Your clients

Everyone who books, online or at the desk, gets a client record, with no account on their side; walk-ins you don't name share one record, "Walk-in". The record is how the desk recognises a regular from a few digits of their number, and where their visits, no-shows, notes and alert note live. Salons, spas and clinics have a Clients tab (Patients for a clinic). Other kinds of business reach a client from one of their bookings: open it, and the history at the bottom has a link to the client, such as "Open invitee" on a consultant's calendar.

Find anyone

The search box takes part of a name, an email, or any three or more digits from anywhere in a phone number, so "4512" finds a number that ends in it or holds it in the middle. With nothing typed, sort by "Recent", "A–Z" or "No-shows". Each row shows the number, the next or last visit, and tags worth a glance: "New" for someone booked who hasn't visited yet, "Alert note", their no-shows, "Blocked online" and "Same person?". The buttons under it open WhatsApp or call (email, when there's no number) and book them: "Book again" once they've visited.

The client record

A client's page counts their visits, no-shows and cancellations, and what they've paid once anything is marked paid. Below that:

• Alert note. Up to 200 characters, such as an allergy, "shown on every appointment": on the day view, in the booking sheet, and on the team member's "My day" page. It never appears to the client. To remove it, clear the box and save.
• Coming up and history. Their next appointments, then everything else, latest first, each with its status: completed, cancelled, no-show. "Show all" opens the full list.
• Notes. Preferences, what you did last time: "only your team sees these", never the client, and never on "My day".

"Add client" makes a record for someone who hasn't booked yet, and their bookings join it. The exception is an online booking that adds a detail the record doesn't have, such as an email when you saved only their number: that one gets a record of its own marked "Same person?" (below). The pencil beside a name edits their name, phone and email, which are how they're recognised next time.

Bring your clients in

Admins can import from Clients → Import clients; without a Clients tab, open any client and choose the list's name in the path at the top, such as "Invitees". Nobody gets a message, and anyone already there is matched by phone number, then email, never added twice.

• From a spreadsheet (CSV). Export from your old booking app, Google Contacts or Excel as CSV: up to 5,000 rows and 2 MB, with commas, semicolons or tabs. Match each column to "Name", "First name", "Last name", "Phone", "Email" or "Notes", or "Skip this column", and say which country numbers without a code are from. The preview says how many will be added, updated and skipped, and why.
• From your eKard Contacts. The people who left their details on your Kards. Tick the Kards to bring in.

A match only fills in what the record is missing; it never renames anyone. Alert notes are never filled in from a file: add those yourself. Skipped rows come with the reason, and you can download them to fix and import again.

To take a copy out, the link under the list downloads every client as a spreadsheet (admins only): names, numbers, emails, visits, no-shows and cancellations. Notes and alert notes are left out, because they can hold health details, unless you press "Include them".

Duplicates and blocking

An online booking never changes an existing client's details. When someone books online with a phone number you have and an email that isn't on that record (even when the record has none), or the other way round, they get a record of their own marked "Same person?", saying which details matched. If it is one person, merge it into the older record: their bookings, notes and alert note move across, and the newer record goes. The number or email typed online stays off the older record, since anyone can type it; add it with the pencil if you know it's theirs. Merging can't be undone. If they're two people, "Not the same person" keeps both.

"Block online booking", at the bottom of a client's page, stops your booking page taking bookings from that number and email; they're asked to contact you instead. Your desk can still book them, and their existing appointments stay. Clients can't be deleted, so blocking is how you stop someone booking online.

Open your calendar →