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Providing quality customer service for clients requires personal attention. You’ll probably check in with them regularly before, during, and after their visit to provide reminders, information, and incentives that will enhance their experience. And even though your interactions with your clients are high touch, these days, most clients and staff might prefer to keep the actual physical contact to a minimum.

Especially with an appointment-based business, where that in-person, shared experience is so vital to the client’s satisfaction, limiting shared items and face time during a visit can be difficult. Checking in at the front desk and accepting payment while checking out, traditionally, has been an unavoidable sticking point when staff and clients want to keep contact at bay. With the comfort and health of their staff and clients in mind, businesses are looking for ways to bypass these issues by getting creative with administrative tasks at the front desk.

The good news is you can start incorporating options for low-contact interactions in your business protocols to accommodate everyone. Check out the tips below to get for ideas on how to get started with an excellent and personal, yet, low-touch customer experience. If you see something you like, don’t forget to follow the links for additional resources that will help you set up or use that feature in your Mindbody software and apps. Let’s take a look!

Re-thinking how to engage with new clients

Meet new customers without having them come in. Consider shifting your initial consultation with clients into the virtual space. When you take your consultations on the Live Stream platform, you’re making it easier to do a consultation for a new customer, while also keeping the inside of your business less crowded.

Make it easy for clients to take care of the paperwork before they arrive. Automatically send digital forms and waivers to customers, so they can fill them out before they arrive at their session. This way, you can get started on time - and keep the lobby free. Digital forms and waivers can always be filled out on the client's personal device, even if they forget to fill it out ahead of time. That helps your hygiene efforts by eliminating shared paper, clipboards, or tablets.

  • If your intake questionnaire is on the shorter side, we recommend using the Client Indexes feature to create a list of questions, so clients can fill out the basics.
  • For intake forms that are more detailed, we recommend using branded web tools or Mindbody’s Client Forms feature.
  • For businesses who have an extensive set of forms and need a fully automated intake process, check out Mindbody’s partner, Guest Intake.

Revitalize your check in and check out experience

Streamline the front desk experience with the Mindbody Business app. As a low-touch solution, the Business app has a lot of things in its’ favor. The app can run on any of your staff members’ mobile devices, which limits how much hardware is shared. And the Business app is a pocket-sized version of your Mindbody software; staff can still use it when they are checking in clients and accept payment post-visit.

Allow clients to check-in via SMS, so they can announce their arrival while waiting outside. With Bowtie, your virtual AI assistant, Service Providers will be notified by SMS when their clients arrive so that you don’t lose track of anyone, even though they are not in the waiting room. After the client checks in, the service provider can utilize the Bowtie assistant to let the client know when they are ready for them to enter the building - no searching the parking lot for the right car!

Clients can float out and handle rebooking later. In addition to checking in, Bowtie can automatically remind clients to book their next low-touch journey with you. Bowtie automatically sends a follow-up text thirty minutes after an appointment. Using Bowtie’s SMS features eliminates the need for your client to stop back at the front desk before they leave.

Use key tags to expedite check-in. Key tags assist both clients and staff with an expedited check-in because clients can scan their member card to mark their arrival. From there, your staff can connect them with their service provider for their next appointment. The Self-sign in screen takes care of the rest.

Compare the features below to decide which tools are best for your business:

Low-touch Payments

Storing Credit Cards

Storing credit cards on file is the easiest way to provide contactless solutions for your business. You or a staff member can add the billing info for the client on the or the core software or the Mindbody business app on either iOS or Android. Alternatively, your client can add their credit card information on through their consumer mode profile online or via the Mindbody app.

You can set an alert that requires clients to enter their billing information when they log in to schedule services, and if they’re feeling wary about the security of their credit card number, you can reassure your clients that Mindbody is Level I Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant - which means that MINDBODY meets the credit card industry's highest security standard. We encrypt your client’s credit card numbers and billing information, so it can’t be seen by staff members, back it up daily so it won’t be lost, and we securely store it offsite.

Contactless transactions

When you have a stored card available for use, purchases can be made on both the Mindbody business app (iOS & Android) and the Mindbody app, as well, instead of the retail point of sale. The way this works when using the business app to check out the appointment, the cards stored in the app will populate in the check-out process. Your staff can verify the last 4 with the client as the card they want to use. Then, offer to email the client a receipt, instead of handing them a paper one. High touch customer service with a low contact transaction.

There are additional options that are separate from your subscription that will configure your payment processing terminal to be touchless. For more information, please follow this link.

Additional resources