Heroes of the new economy: Balancing Time
January 19th, 2010I am a Psychologist in a busy, 2-day per week private practice. The balance of the time I teach marriage and family psychology at a graduate school of theological studies.
Over the years, I have found it difficult to book my clients and balance my other work responsibilities. Some weeks I might spend 2-3 hours simply booking and rebooking clients as their schedules change. And this intrusion is often at the expense of my family or some non-vocational interests.
I Googled “online calendars” and found Setster and I have been using it for the past month with significant success. My clients appreciate not having to email and phone me to make their appointments. And I love it when I see that a booking has occurred and I have done nothing to make it happen. Plus it appeals to the “techy” in me and many of my clients.
During my time of using Setster, I enjoyed a 2-weeks vacation. While away I could watch my calendar, see who was making appointments and not have to worry about unattended emergencies. This was a real help to me.
I also very much appreciate having a listing of my clients email addresses and other info where I can easily contact them.
The price is a bargain. I hope that there will be sufficient support of this excellent and growing program to be around for the years to come. I am depending on it.
Heroes of the new economy: Finding a Niche to bridge the divide.
January 18th, 2010Babeltech started early 2009 to fill a gap in our local market – bridging the divide between traditional IT and increasingly complicated technology (TV, Stereo Systems, Cell Phones). We provide a combination of IT and Technology support, repairs and consulting helping our customers achieve more, develop a better understanding of their equipment and have a better quality of life.
As a startup business, Babeltech has found it essential to try and minimize costs such that we didn’t require the help of venture capitalists or investors and thus keep profits internally. Using a service such as Setster allows us to do this.
By using Setster to run an appointments widget on our own website, where we can direct new and existing clients to make appointments, instead of having to receive the calls ourselves. This is a fantastic change, as receiving calls whilst on a job site was always troublesome and doesn’t give the professional image nor the quality of care we want to give our customers.
Setster’s integration with our invoicing company, Freshbooks, was another revelation! By automating the invoicing process, such that appointments made with Setster and completed are turned into drafts invoices in Freshbooks, we save time. Saving time when invoicing allows us to spend more time with the clients, letting us focus more on what we do best and results in greater revenue.
As a startup business, it feels good to be supporting other expanding companies, such as Setster. I would recommend Setster to any other business out there (and I regularly do!)
James Buzzard
Head Babeltech www.babeltech.com.au
How to Sync Outlook and Setster
January 18th, 2010How to Sync Outlook and Setster
1. Open Outlook and go to the Calendar section.
2. Select your calendar and click on Publish My Calendar
With Outlook 2007, you can publish for free to calendars.office.microsoft.com. You’ll need a Live ID account. If you don’t already have one, a Live ID is useful for many other services too. To get one, start at login.live.com and click the “Sign up for an account” link.
3. If requested, sign into your Live ID account. Enter the email address and password of your Live ID account.
4. Check “Remember my password” so that Outlook can send calendar updates to the server automatically.
5. In the detail section, select Availability only. You only want to publish your free/busy times
6. In the permission section, select “Anyone can view and search for this calendar on Office Online
7. Click OK
8. You will get a notice saying your calendar has been published. Click OK to see the invitation.
9. On the invitation, there is a calendar address. Highlight and copy the text to the right of the words “webcals”.
10. Sign into your Setster account and go to the Availability Tab
11. Select MSN in the Import Calendar from source drop down menu
12. Paste the copied URL into the space provided.
13. Add “http” to the front of the URL
14. Click Save
That is it. You Outlook calendar and Setster are now synced.
Heroes of the New Economy: A more efficient machine
January 17th, 2010Machine Methods Consulting may sound like a large firm with a team of people waiting by the phone ready to assist your every technical need but it isn’t. It is just me trying to help as many people as one person can handle. And, until human cloning is perfected, that is likely all it will ever be. Therefore, I need to use every tool I can to save time while continuing to maintain a high level of service for my clients.
As a “business of one”, here is how my client scheduling used to often occur…
I would get a call from a client, usually in a situation where I could not pick up (for instance, if I was assisting another client). They would leave a message with a technical problem. Later, I would call them back and often they would not answer and I would leave a message. Then, just to be safe, I would follow up with an email to let them know I got the message and it sounded like something I should make a visit for. I would ask what times are good for them. They would reply back with some times, none of which were available for me. Often, several emails may bounce back and forth, voicemails left, etc. before a solid appointment time could be set.
Here is how my client scheduling happens now…
My clients go to my website, click on the Setster Appointment Widget on the right hand side of the page, choose the service they need, choose an available time, enter their contact information, and click confirm. Done.
Setster empowers my clients with knowing that if they have a service need they can schedule me, at a time available for us both, and then rest in the knowledge that I will show up and get the job done or follow up before hand if I have further questions. They have the control. There is no back and forth, no phone tag or email relays. It’s fast, it’s simple, and a tremendous time saver for everyone involved.
Patrick Rhone is Your Guy at Machine Methods Consulting in Saint Paul, MN. http://www.machinemethods.com
Heroes of the New Economy: From a hobby to a business
January 17th, 2010Setster has transformed our business capacity and techniques, more than any other software we could add to our business model.
As a new company CheapShots Photography could only accept appointments through phone or email. As the owner of this “hobby business”, I worked full-time for a software company, and owned another business Solase Massage, on the side. I didn’t have time to answer as many calls and emails as I was getting. This third business, a photography business was supposed to be a hobby, not a job. CheapShots started growing and in 6 months, without any advertising, was doing 7-8 appointments a week. Which is not bad for one person, BUT due to the lack of time I could spend with my “hobby business” clients phone numbers were being misplaced, calls left unanswered with no message left, I was unorganized in how I booked appointments, and I felt the pressure and stress creeping in as my business was growing at a rate I couldn’t keep up with.
Enter Setster. I set up the appointment button on the side of my webpage, and viola! I made mention to it on my website, that clients could now book on-line. Instantly, within two days, I booked 7 appointments ON TOP of the others I previously had scheduled and was still scheduling. I continued at this rate with Setster as well. Setster saved me. When I wasn’t able to answer calls, I noticed my clients booked with Setster. They selected the type of appointment they wanted, set a date and then an email was sent to me to confirm or reschedule, and a confirmation to them once it was final. Period. Then it dawned on me. How many appointments had I missed simply because I didn’t have a tool to ease the process of booking an appointment? At least 7 within a two day period. For me that’s 350.00 my company was losing every two days. I would have had NO CLUE I was missing these appointments if I wouldn’t have added Setster to my business. This tripled the number of appointments I was able to book every week. I still had my calls, but if I wasn’t able to book an appointment (because I was driving) I would tell the client to log onto my website to book it. It saves their contact information, the date they scheduled, and they can add a note to say “Hey I just got off the phone with you, we talked about doing pictures at the lake”. No effort from me whatsoever. I like a business that runs itself… how about you? Time is money. Send them to my website and I’m done. I don’t want to sound lazy, but when you already have two jobs and you are crazy enough to pick up a third, you need the best tools to help utilize your time. Setster fits the profile to a “T”.
In a period of 3-4 months with Setster, my business has increased 700% in size and revenue, even in a down economy. I can afford to advertise now. I happily blame Setster for my success. In my business, I could only do so much. I hired an employee to book all my appointments. She links my Google Calendar to Setster so the appointments show in both places, so the availability on my website is always correct. It’s flawless, simple and has revolutionized my business. Guess what? She works from home. Because of Setster, I have been able to hire 6 other photographers who can easily check their appointments and get the information they need for their photo shoots without having to contact me. And the most beautiful thing about it is they can all work from home. I now run the business instead of having the business run me. I must say that I LOVE the fact that it’s Internet based. Here are the biggest benefits I see in Setster
PROS
- Ability so save client information
- Low cost
- Ability to link with PayPal to receive payments.
- Automatic emails sent to client and business
- Able to check Setster with any internet connection
- No complaints from my clients (No, not a single one)
- Ability to handle more clients because the volume is “funneled” before it’s sent to CheapShots and we can take it from there
- No data loss because it’s a web-based/hosted program
- Easy to add’s to your website with minimal effort or computer knowledge
- Ability to link to Google Calendar
…. I could continue, but I want to add a couple things. Because Setster worked so well in my “hobby business” I had my staff add it to my “real business” located in one of the busiest areas in Orem, Utah. It has also increased our appointment-booking rate within this business, with little or no advertising.
One more thing before you run off to purchase this program. I work in a software industry. Change to software programs does NOT happen over night, in fact it sometimes takes 1-2 years to restructure a program in order ton enhance a program’s features. I would like to say this is one of the FIRST companies where they have taken advice without speculation, wanting to further develop the program to fit all scheduling aspects for their clients. Within a 2 day period I had a response from the Setster team on some enhancement requests I sent in. The feasible ones that would benefit others have already been added into the software. Can I say remarkable?
Thank you Setster, for making my companies more efficient, affordable (low overhead for me, low prices for my customers) and more flexible. We would be lost without you.
http://cheapshotsllc.blogspot.com
Christy Hair
Cheap Shots Photography
Heroes of the New Economy
January 17th, 2010We are seeing a new generation of entrepreneurs that are adapting, creating new opportunities and prospering in this economy. From the one shop freelancer to large organized groups, we are witnessing a seismic shift in how technology is being applied to generate new business.
As we started hearing about how our clients were using Setster, we became inspired by their stories. A surprisingly large range of individuals and companies are growing, prospering and in some cases have created unique market segments for their services.
Since seeing and having success makes dreams believable and achievable, we thought we would share their success with others.
In this series, we’ll be highlighting business using Setster’s appointment software. In their own words, users describe how they have been able to generate success. We hope you enjoy their stories and hope it motivates and inspires you to create and prosper.
The Setster Team
http://www.setster.com/blog/2010/01/from-a-hobby-to-a-business/
http://www.setster.com/blog/2010/01/a-more-efficient-machine/
http://www.setster.com/blog/2010/01/heros-of-the-new-economy-finding-a-niche-to-bridge-the-divide/
http://www.setster.com/blog/2010/01/heros-of-the-new-economy-balancing-time/