation you receive is synchronized directly with your supported external calendar. All you have to do is click "Accept" when you receive the notification, and it will go straight into your calendar (though, usually, the option is already automatically chosen for you by the calendar-email system).

Overriding Staff Hours in your Calendar

2008-11-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

There may be times when you want to accept customer bookings, despite having made yourself Away or Offline under Staff Hours. You may wish to work on a particular Tuesday, even though you are usually off on Tuesdays. Similarly, you may want to open up some otherwise Offline times for online bookings, or make yourself unavailable for portions of a particular date, without affecting your availability in the weeks that follow.

Genbook makes it easy to open up or scale back availability on the fly and account for last-minute changes, without disrupting your weekly schedule. All this, right in your Calendar.

When you hover over an "Away" time slot, you will see two options in addition to that of creating a Block: "Online" and "Offline".

Click "Online" to open the slot up for customers to book it. Do so for as many time slots you wish to open up on that particular date.

When the time slot is "Offline", hovering gives you the option to go "Online" or "Away".

And, of course, you can mark yourself as either "Away" or "Offline" when you're otherwise scheduled to be Online (ie: available to take online appointments, via your booking form). This allows you to make yourself unavailable for appointments on days when you normally would be able to take them.

It's even possible to override Closed times directly in your calendar, without having them affect your Operating Hours. Just hover over a "Closed" time slot and click "Online".

For example, we can make David's 8:00am and 8:30am time slots Online, even though our business is closed until 9:00am on Tuesdays.

The result, on the customer booking page, is shown in the screenshot below:

As you can see, David has openings listed before 9am, but the Business Hours still show that the business doesn't open until 9am.

Don't hesitate to email our Customer Care Team with any questions, comments or concerns about this or any other feature, from the Support tab in your account.

What does Complete Appointment do?

2008-10-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

Maybe you, like many other Genbookers, have seen the "Complete Appointment" option when you view appointment details in your Inbox, or the "Mark as Complete" one when you view details in the calendar and wondered what exactly it does.

It does whatever you want it to! It isn't linked to anything and doesn't trigger anything, so it's up to each business owner or manager to use it however he/she wants. It can mean anything you want it to.

Some businesses take a "completed appointment" to mean one that has already taken place. Others use it to denote the fact that they've seen the details of the appointment and are aware of its existence. But don't be afraid to attach your own meaning to the feature! And if you think of a really unique way to use it, we'd love to hear about it.

A little green box with a check mark appears in the top right corner of the appointment in the calendar and under Key in the Inbox for completed appointments.

Business Closed Dates

2008-10-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Sure, by now you know that you can set up Away Dates for when your staff members go on vacation. But did you also know that you can close your business entirely, so that online appointments can't be booked during a designated period of time?

Just click on Closed Dates in your Settings tab and then add the dates you'll be closing up shop.

This also comes in handy if you've set up your account and you want people to start booking for the future, but your business isn't open yet. Or if you run a seasonal business and only operate several months out of the year.

TIP: Select the date range by clicking the calendar icon and choosing dates from the drop-down calendar. Do not type in the dates.

Notify your Staff of New Online Appointments

2008-10-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

Online appointment notifications aren't just for business managers and owners. Remember that individual staff members can receive email and/or text notifications of their online appointments, too.

To enable email notifications, input the staff member's email address and check the "Email" box on their details pages (found in Settings > Staff > staff member's name)

To enable text message notifications, check the box next to Text/SMS.

Set Staff Vacations with Away Dates

2008-09-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Away Dates feature allows you set up your staff's vacation days so they aren't available to take appointments. You'll find it under the "Away Dates" tab on the left side of Staff pages. (Click on Settings, then "Staff" and the staff member's name.)

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But what if someone is only going to be away for one day, or only lets you know at the last minute? There's an easy, one-click way to make a staff member unavailable only on a specific day. All you have to do is click the icon that looks like a broken circle next to the staff member's name in the day view, or next to the date in the week view.

Once you've done so, you'll see that every block of time has the word "Away" in it.

Watch our quick video tutorial on this topic:

Collect and Publish Customer Reviews

2008-09-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

You have the option of publishing your customer reviews in a separate tab of your full-screen scheduling page. First, make sure that you have enabled reviews, under Customer Reviews in your Settings tab.

When reviews are enabled, clients receive a review invite email 24 hours after their first appointment with your business, then again at six month intervals for as long as they continue making appointments with you.

On the Customer Reviews page, you can also choose whether or not to automatically publish new reviews. Choosing NOT to automatically publish reviews gives you the opportunity to read them before you decide whether or not you want to share them with clients who are scheduling.

Another important thing you can do on here is determine whether client names will be published, or hidden to protect your clients' privacy.

Here's an example of what a published review will look like on your scheduling page.

The latest review also shows up in the "Make an Appointment" tab, under your map and business details.

Online Start Times

2008-09-26T15:23:00.001-07:00

Genbook allows businesses to control the appointment times their customers choose from, using a feature called Online Start Times, found in the Settings tab. Here's how it works:

The "Automatic" option allows you to set the times customers see in intervals of anywhere from 15 minutes to 8 hours.

Here's what your customers would see if you chose the "Every 15 minutes" option and your business opened at 10am.

There's one exception to the Automatic increments, and it occurs when you have an appointment with a duration that's in multiples different than the increments. For example, in the example above, if you were to already have a 20-minute-long appointment at 10:00am, the system would display the very next available time — 10:20 — then resume the incrementation based on your opening operating hours. So, after 10:20, clients would see 10:30, 10:45, 11:00, etc. The system does this in order to maximize your scheduling capacity.

The "Manual" option allows you to enter each time at which you wish to have appointments begin. The trick here is that you have to enter every single start time you wish to have because only the times you input will be displayed. This option gives you more flexibility, especially if you'd like to have different start times on different days.

Here's how you'd set this up if you wanted Monday, Wednesday and Friday's appointments to start on the hour and Tuesday and Thursday's appointments to start on the half hour (you can also start on the 15 or 45 minute mark if you wish).

Another important thing to remember is that start times will only be displayed if they are within business hours and not otherwise voided by the Offline Mask. That's to say that even if you set up several start times on a day when your business is listed as closed, customers won't have the option of scheduling on those days.

Watch our quick video tutorial on this topic:

Capture credit card details from your clients

2008-09-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

The best way to enforce your business' cancellation policy and safeguard against no-shows is to turn on the Credit Card Capture feature, accessed from your Settings tab, and require clients to enter their credit card details when creating appointments.

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The best thing about this feature is how flexible it is. You have control over the circumstances under which card details are captured, and even which cards you will allow clients to input.

Choose to always require credit card details and all appointments, regardless of the client and/or service, will contain client credit card information. To do this, check the box next to "Turn credit card capture on for all services" and save those changes.

If you don't wish to capture card details across the board, there are multiple options for capturing them on the client or the service level (or a mix of the two).

Choose to capture credit card details from all new clients, and anyone making their first appointment with you will be asked to be provide his/her card information.

You can also capture credit card details from specific clients, which may be helpful in cases of clients who are repeated no-shows or late-comers to their appointments. This option is enabled from the Details section of a client's record in your Customers tab. Check the box next to "Always Require Credit Card?" and save your changes.

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You may also wish to capture card details for certain services. To do this, click on the service title — under Settings and Services — then click the Preferences tab. Check the box next to "Require a credit card..." and be sure to save your changes.

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The credit card capture feature prompts your clients to enter their credit card information before they can confirm their appointments. Clients will not be able to move past this step or finish making their appointments if they do not enter valid credit card details.

Once the card information is verified, it is encrypted and stored for your business. You'll need to enter your account login password in order to see the credit card details when you view the appointment in the calendar.

Add your Logo to the Scheduling Page

2008-09-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Adding your business logo is a great, easy way to add a custom touch to your booking page. If your business doesn't have a logo, just use an image that you think represents it well. Photos of your office or studio work great!

Simply go to your Settings tab and click on Add your business logo, where you'll see instructions on uploading the logo. Make sure the image is 128 by 78 pixels, exactly, for best results.

Here's an example of how it will look on your scheduling page:

Request additional customer information

2008-09-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Do you need more information from your clients than what's captured on our booking page? Maybe you'll need to know if a client has any allergies or collect a bit of background information. For example, a doggie daycare or pet spa may want to know the breed, age and weight of each pet that is scheduled.

To this end, you can replace the open-ended Special Request field on the scheduling page with a request for specific information. To do this, you'll need to go to your Settings tab and click on Additional requests.

Here, you can prompt your clients to enter the details you need from them. It's up to you whether you ask a direct, general question or have them list several pieces of information. You can even require that they fill in the field or make it optional if it isn't that important. Keep in mind that requiring them to enter something in the space isn't a guarantee that what they enter will be correct.

How can I put Genbook appointments into Outlook?

2008-09-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

Your Customer

Any time a customer makes an appointment with you, they receive a confirmation email. This email arrives in your customer's inbox with a calendar attachment — that is, a file representing the appointment. If your customer uses Outlook they can just double-click the attachment, save it, and it's added to their Outlook calendar.

You

You will have noticed that each time a customer makes an appointment you also receive an email. We call this the appointment notification email. Starting now, you'll also receive a calendar attachment similar to the one your customer receives. You can follow the same process as above to add this to your Outlook calendar.

Have a great weekend from the team at Genbook!

Genbook in the press!

2008-09-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

We're excited to tell you that Genbook is featured on CNN Money's Small Business section today!

One of our fantastic customers, London Elise, talks about how Genbook has revolutionized her business:

Genbook didn't take long to pay off. Over the next 18 months Elise watched her Soothe Spa customer base grow from 100 to 500. For the first time in seven years her staff is booked out for the next three months. She still hasn't hired a receptionist, which would have set her back $25,000 a year, and Elise says the added customers have tripled her revenue - not bad for an investment of $40 a month.

You can read the whole article on CNN here.

Add Messages to Customer Confirmations

2008-09-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Some Genbookers have asked how they can provide their clients with additional information when clients make an appointment. It could be anything - from parking directions or accepted payment types, to instructions on how to prepare for their first appointment.

We offer the Confirmation Messages feature for just this purpose. You can create these messages in the Settings tab by clicking the "Confirmation Messages" link.

You can create up to 3 distinct confirmation messages with a title (which will be displayed in bold) and a message body. These messages will be displayed both in your booking form -- once a customer has confirmed the appointment -- and the appointment summary page he/she views by clicking the link in their confirmation email.

With confirmation messages set up, there's no reason your customers shouldn't be fully prepared for their next appointment!

Let Customers Cancel Appointments Online

2008-09-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

No one likes cancellations, but if a customer is going to cancel their appointment you don't want to be tied up on the phone dealing with it. With Genbook you can let customers cancel appointment themselves. Head to the Settings tab and select "Online cancellations" to set up this feature.

On this page (pictured above) you can enable online cancellations and determine the minimum notice period you require (circled in red). This can be as little as 1 hour or as much as 5 days.

When any customer makes an appointment with you, their appointment details (in the Customer Center) will contain a link that allows them to cancel. This page lets them cancel their appointment (provided they're outside the minimum notice period) and notifies you with an email. If a customer tries to cancel with less than the minimum required notice period they'll see a web page advising them they can no longer cancel online and must call you if they really can't make it to their appointment.

Most Genbook businesses use this feature — it's just another way Genbook saves you time and frees you up to focus on what you do best!

Can I delete canceled appointments from my Inbox?

2008-09-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Genbookers often ask me about deleting canceled appointments from the Inbox. The short answer is that, at this time, it can't be done. All appointments remain in the Inbox until the end of the Appointment Date, even those that have been canceled.

By the way, you can tell a canceled appointment because it appears in red italics and has a red box with an "X" under Key.

There is work-around, should you find yourself really needing to keep an appointment from showing up in your Inbox.

Even though appointments are never deleted in Genbook (you'll always be able to search for them, even if they've been canceled), you can remove canceled appointments from the Inbox by moving them back in time, to a previous day. You'll first need to restore the appointment by clicking on the customer's name and then on "Restore appointment."

Once you've restored the appointment, click on "View in Calendar." You can now move the appointment to a day in the past. Don't forget to cancel the appointment you've just moved by clicking on it in the calendar and then clicking "Cancel this appointment" in the Edit Appointment box that pops up.

That canceled appointment should no longer show up in your Inbox, because it is no longer a future/current appointment.

And remember -- only online appointments (appointments made by customers using your BookNow button or link) will show up in the Inbox. Offline appointments (appointments you, as the business, enter directly into the calendar) do not.

How to block times when you're unavailable

2008-09-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

The following video will give you a step-by-step guide on how to block time slots during which you are unavailable to take appointments. Remember that the "Block" feature should be used for time slots that do not recur on a weekly basis. To block times when you are consistently unavailable, you should use the Offline Mask.

BookNow on Craigslist

2008-09-10T16:37:00.001-07:00

We know Craigslist is a great place to advertise your business and services. That's why we've made it easy to include a BookNow button in a Craigslist ad. Here's what you do:

1. Copy the Alternative BookNow Button (Non-Javascript) code from the "Place a BookNow button on your website" instruction page found under your Settings tab.

2. Paste it directly into the body of your Craigslist ad.

Here is what it should look like:

How to Enter Staff Phone Numbers

2008-09-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

When you enter a staff member's phone number on the Staff Details page, make sure you are only entering the 10 digit number, without spaces, dashes or other characters. Otherwise, you'll get an error message. Here's how it should look:

Be sure to check the boxes next to "Text/SMS" and "Email" if you'd like your staff member to receive emails and texts when they have new online appointments.

Invite your customers to book online!

2008-09-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Genbook's Customer Invitation Tool makes inviting your clients to make their appointments online quick and easy.

Go to your Settings tab and click on the "Invite your clients to schedule their appointments online" box at the bottom right of your screen.

You'll have two options: input each email address you'd like to add to the invite list manually, or import contacts right from the contact list in an email account. To import, click "Retrieve Contacts".

Enter your email address and password for the account from which you want to import contacts. (Don't worry, Genbook won't store your email password or access your email. We only need it to access your contact list.)

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You can also choose to import a .CSV file on your computer. If you select this option, make sure the first three columns of the document are First Name, Last Name and Email Address, for the import to work smoothly.

Next, select which of your contacts you wish to add to the invite list.

On the final page, you'll see the email addresses of all the people you successfully invited to book online with your business. All of these contacts are also automatically added to your Customer Database (found in the Customers tab).

How to move an appointment

2008-09-05T14:56:00.001-07:00

Lots of Genbookers ask us how they can move an appointment from one day to another. Here's a video showing you exactly how to do it:

Mention Genbook in your voicemail greeting

2008-09-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

Now that you've got the BookNow button (or link) on your site, it's time to let your customers know they can start booking online. One of the best ways to do this, especially if you take many of your appointments over the phone, is to mention it right in your voicemail greeting. Many Genbookers have done this and gotten great results. Here's an example of what it might sound like:

"You can now make appointments online, 24 hours a day. Simply go to our website (www.site.com) and click on the BookNow button to schedule your next appointment."

Get the BookNow button on your website

2008-09-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

One of the first things you should do after you've set up your Genbook account just as you want it, is get the BookNow button onto your website. You'll need to click on Settings and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Place a BookNow button on your website" box.

You'll see several pieces of HTML code, which you will need to paste into the source view of your site.

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Simply pasting the code onto your site as though it were text will not work. Here's what the source view of a website would look like:

If you are unable to edit the code of your site, you can use the URL found at the bottom of the instruction page. In order to make it a link, you'll need to add a bit of code before and after the URL.

That should result in the following being displayed on your site: Book now!

Need a break between appointments? Extend your Service Durations!

2008-09-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

Want to give yourself a breather between appointments? Say, for example, 15 minutes to rest, recharge and prepare for your next customer? Great! All you have to do is make your service durations a little longer.

Customers never see what you write in the "Duration" field, they only see the description, title and cost of the service. So you can make the duration of a 1 hour appointment 75 minutes in order to have an extra 15 minutes blocked off in your calendar and delay the next appointment by that much time.

Can I remove the map from the scheduling page?

2008-08-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

If you're a Genbooker with a mobile business, or you provide your services over the phone, you probably don't need clients to know your exact location.

There's a way to keep the street address from appearing on the scheduling page, as well as to make sure the Google map on that same page won't pinpoint it. You can do this from the Business details page in your Settings tab. Just uncheck the box next to "Display street address to customers scheduling appointments" and remember to save the changes.

Here is the result:

Setting Staff Hours

2008-08-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

The Staff Hours tab on every staff member's page (formerly known as Offline Mask) lets you set that staff member's weekly availability for appointments. It's found under Settings > Staff > [staff member's name] > Staff Hours

When you first come to a staff member's Staff Hours page, you'll see that each time slot during which your business is open is marked "Online" and the times when your business is closed (based on your Operating Hours) are marked "Closed".

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From here, you have several of options. Click any time slot and you'll have the ability to keep the staff member "Online" or make him/her "Away" or "Offline". Here's a brief overview of what each setting does, and a few tips on using the feature:

ONLINE (green) - Mark a staff member "Online" when he/she is working, and taking online appointments. If you want a client to be able to book a certain staff member at 10am, make sure he/she is available at that time.


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TIP: A staff member must be Online for the entire duration of a service in order to be available when a client selects that service. For example: If a staff member is only Online for 30 minutes at a time, then Offline or Away in between those Online times, he/she won't be able to take 60 minute appointments. So, be sure to make the staff member Online for as many back-to-back time slots as they'd need to provide the services they offer.

OFFLINE (blue) - Mark a staff member "Offline" when he/she will be at work, but does not allow online appointments. This can be because he/she is performing other duties, or in order to only allow appointments to be booked for him/her internally (ie: offline).

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AWAY (tan) - Mark a staff member "Away" when he/she is not working. This can be used for off days, lunch hours, or times before/after a staff member comes into work on a day that he/she is working. Or, however else you'd like. You will still be able to make appointments internally at times when a staff member is Away.

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TIP: Change the status on multiple time slots by clicking on a time slot you've already edited, holding the mouse button down then dragging the mouse (or your finger on a trackpad) in the direction you want to bring the change. You can move up, down, left, right or diagonally.

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It is also possible to actually override your Operating Hours on a per-staff member basis. If you click on a Closed time slot, you will have four options: "Closed", "Online" "Offline" and "Away", with "Closed" automatically selected.

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Click "Online" to make that staff member available at that time, even though your business is not technically open. Clients will see the time slots as available, but they will also see your listed "Business Hours" that match your Operating Hours.

One thing you want to make sure of is that you double-check the Staff Hours for all the relevant time ranges that your business is open. The default view of this feature will be Daytime (8:00am - 6:00pm).

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If your business is open before 8:00am or after 6:00pm, remember to adjust the staff hours for the Morning and/or Evening time ranges as well.

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It's also easy to manually override any of the settings mentioned above, directly in your Calendar.

As always, don't hesitate to contact us from the Support tab in your account if you have any questions about this, or any other feature in Genbook.

Appointment Lead Times

2008-08-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Appointment Lead Times dictate how far in advance a customer can book an appointment. The default minimum lead time is 8 hours and the default maximum is 365 days, but you can easily change these.

In the Settings tab, click on Appointment Lead Times.

You'll see the option of making the minimum lead time anywhere from 0 minutes to 5 days. The maximum can be anywhere from 1 day to 1 year.

Be sure to save your changes when you're done!

You can also watch the following video on setting up lead times:

TIP: Avoid making your Appointment Lead Times too restrictive, as that can cause major online availability problems. Be sure that you set them in such a way that your clients can always find future availability. For example, it's NOT a good idea to have a minimum lead time of 1 day and a maximum lead time of 2 days, as it's far too limiting.

Staff and Services are Must-Haves!

2008-08-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

In order to function properly, every Genbook account must have at least one staff member and one service listed. These are set up and edited from the top of your Settings tab. Be sure to link each service to at least one staff member and vice versa.

Watch our quick video tutorials for step-by-step instructions: