September 06

In need of scheduling mishap advice- So in 2022 when I took over my studio I implemented online scheduling. Some of our existing clients have been resistant to learn it, mainly our older clients, and I get it. Tech stuff is overwhelming for them. So we offer to help them with scheduling their private sessions either before or after their session. We don’t do scheduling after hours and they respect this. If they have a preferred day & time of training, we explain to them that our schedule is open online 30 days in advance and others book independently so we advise they always book their sessions in advance and not wait till their package is completely out to grab their next one so they won’t lose their preferred time slot. So far, in the 2 years, I think people have had to be flexible with their times like 2-3 times. Well this past week our oldest client (who’s daughter-in-law was the original owner of the studio) had one of her upcoming preferred time slots booked by someone else. When we went to schedule her next sessions for her we explained this so we could find her a different time for this one day. She was utterly shocked that this happened because she feels that Wednesdays at 10am are HER TIME. She has trained on different days before but for the past year she’s been on Wednesdays at 10am. I understand she’s older (85 years young) and we offered to do her scheduling but how can I kindly remind her that we don’t block out time slots for anyone? Or should I block off her preferred time slot for her to avoid future mishaps- not tell her this, but emphasize getting her new package in advance? I’m trying to get our clients to book independently, and most of our newer clients do. It’s our existing clients that we had pre-tech change that got used to the pen and paper scheduling and prefer our concierge services but they hold this entitlement that they own their preferred time slot. Idk, am I being unreasonable? Btw, we use Momence which is pretty user friendly. I have another client in her late 70’s who specifically switched to our studio from another studio because we had online scheduling whereas the other studio was own & paper and always texted clients back and forth to set appointments.