Note: This is an active document and we will keep it up to date as the situation develops
This crisis is doubtless affecting many of your businesses financially. At AppointmentGuru, we are committed to creating long term relationships with our customers. As such, here is what we are doing to help you during this difficult time.
COVID-19 discounts for affected businesses
The first thing we want to ensure is that AppointmentGuru is not a financial burden to any of our customers during this time. As such, we're offering the following options for businesses affected by the virus:
Existing users
- Honesty pricing: Previously we announced a COVID-19 discount for existing users to reduce their monthly subscription to R150 during the crisis. In our commitment to helping your business continuity, we are now introducing "honesty pricing" - allowing you to set your pricing to an optional amount that you can afford*. We recommend R150/month as a rate in the best interests of the community.
New users
- (almost) free upgrades for new users. New users can upgrade for only R10/month*
*We are committed to offering these discounts until the beginning of Sept 2020 at which time we will reevaluate the situation, and prices may revert to normal rates
Why we believe this is important:
Some certainty in uncertain times:
Right now, it is difficult to predict what is going to happen over the next few weeks or months. Even as businesses open up, people are still cautious, and we suspect it may be a long time until business returns to usual. Although the worst of the lockdown may be over, it is hard to quantify the possibility of a second wave, or the likelihood of getting sick and not being able to work.
We want to communicate a clear message of support and commitment to our community. Not only by putting our money where our mouth is, but also guaranteeing our commitment until September 2020.
New features and upgrades to help you run your business in the new normal
In addition to financial help, we've been hard at work on features to help you run your business in the new normal:
- Zoom integration and online appointment types
- Simplified online booking widget and new features for appointment types
- Improved booking webpage
Tips, tricks and best practices
Many of you have shown resilience, innovation and professionalism during this period. Here are some tips and tricks that we have sourced from our community of practitioners which may be useful to others:
Tips for safely running your in-person appointments
If you are running in-person appointments, it is important to take steps to ensure your and your client's safety. Some of our practitioners have shared what they are doing, and we thought we would pass along some of the good ideas:
- Perform telephonic screening of all patients before conducting any consultations
- Require the patient to complete an informed consent
- On arrival, perform further in-person screening before starting the consultation Both parties should wear* Masks and/or face shields
- Hands should be washed and sanitized before and after every session
- All surfaces should be sanitized between sessions
- As a practitioner, consider wearing scrubs over your clothing
Tips and tricks for running your business online
- Install the AppointmentGuru Zoom integration to seamlessly create corresponding Zoom meeting and automatically include Zoom URLs in your notifications.
- Share your booking widget URL with your customers so they can easily book with you and select between online or in-person meetings (you can find your booking URL from settings -> get online)
Many companies have compiled extensive documentation and tips for working online:
AppointmentGuru business continuity
Lastly, you should know that you can rely on us to continue providing the service you have come to know and trust.
AppointmentGuru has always been a remote/work-from-home company. So we are continuing to work as usual. We expect no significant disruptions to our service and customer support at this stage.