Fons

Vorteile

The Fons community as well as the ease of scheduling and selling packages and appointments.

Nachteile

I would only like to see more opportunities for more freedom in collecting different kinds of payments detached from any specific package, workshop or appointment. It would also help to be able to sell long-term services with more “in-house financing” capabilities, e.g flexible or graduated payment plan options or the option to pay it down like any other credit account.

Vorteile

Automation of my billing based upon appointments completed. I used to use several systems to request and get paid for by clients. And tracking all of them was a big headache. This has saved me an immense amount of time and mental energy.

Nachteile

I wish I could link my personal calendars into Fons so I can more easily see everything in one place. You can add non business related appointments in Fons. But I would like to be able to just add my calendars (that I have in Google) to Fons so everything would be in one place when I am scheduling.

Vorteile

I have had excellent customer service experiences with Fons. It is also wonderful to have a scheduling app where clients can schedule and pay for their appointments and include the option to purchase in bulk!

Nachteile

This software is a bit complicated to use at times. It is hard to find how to do certain things, and there needs to be more direct options for certain actions. Sites like these should be laid out in the easiest manner for the simplest laymen to use. It would also help to have an option for a business policy to be read by clients before scheduling appointments and when appointments are being confirmed so that the policy is fresh in their minds and for liability purposes.

Vorteile

For me, the best part of Fons is that I no longer have to send invoices, record payments, and bother clients who don’t pay on time. It is all done automatically. I also love their personal customer relationships.

Nachteile

The only issue that I found was the initial onboarding of clients and learning how to use Fons. I am not the most tech savvy. That being said, the customer service team is terrific, and they are always willing to help!

Vorteile

The team behind Fons is exceptional. My experience was that they did more than any other SAAS platform to get to know me, my work flow, and connect on a personal level. Extremely helpful and responsive.

Nachteile

There were features I needed (down-time "padding" before and after appointments, keeping count of the number of appointments used in a billing cycle to name a couple) that I really needed and did not seem to be forthcoming.There were a couple of incidents of clients getting double-billed which, to their credit, Fons made good on right away ... but I just can't have that happening to my clients.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Warum Fons gewählt wurde

Zuvor genutzte Software

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Fons

Vorteile

My favorite thing about Fons is that I am able to set up my studio schedule and billing once, and then concentrate on teaching. The automated recurring subscriptions and packages for lessons removed the need for invoicing, so I no longer have to chase down tuition, while at the same time, I can adjust billing easily when needed. It saves me a ton of time every month.

Nachteile

The only recommendation I have is to eventually allow for two-way calendar sync, but this is a minor concern.

Vorteile

Customer service and usefulness. This team has really figured out what small, service businesses need!

Nachteile

I wish we could get the activation bar to go away

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Warum Fons gewählt wurde

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Fons

Vorteile

As a music teacher, I strongly prefer to keep my conversations with students and parents about music, building confidence, and having fun in the process. Toward the bottom of the list would be chasing down payments or being the studio policy enforcer on things like last-minute cancellations. With Fons, after some initial setup and onboarding with new students, I generally don't have to talk about payments or scheduling. With a little bit of training and coaching, my students know they will be charged automatically and on a regular basis, which turns out to be a point of convenience for them because it's one less bill they have to remember to pay. So in turn, I can count on getting paid regularly and consistently while giving the vast majority of my attention to my students and their development.

Nachteile

Fons doesn't have any major issues in my opinion...but in the future, I would love to see 2-way calendar sync so that Fons can determine my availability using appointments on my calendar that aren't related to my business (similar to what Calendly does). This would be a "nice to have" and not a reason I would decide to use/not use the service.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Fons

Vorteile

Fons makes scheduling and billing so easy. It has reduced my admin hours to at most 2 hours a week.

Nachteile

There isn't much that I don't like. I wish I could drag and drop calendar appointments. However, they are constantly adding and upgrading new features, so this may be in the works!

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Warum Fons gewählt wurde

Zuvor genutzte Software

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Fons

Vorteile

Fons is an awesome platform that’s super easy to use and fits my exact needs as a coach & consultant. I love the ease of client booking, options of subscriptions and packages, and the interface of the software. My clients all love it as well!

Nachteile

My phone calendar stopped syncing with the app (likely my phones issue and not the app). Other than that, it’s awesome!

Vorteile

Amazing support, easy onboarding for my students

Nachteile

Took a bit to adjust to credit card billing, but it is the best!!!

Vorteile

I love that my scheduling and billing is all in one place. Students know what the schedule is, when their lessons are, the reminders, and the auto billing.

Nachteile

This product was challenging to learn at first. I wish the online widget integration was easier.

Vorteile

The automatic billing has saved so much time! It has allowed us to easily scale and leave behind all the manual labor we were doing with tracking payments.

Nachteile

It can be a bit slow but the team is great and fixes any lagging quickly for us!

Vorteile

What I love the most is how easy it is set up my schedule for my clients and how to customize packages.

Nachteile

The only thing I can say is it would be nice to be able to import other video chat software when scheduling besides Zoom.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Vorteile

The scheduling and payments side of my business is done for me, freeing up time and energy to focus on teaching. Fons handles all the stuff I hate doing, and stays out of the way for the rest. It eliminates a lot of friction for me, my existing clients, and in onboarding new clients. And Fons' integrated Marketplace makes me easy to find and helps boost my existing web presence.

Nachteile

I can't think of any cons. The interface is self-explanatory, so between trying it out and asking a few questions in their Facebook group, I got up and running very quickly and haven't had any issues.

Vorteile

Scheduling and subscription is the most impactful element of this software. Without ease of scheduling and billing, we could not keep our large number of lesson families happy.

Nachteile

I feel that navigation could be quicker and easier at times. Also, the small quirks you have to remember when adding family members are interesting.

Vorteile

Fons has been a game changer for my educational consulting tutoring service.

Nachteile

There was a period when I ran into a couple problems. It was user error but their customer support was excellent. Then they added a new feature to prevent this error from happening in the future. Amazing!

Vorteile

The ease of billing and tracking my customers payments is so valuable. I never have to have the awkward conversations about missed payments or bounced payments, the software handles the issue for me and my clients don't get embarrassed or upset. Also, the scheduling side of this software is so simple and clutter-free, and I don't miss appointments any more.

Nachteile

At first the various billing options were a little hard to figure out, but customer service helped me to figure out just what I needed.

Vorteile

FONS is gave me my life back! Billing was so stressful and time consuming. Now I spend more time teaching students instead of chasing them down for payments. Scheduling and billing is so easy with FONS!

Nachteile

There is a slight learning curve, once I understood the software it was simple to use.

Vorteile

I love the ability to schedule clients and sell packages. Having the software immediately deduct lessons from the packages, and track all billing, has saved me 5-10 hours a week on admin tasks

Nachteile

It is a little expensive, especially with the Canadian conversion. I'm paying about $45 a month plus around $150 in credit card fees... $200 less a month is pretty significant for my income level.

Vorteile

Integrates scheduling and payments beautifully, makes it easy to tie payment requests to scheduled appointments. Killer feature for me is the ability to schedule recurring package purchases that are automatically billed when the previous package runs out.

Nachteile

I wish it had more bookkeeping functionality, more customizable reports, ability to record expenses, etc.

Vorteile

Automates my scheduling and billing and allows me to focus on teaching. I save tons of time--way less email and accounting, and I don't have to play debt collector. Students in my studio love the flexibility. Support is super fast and responsive. Price is a bargain.

Nachteile

Some of my clients (mostly with older phones) have trouble with the app. The desktop version is no problem.

Vorteile

It handled all my needs and the support is world-class

Nachteile

I have no dislikes and have already seen the constant improvement of applications by the Fons team

Vorteile

The time and money it saves. It’s like having a full time secretary and account that are on call for you and your students.

Nachteile

Nothing really. It’s very well thought out and easy to use.

Vorteile

If you teach lessons,or provide hourly services of any kind, and need a more streamlined, easy way to manage your schedule and do billing, this is the way to go.

Beyond having a really intuitive user interface, they have some of the best, most personal customer service I've ever seen. Literally, you can video-chat directly with the creators/ developers. It feels more like joining a team/ family than just purchasing a service, and they pay YOU to give you a personal tour of the site when you join.

Nachteile

I have no complaints. Any additional functionality I'd like, they are already working on.

Vorteile

The simplistic and streamlined nature of this software makes it very simple to use, especially for those of us who didn't grow up in the computer age!

Nachteile

The scheduling features are quite adequate, but it would be nice to see a more robust approach to different kinds of customization. ALSO, the web browser experience could be improved in terms of how everything appears on the page; there are parts where certain icons (like your messaging center, in the lower right-hand corner) cover up the text and changing the size of the font does not correct this.

Vorteile

Getting off the hamster wheel of creating invoices and chasing payments will increase your revenue, decrease your admin time, and increase your client satisfaction. Clients will know you are professional and will appreciate that you use professional tools.

Nachteile

My only suggestion for improvement would be more options or easier ways to track clients payments.

Vorteile

The best thing about Fons is that they keep making it better. They are interested in their clients needs. This was crucial for me as I think it is the most important thing when it comes to your business.

No platform is perfect, but I am confident this is going to be the best one out there, given the drive and dedication of the Fons team

Nachteile

When I am editing appointments there are no batch actions and it always takes me back to the home calendar page… So it can be a bit clunky and time consuming when doing things like this. I’m sure they will fix it!

Vorteile

The online portal is great, the ability to put a booking link on my website increases my professionalism greatly. I love that once my clients are set up, Fons takes care of reminders, invoicing, and keeps an up to date calendar of my availability. The biggest part was the SEO boost

Nachteile

I wish there was a "client view button" right now I have a dummy account in my own name to see things as a client. Totally not a big deal at all.

Vorteile

Being able to auto-schedule and bill my clients all in the same place has been life changing and saved me so much time and energy chasing payments/sending reminders.

Nachteile

Literally my only complaint is that the price jumped so significantly from <$100/year to >$300/year. I still appreciate the value in the software and now depend on it heavily - I just wish there was a more affordable option for people like me who have zero employees and are the sole administrator.

Vorteile

I've used Fons for my studio of around 40 guitar students since spring of 2019. It's helped smooth out the day to day running of the business in numerous ways, from enabling me to automate payments, to giving students an easy way to reschedule missed lessons. Fons' CEO, Eric, is one of the nicest people out there, and makes himself remarkably available for someone who's surely very busy. Their support staff is simply the best I've ever seen. They reply often within minutes of me contacting them. The platform is easy and intuitive to use. I learned my way around it quickly, and have had almost no issues with clients' ability to use it.

Nachteile

Fons is still a little ahead of it's time. It, and other services like it, are still not widely used by music teachers. Thus, music teachers can sometimes encounter resistance to using the service from clients. On the other hand, there are clients out there who really like it, and see it as something that positively sets me apart from other teachers in my area.

Vorteile

Not spending six hours at the start of every month calculating and emailing invoices to each of my students.

Nachteile

A minor gripe: I'd like to have access to a record of each email Fons sends on my behalf.

Vorteile

It streamlines my business and makes it very clear to my clients how much their payments are and when they will occur.

Nachteile

I am happy with it. There are occasionally bugs, but these are fixed.

Vorteile

I like how people can pay me through it via a couple of ways. Monthly subscription, a package or by appointment. Fons keeps track of how many appointments you have had with that client and leaves the guessing game of how long was each one and how many in the past, because they keep track of all of that. Just a way to just focus on what you want rather than keeping track of payments.

Nachteile

I think I would like to be able to enter more of my clients information, specially if they have more than one kid, I would like to enter that information myself because parents are a little lazy doing this.

Vorteile

Fons is an amazing tool for scheduling & keeping my business organized. I love how easy it is to collect payments and give refunds.

Nachteile

Some of the features are not very advanced, such as the emailing. But they are constantly making improvements!

Vorteile

Easy to use when scheduling my students for appointments! It’s great for parents because they have the convenience of setting up their credit card information when I send out an Invite for their child’s scheduled lessons the first time! I can also reschedule and cancel appointments with ease.

Nachteile

When using the calendar to find a students future scheduled lesson, it takes me back to the current date every time before I’m finished! It’s annoying!

Vorteile

What I love most about fons is that my clients love it. It's easy and straightforward for them, and looks super professional.

For me, Fons has given me so much more peace of mind. Happier clients=happier me.

Nachteile

I have run into a few bumps, but there's a great support team that will stick with you and help you figure everything out. Most of my minor problems come from me not being able to see what my clients see. When they run into problems, it's more difficult to resolve the issue.

Vorteile

Gives my business a more professional feel, streamlined admin work, and the best of all is streamlined payments!

Nachteile

I wish there was a way to set up a default description of each appointment (when scheduling new/returning students who don’t necessarily have recurring regular appointments). So I don’t have to copy/paste the info each time.

Vorteile

As a vocal Coach I struggled for YEARS with working out a convenient way to bill people, especially in the event of having to hold students accountable for my 24 hour notice cancellation policy without just losing the student altogether or having an awkward conversation with them. (I am very non-confrontational) Fons has COMPLETELY fixed that for me! I have never heard a complaint for my policy since using Fons and never missed receiving a payment because Fons retrieves it for me. Also never lost students over it. I honestly make $300-$400 from cancellations a month that I would not have been paid prior to using it. Fons is the middle man for me and it makes everything so easy!

Nachteile

I honestly have no real complaints. Customer service is always asking how to improve the product and they have actually taken and worked with multiple suggestions I’ve given!

Vorteile

It’s pretty easy to use, but has a learning curve that can be overwhelming, especially since it’s a new software and there are still bugs being worked out as features are added.

Nachteile

The high learning curve and how that affected how quickly I’d be paid.

Vorteile

Excellent customer support team who is there to help with any of our needs as our company is growing. They have helped us use the software better to be more efficient with our own time and resources. Thanks [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] !

Nachteile

Needs to be updated a lot.

Vorteile

It's always refreshing to see a scheduling service that acknowledges coaches. The client and program management features are particularly helpful. It's great to be able to invoice clients up front for services, and streamline and automate things such as cancellation policies and billing. Very intuitive and easy.

Nachteile

Doesn't offer the level of customization available from some similarly priced services. Fees are somewhat higher than other services. However, the biggest issue is 2-way sync with google calendar.

Vorteile

The overall look is simple, clean, and is very user-friendly. Probably 95% of the clients I work with LOVE it, and found it very easy to change over to for payments and scheduling. The other 5% are the ones who generally dislike technology as a whole, and/or find it difficult.

I've especially noted the praise I've received from employing Fons in my business (thanks for making me look good!) from those clients I know work in the tech industry themselves. They have seemed impressed.

Nachteile

I work with a large variety of clients in a number of ways, and ultimately would love to be able to do just a couple more specific things with different sets of client lists, etc. However, I know Fons is a young company; I've been assured that some of those things are coming down the pike.

Vorteile

I had a friend recommend Fons for my martial arts business. I took a look at the website and knew right away that this was the solution I have been looking for for some time. Fons was so simple to set up. I was able to make an account, set up my calendar, and add 30 students in less than an hour. When I did run into questions, I received a quick response from their support team. Fons is going to save me a ton of headaches- from dealing with payments, setting up classes and privates, to client communication. I am looking forward to the features they are adding in the near future.

Nachteile

The Fons team are still working on adding functionality.

Vorteile

Fons is easy to set up, simple to onboard customers, a snap to receive payments

Nachteile

Not much; any issues that have arisen have been quickly resolved

Vorteile

Makes scheduling appointments with clients SO MUCH easier

Nachteile

Can be a bit bulky to navigate at first, until you get used to the terminology they use to describe the various different services they offer.

Vorteile

The biggest impact is the auto-pay feature. It eliminated a huge monthly task. All but 2 of my clients were happy to jump on board.

Fons gave me a form letter to customize and send to my clients. The letter was positive and respectful, not pushy. No salesman speech, just a frictionless transition. This is the vibe of all my dealings with Fons.
Integration was a breeze. I spent a weekend entering client info, and sent them the form letter. Then just waited for clients to roll in.

Nachteile

The transition also meant a significant policy change for my clients, and a raise for me. So I’ve been very alert to potential glitches bc i don’t want to bother them at all.
So far it’s been good, but a few minor things have needed to be re-entered. However, it’s hard to tell if that is a user error or a glitch.

Vorteile

We love how easy it was to set up, the interface is easy to use, there are several possibilities of automating and integrating the key functionalities, and the pricing is reasonable.

Nachteile

I don't think there is anything specific we disliked about Fons, it's a great service overall and happy to keep using this in our business!

Vorteile

super easy to use for customers - intuitive, simple, clean, never have any questions

Nachteile

no applicable. I'm a customer of the primary users

Vorteile

It's saved me a load of time on my admin and makes it so much easier to organise my schedule. Invoicing is seamless.

Nachteile

Can't think of anything! The new features have really streamlined the experience and mean I don't have to chase payments.