Five months with RINDIQ: how RORA Beauty organised its bookings

01RORA Beauty and five months with RINDIQ

RORA Beauty has run its bookings only through RINDIQ for five months, since the platform's early days.No paper notebook, no bookings in Instagram messages and no notes reading “still need to reply”. RORA Beauty recently sent a long thank-you message, and it had so many concrete details in it that it became this article.

Below is each thing RORA Beauty highlighted, with practical detail for every one: how it works, what to set up and what to watch for, so it saves you time too.

02One place for every booking

When bookings come from Instagram, WhatsApp, phone calls and walk-ins, every channel is one more place to check. Most mistakes happen in between: one slot given away twice, a message left unanswered, or a client written in the notebook but not in the phone.

How it works in RINDIQ:

• Clients book themselves on your booking page, including evenings and weekends when you aren't answering messages.
• Clients who still call go into the same calendar, even with just a phone number and no email. That way the online page never offers a time you already gave away on the phone.
• Clients are only offered times the treatment really fits into, with your gap between clients.

03Clients reschedule and cancel themselves

One of the biggest time drains is the message “Can we move it to Thursday?”. Each one means opening the calendar, finding a free slot and replying, often in the middle of a treatment.

How it works in RINDIQ:

• Every confirmation email carries the client's own link. It shows their bookings, which they can reschedule or cancel without a password.
• A cancelled slot is available to others straight away. On Business it is also offered automatically to clients on the waitlist.
• In settings you set a cancellation deadline, for example 24 hours. A later cancellation is recorded as a late cancellation and counts in the client's reliability score.

The easier it is to cancel, the more often clients do it in time instead of simply not turning up. A cancelled slot can still be filled; a no-show's slot cannot. If a client does cancel at the last minute, read A client cancelled at the last minute. What now with the empty slot?.

04SMS reminders

Some clients don't turn up not because they don't want to, but because they forgot. They booked three weeks ago, and Tuesday arrived out of nowhere.

How it works in RINDIQ:

• The day-before reminder goes out automatically, in the client's language, and the sender shows as “RINDIQ”.
• In settings you can add reminders two hours or a week before, plus an SMS when a booking is confirmed.
• SMS comes in packs of 50, 100 or 300 messages, roughly €0.13 to €0.18 per SMS. You only pay for messages sent, and automatic top-up keeps you from running out at a bad moment.
• Email reminders are included on every plan.

SMS matters most for clients without an email and those who booked by phone. More in Do you need SMS reminders if you have email?.

05The Story Creator

Instagram is a beauty professional's shop window, but a “free slots this week” post takes time every time: open the calendar, copy the times, put a design together.

How it works in RINDIQ (under “Tools → Story Creator”, on Professional and Business):

• Free slots come straight from your calendar, exactly as clients see them. Nothing is retyped by hand.
• There are 7 layouts, your own colours, fonts and background, including a photo you upload.
• Hide any time you don't want to show with one tap, and save the design for next time.
• The preview can show Instagram's safe zone, so text never ends up under Instagram's buttons.

06Prepayment with Stripe

RORA Beauty recently connected Stripe prepayment and is still testing it. That is a good way to start.

How it works in RINDIQ:

• You connect Stripe in settings, and the money goes straight to your Stripe account, not to RINDIQ.
• You can ask for a deposit only from first-time clients, as a percentage or a fixed amount. The client chooses to pay the deposit or the full price, and can pay the rest later from their link.
• Clients who often miss appointments or cancel late can be asked to prepay automatically (on Professional and Business).
• Clients pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
• If a client cancels in time, the deposit is refunded automatically. After the deadline, it stays with you.

How to introduce it without stress:

1. Start with a deposit for new clients only. Regulars are not affected.
2. Tell clients in advance, for example in an Instagram story, with one sentence on why.
3. After a month, compare no-shows before and after.

How to ask for a deposit without it sounding like distrust is covered in How to ask for a deposit without upsetting clients.

07What other professionals can take from it

Three things repeat in RORA Beauty's experience, and they work for any professional:

1. One place for every booking. While some live in a notebook and some in messages, sooner or later something gets lost.
2. Let clients do what they can do themselves:book, reschedule, cancel. Every message you don't have to write is time for a treatment or a break.
3. Introduce new features one at a time. Bookings first, then reminders, then prepayment. Try each one before adding the next.

08About iPhone

The RINDIQ app is available for Android phones on Google Play today. The iPhone app is on its way, and until then RINDIQ works fully in Safari: the calendar, bookings, clients and settings are all the same.