Prerequisites: This feature requires that you meet the Business Account Requirements below.
When you're approved for Vera Fill My Books, Vera immediately starts marketing your business. Here's how:
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Marked as sponsored on the marketplace. When people visit the Vagaro Marketplace home page, your business will appear in the list of sponsored businesses in their area.
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Top of the list in search. When people search for services and classes in their area, your business will be ranked higher if your business matches what they're looking for.
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Vera creates Daily Deals for you. Vera creates Daily Deals with the discount you entered.
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Market to nearby Vagaro users. Vera will send out email campaigns advertising your deals to customers in your area. These emails are sent to Vagaro users within 25 miles of your business who haven't visited you before.
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Market to your existing clientele. If you have Fill Last-Minute Calendar Openings turned on, existing customers with the Vagaro customer app will receive push notifications and emails about this deal.
Note
The emails sent by Vera are included with the feature and do not use your Email Marketing plan.
Our Design Team reviews all requests to activate Fill My Books in one business day. During the review process, we may need to add or change your logo image to meet our image standards, and complete or update key information missing from your business account. Once you're approved, your business is listed on the Vagaro Marketplace. If you later change your business account information, we will review it again to confirm it still meets our requirements
You need to have the following information in your business account:
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A business type set up to offer services and classes in the barber, beauty, fitness, wellness, self-care, pet grooming, and similar industries.
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At least one accepted payment method in your Facility Information
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A service cancellation policy and/or class cancellation policy
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A logo or high-quality photo of your space, your work, or your team set as your business logo
For example, the following logo images would be approved for a business to be featured:
The following logo images would be replaced by our Design Team because they do not meet our logo image requirements:
To set up your campaigns
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Go to Vera Fill My Books:
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Phone: Select More
→ → .
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Computer, Tablet, Pay Desk, or PayPro: Select Settings
→ .
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Select Get Started.
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From Settings, turn on the campaign(s) you want to run:
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Get New Customers: Promote your business to new clients in the Vagaro Marketplace as featured listings and Daily Deals. Vera will also send automated email promotions to Vagaro users in your area.
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Fill Last-Minute Calendar Openings: Promote open time slots within the next 72 hours as last-minute deals in the Vagaro marketplace. Vera also sends automated emails to Vagaro users in your area and to your customers. Your existing customers will also receive push notifications on the Vagaro app.
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In the Maximum Discount Offered field for each campaign, enter the discount you want to offer for this campaign.
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Optionally, for one of the campaigns you want to activate, select Advanced Settings to customize the campaign:
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In the Limit Number of Customers field, enter how many customers can use this deal every month.
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Use the Services and Classes Offered list to limit this deal to only a specific set of items on your menu.
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Use the Employees Who Offer list to limit this deal to specific employees.
Tip
You won't be charged a booking fee unless a customer books one of the services, classes, or employees you've selected.
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Agree to the participation agreement.
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Select Save.
Your business will be listed on Vagaro and sent for approval. Once approved, Vera will begin marketing to your customers.
Fill My Books is available to every business, including those that don't use Vagaro Credit Card Processing. Vagaro collects the fee as a deposit when the customer books online.
Here's how it works:
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When a customer books online, Vagaro collects a deposit equal to 5% or 20% of the customer's cart total.
Note
The deposit owed is based on the price the customer pays after any discounts. Taxes and tips are not included in the calculation either.
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That deposit covers the booking fee.
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You collect the remaining balance when you check out the customer.
If you already require a deposit, Vagaro works with the deposit you've set rather than adding a separate one:
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Your current deposit |
What happens |
|---|---|
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None, or lower than the fee |
Vagaro collects a deposit equal to the fee (5% or 20%) and uses it to cover the fee. |
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Higher than the fee (for example, 50%) |
Your deposit applies. The customer pays the amount you set, and Vagaro takes its fee from it. |
Additional Information:
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Customers can't use gift cards or points to cover the booking fee deposit.
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Once a deal is used, Vagaro calculates the booking fee from all items in the cart, even if the customer adds other items that aren't included or books with employees who aren't included in the deal. For example, if a new customer uses your deal for a haircut but also adds a package and another service, the fee is calculated from all three items.
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In the scenario above, the only items excluded from the calculation are gift cards and products. The booking fee won't be calculated from these two items unless you've specifically created a daily deal for gift cards.
An online booking incurs a 20% fee only when the customer has never visited your business before. Existing customers aren't charged this fee, with two exceptions: when they book a Daily Deal you created for your customer base, or when they use a Fill Last-Minute Calendar Openings deal.
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If a customer's account isn't in your customer list, they're considered a new customer.
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If their account is already in your customer list, they're considered an existing customer.
Sometimes a customer books using a different email or account, which causes them to be treated as a new customer. To prevent this, Vagaro asks whether they've visited your business before. If they confirm they have, the 20% fee won't be charged.
Note
When a customer fills out a form before booking or messages your business on Connect by Vagaro, a profile is created for them. But because they haven't actually visited your business yet, they're still treated as new customers when they book, and the 20% fee applies.
Whether the booking fee is refunded depends on how far in advance the appointment is canceled. Vagaro refunds the fee to the customer only if the appointment is canceled at least 24 hours before it starts. If your cancellation policy requires more notice than that, for example, 36 hours, the longer window applies instead.
You will be responsible for refunding the 20% or 5% deposit to the customer if you refund them after the appointment is checked out.
If you have the following settings turned on in your Online Appointment Rules, this feature may affect how they function:
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Appointment Lead Time/Class Lead TIme: When Fill Last-Minute Calendar Openings is turned on, your lead time is capped at two hours so clients can book last-minute openings. This overrides a longer lead time you've set. If your lead time is already under two hours, that lower setting stays in place.
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Block New Customers from Online Booking: This setting must be turned off if you want to activate, Get New Customers.
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Minimize Gaps in Your Schedule: This setting is not affected by any of the Vera Fill My Books campaigns and will work like normal.
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Require Acceptance for Online Booking: The customer will still be required to pay a deposit for bookings.
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Waitlist: A deposit will not be required to waitlist. If a spot opens, the customer will be prompted to book and pay the deposit.
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Auto-Assign Employee When Booking: We recommend enabling Fill My Books for all employees if you have this feature turned on. Vera will only book employees who offer the deal.
Comments
29 comments
Who pays the booking fee, deposit ? Is it collected from the customer or the business
Hi Aidah,
When a customer books online, a deposit is required at checkout. This deposit is then used to pay the booking fee.
Thanks,
Jamie
If the deposit is used to pay the booking fee, then how is the percentage calculated, since the client may add on services?
If I've promoted my business on social media and a new client goes to my website to schedule an appointment, then clicks over to my Vagaro booking page, will there be any mention of the ‘special’ or ‘daily deal’ that Vera has created? How can we be sure that we're not doubling marketing spend on our new clients? I suppose the answer to this would include where and when the marketing from Vera would appear.
Hi Maureen,
Yes, the fee is taken as a deposit when the customer books. It's calculated from all items in the cart, so that would include any services they add on. However, once your customer comes in, there are no additional fees if you add anything in-house.
For example, let's say a customer books a $100 service online. The new customer fee for this booking would be $20. If my customer comes in and purchases a shampoo add-on or any coloring, no additional fees are charged.
Thanks,
Jamie
Hi Michaelle, you can always check the Source Report to see where a customer came from. However, they will be able to see all the deals Vera created on your booking page. If they book one of those deals, a fee will be charged.
Thank you,
Jamie
Can you please create a customer view walk through video so we can see what customers will see? If I'm paying Meta to generate new client bookings, then they see your offer and (of course, who wouldn't) book Vera's daily deal instead of the full-price service, then I'm paying Meta for advertising, taking a hit on a discount service vs full price, plus 20% to Vagaro all for a client that my social advertising already paid for. Math ($135 service - $50 cost per Meta conversion - $35 Vera discount - $20 (20% vera fee) = $30 net which doesn't even cover the overhead to run the appointment) I'm having a hard time seeing how this is beneficial for a business who is doing outside marketing already. Seeing a video of how this would play out on the customer side would be very helpful. Thank you. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding how this appears on our booking sites.
also, if we have it set for new clients only, how does the site look then? What if someone isn't logged in until they've already viewed our services. They see the discount, log in, and because they are an existing client it disappears? I really need to see how this works from a customer viewpoint. Can someone please create this video? Thank you
Hi Michelle,
I can put in a request with our video team for a walkthrough guide. In the meantime, the quickest way to see exactly what you're describing is to create a test account and view your own Vagaro Listing Page as a customer. That will show you both how the page looks when the deal is set to new clients only, and what happens in the logged-out then logged-in scenario you flagged.
And yes, your read is right. A booking from your Meta ad could use a Vera Deal. A logged-out visitor coming in from Meta will see the deal. However, booking on Vagaro requires logging in; an existing client won't be able to redeem it once they sign in. So the discount can't quietly apply to clients you've already paid to acquire.
A couple of secondary points worth weighing: sometimes the deal is the final push that converts a browser into a booking, and Fill My Books includes marketing of its own that can bring bookings you aren't paying Meta for.
Thanks,
Jamie
Since I rent a chair and I’m the only one in the salon that wants to sign up for Vera. Will the commission be charged from the salon owners business account or just mine?
Hi Josaline,
The booking fee is collected as a deposit when your customer books online, so it doesn't go to anyone's merchant account. Once the customer comes in and pays for their service, you'll be able to collect the remaining amount.
Thanks,
Jamie
Hi,
I have two questions:
1. When clients book online, I usually have them pay 100% of the service price. Will that still be a possible with this feature?
2. Who pays the credit card processing fee on the 20% or 5% that Vagaro collects? Is it still the merchant’s responsibility or will Vagaro be paying for that on their end?
Does this mean anytime someone new books, it will be considered a lead by Vagaro even though my Google ads push clients to the website to book? Or my Instagram link pushes to the Vagaro website to book considering all bookings go through Vagaro. Because when I activated it and then looked at it as a client from my Instagram link now everything says 10% off. So if I click that as a new client, is that considered a Vagaro lead at 20% fee even though the lead actually came from me?
Hi Heather,
Yes, you are correct.
Thanks,
Jamie
To piggyback on Heather's question, what if we link directly to our menu from our own website without going through our general Vagaro page? Will those be considered leads from Vagaro for this 20%? And would they also be offered that sale?
Hi James, yes. In this case, the source doesn't matter. It depends on whether the Vera Deal was used or not.
Thanks,
Jamie
I am not sure I understand how the "daily deal" works. I clicked one staff member and 13 services. Some how another person that does not actually work for me got booked with a 15% disc. BUT that name was not checked as someone for a daily deal to be put out there. I have turned it off for now. I reached out to the client to ask her how it happened and she said she booked one with me as well. Again, my name is not checked. We are trying to fill one person and one person only. Where have I gone wrong. But reading this thread has opened my eyes to not sell any add on's when they come in or not thru the app.
Well I thought I had the answer but i do not. Main question: How is there a daily deal for someone that does not have a check mark by their name nor their services checked to be included in fill my book?
Can this feature be turned on and off? Is the previous “Daily Deal” feature no longer available?
Hi Annette, yes, this feature can be turned on and off. Also, the Daily Deal feature is still available, but the same Booking Fees (20% or 5%) apply.
Thanks,
Jamie
Hi Shannon,
If you don't have an employee selected, no discount should be applied. I recommend contacting support so they can look at your business and help troubleshoot. There may be a chance you have multiple deals being offered.
Thanks,
Jamie
Are you promoting other businesses who use Vagaro to people on my client list?
Hi Tim,
Fill My Books is designed to avoid doing this entirely. There's a complex algorithm in place that prevents similar businesses from being sent to your customers.
Thanks,
Jamie
It’s not just similar business being promoted that is problematic, you start promoting other businesses and people are going to unsubscribe from emails. Since they are unsubscribing as Vagaro as a whole I will no longer be able to keep my clients updated on vacations, holiday hours, price changes or send reminder emails if they haven’t been in the salon for a certain amount of time. This is going to cost me a lot of money.
Am I no longer able to offer a discount on my own services with my own marketing push? For example, when I host an annual open house, I'll discount all services, packages, and memberships for up to 3 days. I'm paying advertising. I'm not expecting Vagaro to “find me people”. I'm offering my own products at a discount. Can I no longer do this without paying Vagaro a commission?
Hi Tim,
I understand why this would be alarming; however, the email addresses associated with these promotion emails are completely separate from the notification and text marketing emails from your business!
If your customer opts out of marketing emails from Vagaro, they're only opting out of those emails. They'll still receive your email marketing campaigns and automatic appointment notifications. These emails are sent from a separate email.
I hope that clears some things up,
Jamie
Hi Michelle, you can still create discounts that you can apply in-house. These are commission-free. However, if you create a daily deal, a commission will be applied.
Thanks,
Jamie
On last concer if 3 stylist in the area are looking for new clients and we all have a deal it appears you are now sending email to my customers with deal from
Other salons. I am not sure I like that. It also appears that your emails and my emails for my own announcements will have clients feeling spammed with the number of emails they are now getting
How again is the beneficial and not over kill or making us appear to me a flea market? Outside of collected email from your paying subscribers what other options are you using to expose these offers?
I set up our business with the Vera option yesterday. Before I had even hit the save button, it showed that 2 customers had booked using the Vera Fill My Books tool. How is that possible?
Hi Annette, I recommend contacting support so they can look into this for you.
Thanks,
Jamie
Hi Aidah,
Fill My Books is designed to avoid doing this entirely. There's a complex algorithm in place that prevents similar businesses from being sent to your customers.
Thanks,
Jamie
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