warmchords

Who is using Mike and Terry's GoMobile Twilio platform? Their WSO thread has little in the way of reviews and I'm waiting for them to answer my question about automated appointment reminders before I consider buying, but I want to see if I can drum up some more opinions about their service as well.

Could someone using their system please give me your opinion on the appointment scheduling module? I have a client wanting to get set up with SMS Marketing in the next week and I have yet to make my decision on a provider. Appointment scheduling is a must at this point.

warmchords

DEaFeYe, the decision to use a model with appointment reminders has nothing to do with my personal opinion or anyone else's on WF for that matter. It's what my client wants to PAY ME to do, because he the idea in his head long before I ever talked to them about SMS.

I'd love to hear more about yours or anyone else's platform that offers affordable appointment scheduling, but I'm not really interested in talking about why I shouldn't deliver what my client wants.

WillR

You should NEVER deliver what your client wants just because "it's what my client wants". A lot of the times this is actually doing a dis-service to your client. Your client is paying you money because YOU are the expert. Just like I wouldn't tell the owner of Joe's Pizzeria how to make pizzas I won't let them tell me how to do my job either.

If you don't think an sms reminder system is the best option for the business then you need to stand up and tell them. It's easy to be a 'yes' marketer and just do whatever your customer wants - that's what 99% of all other offline marketers do. But I can tell you I get a LOT more respect from my clients when I stand up for what I believe in and tell them when they have things wrong. Even if it means telling them they don't need something which could have made me a lot of money.

I am not saying sms reminders are not a good fit for your customer... they might be. What I AM saying is you should never just do something because "it's what my customer wants". Although it might have been THEIR idea, when things don't go as well as they had planned you can be sure it will be YOU who is to blame.

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warmchords

You make a good point Will. Taking a step away from this, the real issue I have here is the need to quickly report back to this client with a solution to the problem, regardless of the method. The problem is missed appointments.

That being said, I still see SMS as a better way to accomplish this than VoIP. I would venture to guess that more voicemails go unread than texts...

WillR

Before I recommend anything I would be wanting to know what their current method is for appointment reminders and why that method is not working. Only then can you come up with a solution that will fix the problem. SMS reminders sound great but if they don't solve the actual problem for this particular business then there's no point going through the hassle of implementing them.

So, maybe this business currently delivers all appointment reminders by phone. What is NOT working with this method? Do they not have the resources to handle all the phone calls? Are they not getting people answering their phones? If so, what's the reason? Are people giving them incorrect contact numbers? Are people giving them numbers they are not contactable on during business hours? Are people answering the phone, agreeing to the appointment and then just not showing up? Are they reminding people too close to the appointment so that even if someone cancels they have no way of filling that vacant appointment?

One easy way to help with missed appointments is charging a cancellation fee. Even if you decide to go down the route of SMS reminders you should implement some type of penalty for those who do not show - after all, it is costing this business money. So you could maybe send out a text 48 hours before the appointment:

"John, you are scheduled to see Dr. Smith on Tues 12th August at 7:30am. If you are unable to make this appointment please phone 888-888-888 immediately. *24 hour cancellation fee applies"

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javarog

You can get a white label here of this platform https://www.cuevox.com/

No affiliations just a satisified customer

warmchords

Will, they're actually not sending out ANY appointment reminders at the moment. They don't have a dedicated receptionist and aren't intending to hire one, which is why they're seeing a problem here and wanting an automated solution.

This is a spa that has been open for six months and they have been slammed the entire time thanks to a few Groupons that have accounted for about 90% of their business to date. Thankfully they're making money despite the Groupon risk thanks to great upsells and competitive pricing, but they're just now getting around to finding a way to minimize missed appointments. Their website threatens to charge no-shows and late cancellations the full service fee, but I don't think they're actually enforcing that right now.

javarog

I forgot to tell you that cuevox is twilio based