Today, we got an email from a client who asked that if we are still active or not? This reminded me that we were so busy in bringing more features that we actually forgot to send updates to our clients. With your feedbacks, Appointy is now the most powerful scheduling software and now we are launching few features which would make Appointy, the most powerful marketing tool for all Businesses. We are all set with it and next month we will bring all those features in Beta. So wait for the grand re-launch of Appointy 2.0.

In the mean time, we would like to remind you about the features we have rolled out silently. Many of you might have already seen or used those features. If not then here is a quick review:

1. Better Dynamic Forms: We have added more controls to dynamic forms like Radio buttons and check boxes. You can now set to save client’s custom form data which can auto fill during their next appointment. For ex. One of our client which is a Dog grooming company asks their clients to enter their Dog’s details during booking. During next booking their client can either select old information or they can schedule service for their new dog. We are working on many reports which will also help you to filter records based on these forms also.

2. Improved Navigation: We have changed the Top Menus in admin area. Now you can reach any page directly without opening the main Menu. Mouse hovering any menu will pop a drop-down menu making it more easy to navigate.

3. Improved Email Marketing with various new filters: You can email your friends on Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and others. You can import data from csv file or send emails to your clients on Appointy. These clients can also be filtered on various criteria. Within 2 weeks, we will add more search criteria.

4. Improved Client invite tool : Just check it to see it. In 2 weeks it will link to your Email marketing templates and you can create custom invite templates and send it to your clients.

We will try to update you as soon as we release more features. There are tons of features coming. Stay tuned for our grand re-launch with lots of features.

We are so excited to release first preview of our most awaited Email marketing tool today. Within few hours from now it would be live for some Businesses.

Our Email marketing tool is very flexible and can be compared to any other email marketing solution in the market. You can either use ready-to-go templates or create your own in few minutes and send it to your clients.

Send Season Greetings, Wishes, Promotional Discounts, or Newsletter etc to your existing clients into Appointy or import from your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL or other 15+ email providers.

Here is the first preview of our Email Marketing Tool:

Appointy is the most powerful appointment Mgmt. software. Our free features are far most advanced than many other solutions available in the market.

If you haven’t tried yet then we would suggest you to try Appointy & also experience our wonderful customer support. Our free version allows unlimited bookings, unlimited service & unlimited staff. Try Now!

As you all know that we are launching our Email marketing solution, we would suggest every business to get one Facebook page now as our ready-to-use email marketing templates would be centered towards Facebook Page.

Holiday season is a great time to thank clients by offering them discounts, gifts, and deals and at the same time increase sales. You might be doing it already in the past. But this time, we want you to take a step forward and try to make a community of your fans from your clients.

This time, by offering discounts you will be getting 2 things:

The three most important ways of leveraging Facebook for marketing:

» Establish a strong profile as this is the basis of your entire Facebook marketing strategy because it gives you the ability to show others what you can do, who you can help and what you have to offer. This is where you can list your website or blog and works as a wonderful portal to take people there. Get people to your profile and if they find it interesting enough, they will click on the links.

» Reach your target market easily by using the Facebook feature that allows you to see friends of friends.

To know more about Facebook pages visit Facebook’s official guide here. If you need help in creating your Facebook page then please do not hesitate to contact at manishi [at] appointy [dot] com and we would be more than happy to assist you further.

So stay tuned as in December 2009 we have more surprises for you (other than email marketing).

Note: Do not forget to update your Facebook link in Appointy from Admin area, within Customize tab under Settings menu. Once updated, you will not need to make any changes to ready-to-use templates and you can be growing your business with few clicks in less than 5 minutes.

Over the last year, we have found that most of the Business registrations are coming from websites which are already using Appointy. We have heard from various Businesses using Appointy that their client fell in love with their scheduling software (Appointy) at first sight and if there is a way they could monetize it in some way or the other.

We listened, and finally we are releasing our Affiliate program. You don’t have to pay anything to join it. You can join if you are using it. Your client will see it and they would click on the powered by link and if they join as a premium member we will pay you at least 25% commissions of his membership every month for his entire paid cycle. Our commission struture changes as you refer more clients and we share 50% revenue if you have 150 premium clients.

Appointy is a self selling software and we would strongly suggest every one to join us as an affiliate.

If you are interested then please send us an email at contact@appointy.com along with your username at appointy and we will make you our affiliate.

Note: This affiliate program is for limited clients only and we reserve the right to approve or disapprove any request.

Releasing today, Facebook share plug-in for WordPress which shows the number of times the post or page has been shared through out the Facebook just like tweetmeme button does for twitter.

This is how it looks on your blog (See on the left). Click here to download or to know more about this plug-in.

Sharing content on Facebook hasn’t generally been as easy as it has been on Twitter. Part of Twitter’s advantage is just how easy it is to share from blogs and other websites. A lot of this has to do with the Tweetmeme buttons, which are those Twitterbuttons you see on Mashable and elsewhere that count up how many retweets a webpage experiences. Facebook’s never really had an equivalent. Until now.

Quietly the world’s largest social network has been working on a new version of Facebook Share, one that includes buttons that can count the amount of shares a specific article gets across Facebook’s vast platform. They launched it officially on 26th Oct 2009, though you’ve probably already seen them being tested on a few websites, including Mashable, during the last week or so.

At Appointy, we realized the potential of new Facebook Share button and added the button to our blog. We put some extra efforts and created a WordPress plug-in so everyone can benefit from it.

Please do not forget to leave a comment.

This post is a part of Appointy Lab release: At Appointy, we, a bunch of nerds, are constantly tinkering around with technology. Sometimes, our experiments make it into our products (in some shape or form). We thought to put some extra efforts and release some useful products for our friends like you.

Install “Schedule Me” application in your Facebook Profile or Fan page and start accepting appointments from your friends directly on Facebook. It works with your Facebook profile as well as your Facebook page. This is a must install widget for every business.

Today Facebook pages have evolved as a powerful tool to form a great social community of happy customers. Most businesses already have presence on Facebook and they are dedicating time to build a great community by either adding their clients as friends in their own profile or creating fans on Facebook pages. Both these strategies have helped businesses to grow virally. There is a saying that acquiring a new customer requires more investment than retaining an old client. You can get recurring business from your existing clients if you have the right channel to promote yourself. Our “Schedule Me” application would allow your happy customers to see latest Discounts on your Facebook page and allow them to book an appointment instantly from your Facebook profile or Facebook Page.

At Appointy we are constantly working to increase your visibility on these social channels and “Schedule Me” application is one of such an effort.

Read instructions here to install it on your Facebook Profile.
Read instructions here to install it on your Facebook Page.

If you have any question and need help to install this widget then schedule a screen sharing session with us from our Fanpage.

You like it? Please show your love by rating this application and also join us on our Facebook page here. Do not forget to pass it through the social links below

This article describes how to install “Schedule Me” Widget (Appointy’s Facebook App) on FaceBook Page (If you are looking to install it on Facebook profile then click here).

Please follow the instructions below to install in on your Facebook page.

»1. Open our Facebook Application’s profile page. http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=147880376673

»2. Click on “Add to my page”. A window will open. Click on “Add to Page” button next to the page on which you want to install this widget.

»3. Open your Facebook page (For example: http://facebook.com/appointy). Click on Edit Page.

»4. Goto Schedule Me application area and click on edit.

»5. Enter your Appointy username and some heading. To attract more customers give them some discount coupons. (You can generate these discount coupons from admin area and your clients can use those coupons at the time of Booking.)

»6. Open your Facebook page again. And go to Boxes tab. Click on Move to Wall Tab.

»7. Check your Fanpage and do not forget to leave us a comment.

If you like it then please show your love by rating this application and also join us on our Facebook page here.

If you have any question and need help to install this widget then schedule a screen sharing session with us from our Fanpage.

This article describes how to install “Schedule Me” Widget (Appointy’s Facebook App) on FaceBook Profile (If you are looking to install it on Facebook Page then click here).

Please follow the instructions below to install in on your Facebook Profile.

»1. Install our Facebook App Schedule Me from the here http://apps.facebook.com/scheduleme

»2. Click Allow to authorize schedule me to put widget on your Profile page.

»2. Enter your Appointy Username and Heading text. Click Save. To attract customers mention some discounts which can be generated from Appointy admin area.

»3. Click on Add to Profile.

»4. Click on Add.

»5. Click on Keep.

If you like it then please show your love by rating this application and also join us on our Facebook page here.

If you have any question and need help to install this widget then schedule a screen sharing session with us from our Fanpage.

Read how you can Sync your Appointy with your Android , Blackberry, IPhone, Nokia S60, or Windows mobile using Google Calendar.

At Appointy we encourage our users to schedule a screen sharing session with us, where we help them to get the most out of Appointy. In order to do that, we schedule appointments using our scheduling page at Appointy. (Schedule an Appointment)

We plan everything well in advance and use Google Calendar to Manage ourselves. By linking Appointy with Google calendar we were able to push all the appointments to our mobile phone (Nokia E63).

How to do it?
1. Login to your Appointy Admin. Click on Mashups link in the top menu. Link it with Google Calendar.

2. Go to http://www.google.com/mobile/products/sync.html. Select make of your Mobile. Follow the instructions and get appointments pushed to your mobile.

Note:
1. Google does not support Tasks & Contact Sync yet. So make sure it is turned off otherwise it will not sync your calendar also.
2. Appointy updates Google Calendar with only confirmed Appointments. Appointments in queue gets updated as soon as they are approved.

Try it and if you face any problems then please do not hesitate to contact us at contact [at] appointy.com or schedule an appointment with us.

Last week, we announced our facebook fan page and sent emails to all of our registered businesses using Appointy. Most of them had set auto responders and some email replies got our attention.

We think that this is a great way to fill your appointment books. Even when you are on honeymoon, Appointy will allow you to schedule appointment with your clients. You just have to make sure that you have done the right thing to inform people about it. Auto email responders are a great way to do it. Isn’t it?

If you have such a tip then do send it to contact [at] appointy.com and we will publish it on our blog.