16.07
The very basic solution
A simple “billboard’ website advertising your business would be straightforward and could get it up and running for you in 1–2 days:
Other than a contact me button, that site wouldn’t “do anything “ (i.e. could not organise a calendar, store names/addresses of clients, track payments etc) so while cheap to do is only real value is on online business card. But quick and cheap to do for you if that’s all you want.
A proper website that include booking and intelligence
My sense is that the real value is building a proper booking and operational platform specifically around how your business actually works, and automate your admin and booking
The website/platform could do the following for you and your customers:
- Allow clients to see your availability live and book appointments themselves online rather than exchanging multiple WhatsApp messages backwards and forwards.
- Each client would only see appointments you are happy for them to take (eg if you are in Peyia, it won’t show an empty slot after to me as I am too far away
- Calculate realistic travel times between appointments so your schedule reflects operational reality rather than simply appointment duration.
- You could set rules as to how you control this (eg set certain days as “AH zone” or “Limassol zone” etc) – “Geolocation rules”.
- Allow clients to quickly rebook repeat appointments, which probably increases overall bookings and convenience.
- Allow clients to reschedule appointments themselves (for example up to 24 hours beforehand) without needing manual coordination (again subset to the geolocation rules)
- Send automatic WhatsApp/email reminders and confirmations to reduce no-shows and administration.
- Send calendar invites automatically so appointments appear directly in the client’s phone calendar.
- Provide direct Google Maps / Apple Maps directions to your Paphos studio.
- Save client names, emails, telephone and addresses - launch navigation apps (Waze) directly from your phone on your daily schedule
- Sync client contacts to your phone too
- Send reminders, ‘haven’t seen you in a while’ messages, offers etc to clients who haven’t used you for a while
- Send Xmas, birthday wishes automatically and any offers
Manage driving time and therefore know what appointment is ‘available’ to each client
This is probably one of the most valuable features.
For a mobile professional, the challenge is not really managing a diary — it is managing geography and driving efficiently between appointments.
The system could maintain a client location database and calculate driving times between all customer locations.
With approximately 250 clients, the platform could effectively maintain a travel-time relationship matrix between all customer addresses (ie compute 250 x 250 combinations)
This allows the system to:
- avoid impossible adjacent bookings (ie clients too far from each other)
- group appointments geographically
- create “zone days” (Aphrodite Hills day, Sea Caves day etc)
- reduce wasted driving
- reduce stress/fatigue
- potentially fit more appointments into each day
- The objective is simple: more treatment time and less driving time.
Other features
- Allow quick one-click operational messages such as:
- “Sorry - Running 10 mins late”
- “I’ve arrived”
• Support referral rewards and vouchers.
• Allow clients to scan a QR code to:
- save your contact details
- book instantly
- Fast links to leave Google reviews
- recommend you to friends
- Support multiple languages
- English
- Greek
- Russian
- Israeli etc
• Track payments, balances and treatment packages automatically.
Taking Payments
I actually think it probably makes sense for you to continue mainly using cash and/or Revolut rather than forcing card payments as much as you can, as this avoid paying unnecessary fees. However, it does create problems when you don’t have change etc.
However, the platform could still recognise cash payments as well as credit cards (usually 1-2% fee) or Revolut (free):
- track who has paid
- track prepaid balances/packages
- maintain client credit (“kitty”) balances
- reduce the need to remember everything manually
What’s available on the market (ie off the shelf) as comparison
I also looked properly at systems already “in the market” - ie essentially off the shelf where you benefit from economies of scale. The market leader is called “Fresha”, which seems to be used by a number of salons, podiatrists etc in Pathos… My podiatrist in Pathos uses it for example. To be clear Fresha is not their site but just the calendar/payment system embedded in it. But you test it here -> https://www.nynpodiatry.com/ Start to make a booking (but don’t confirm it obviously!)
From the reviews, Fresha is good as a generic booking platform for salons and clinics. Fresha changes about €2.50 per booking, once payment processing and messaging/SMS reminder costs are included. For you doing approximately 40 appointments per week, and if all are on line that’s around €400/month. Plus they charge 20% on the first booking for new clients and their first appointment. Plus you still need to build the simple website to plug into it.
The other problem with Fresha is that it is designed around fixed-location businesses rather than mobile therapists driving between appointments all day. So it will not be able to optimise across geographies and plan an optimal day including driving. Think of a barber similar business. So ito does not really give you:
- your own bespoke operational system
- your own fully customised website
- your own independent platform
- reviews are internal and not google specific
Instead, you are effectively operating inside somebody else’s ecosystem and pricing structure.
The platform I am proposing would instead be:
- your own branded system
- multilingual
- specifically designed around mobile massage/physio work
- operationally focused around geography, travel time and scheduling efficiency
- fixed predictable monthly cost
- no marketplace commissions (ie 20% commission on new clients)
- fully adaptable as the business evolves
Realistically, I think this is 4–6 weeks of development work (I have 2 guys in India who help me) and if priced commercially would likely cost ~€10k. That’s a lot, I know.
Here’s my proposal, I think the fairest structure is probably:
- I will pay all the upfront development costs
- Use it for free for 1–2 months as a live pilot period while we refine the workflow around how you actually operate in practice.
- If you don’t like it and don’t think it offers you any value we can dump the project, at no cost to you; I am confident it will make a difference and you will want to take it.
- During our sessions you can give me feedback on the system and I can improve it.
- Then, after the trial and you accept it: monthly fee: €200-250 month depending on what you want (so I am assuming you will run it for 5yrs for me to break even)
- Includes platform/support fee, your own website URL (you should pick something that will drive more business to you – e.g. paphosmobilemassage.com)
- Includes maintenance and software upgrades