Vagaro changed how Get Featured and Daily Deals work. If you use either one, here's what you need to know:
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Get Featured is becoming Vera Fill My Books. Instead of just featuring your listing, Fill My Books uses Vera (Vagaro's built-in AI assistant) to actively promote your availability across the Marketplace, Daily Deals, email, and push notifications, so your business is shown front and center for new and existing customers.
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Daily Deals are getting an upgrade. Vagaro will market your Daily Deals to customers in your area and on your customer list, and feature your business on the Marketplace.
Here's what's new:
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You only pay when Vera gets you a booking. There's no monthly subscription for Fill My Books. Instead, there's a per-booking fee (5% for existing customers, 20% for brand-new ones). If a promotion doesn't bring in a booking, you're not charged. You set the maximum discount and choose which services and team members to promote.
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You choose whether to opt in. Nothing changes automatically. If you currently run a Daily Deal or have Get Featured active, you'll see a pop-up asking you to opt in to the changes. If you opt out, Get Featured and your Daily Deals will be deactivated. If you choose not to use Fill My Books or Daily Deals, you won't be charged any booking fees.
Note
In the United Kingdom, a 20% new customer fee applies to all new customer bookings. Because of this, businesses won't also be charged Daily Deal or Vera Fill My Books booking fees on those bookings. See New Customer Fees for Businesses in the United Kingdom to learn more.
Fill My Books is a growth tool powered by Vera (Vagaro's built-in AI assistant). When you turn it on, Vera automatically creates deals to promote your availability across the Marketplace and sends out emails and push notifications to bring in more bookings.
You can create two different campaigns through Vera Fill My Books:
|
Campaign |
What it Does |
Best for |
Fee per booking |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Get New Customers |
Promotes your business to people nearby who've never booked with you, using a discount you set. |
Growing your client base |
20% fee when a new customer books with you for the first time. |
|
Fill Last-Minute Calendar Openings |
Promotes availability within the next 72 hours to nearby clients, using a discount you set. |
Filling gaps in your schedule |
20% fee when a new customer books with you for the first time; 5% if the customer has booked with you before. |
You stay in control. You choose:
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Your goal (new customers, last-minute openings, or both)
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The most you're willing to discount.
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Which services, classes, and team members to promote.
Vagaro handles the rest: it creates the promotions, places them in front of the right customers, and highlights your business on the Marketplace.
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.
Your Daily Deals are about to reach a lot more people. These updates apply to every business that uses Daily Deals, even if you never turn on Fill My Books.
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Vagaro now promotes your Daily Deals for you. Instead of waiting to be discovered, your deals get actively marketed: to new customers in your area, to the customers already on your list, and on the Vagaro Marketplace. It's added exposure for your business.
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Performance-based pricing. Daily Deals now include a per-booking fee, and it's designed to stay in your favor: 5% when you bring back an existing customer or 20% if they're a new customer. You're only ever charged when a deal actually earns you a booking. No booking, no fee.
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You're in the driver's seat. Nothing changes automatically. If you have an active Daily Deal, you'll see a pop-up before launch inviting you to opt in to the new pricing. If you'd rather not, you can opt out.
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Fill Last-Minute Bookings. A new toggle lets a discount apply only to appointments booked within the next 72 hours, so you can fill near-term gaps without discounting deals booked weeks ahead.
You're charged only when a Daily Deal brings in a booking, and the rate depends on who it reaches:
|
Daily Deal Targets |
Fee per booking |
|---|---|
|
New Customers |
20% |
|
Existing Customers |
5% |
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:
|
Your current deposit |
What happens |
|---|---|
|
None, or lower than the fee |
Vagaro collects a deposit equal to the fee (5% or 20%) and uses it to cover the fee. |
|
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.
Comments
46 comments
Hello, I had someone purchase a Gift Card from my Vagao webpage and that transaction is showing up on the Vera Dashboard. Are gift cards now routing through Vera also? so that Vagaro can keep 20% of it? How can that be corrected? If it is, I am going to have to eliminate all of it. It feels like Vagaro turning into a Groupon and that is not desirable. We have had deals running on the platform and now the same deals are swept up into Vera and Vagaro gets to keep 5% and 20%, the company's profits increase and mine decrease. Not really feeling it. I certainly want to have a correction on this Gift Card situation.
Hi Rebecca, Vera only offers discounts for Services and Classes. However, if you have a Daily Deal that offers a Gift Card, then a fee will be charged. The solution here is to not add Gift Cards to Daily Deals.
Thanks,
Jamie
That's the thing. I do not have Gift Card daily deals. I have only one Daily deal, which is for new clients. However, that Gift Card transaction is showing up on the Vera dashboard as part of the revenue generated by the service. That gift card should not be there. I will call directly to support to understand that.
Separate subject: am I correct in understanding that the pre-existing Daily deal I had since June for new clients will not have a 20% fee when purchased through the website?
Hi Rebecca,
As of July 1st, all Daily Deals are subject to the fee, even if you created the deal before this update. So any new bookings coming from this deal will be charged a fee. Yes, I recommend contacting support as well to help resolve your issue. I took a look at your account, and I'm not seeing any fees charged on Gift Cards.
Thanks,
Jamie
If Vera doesn't use the current daily deals we've made, why would it charge a 20% commission on it for a new client? It doesn't sound like vera COULD have anything to do with that sale, so why am I giving it 20%?
Hi James,
The main difference is that Vera Fill My Books creates Daily Deals automatically on your behalf. Daily Deals are manually created; however, they're still marketed on the Vagaro Marketplace and promoted through customer emails. In that sense, Vera and Daily Deals are very similar.
If you'd like more control over your deals, I'd recommend creating your own Daily Deals instead. You'll get many of the same benefits, just keep in mind that the same commission structure applies either way.
Thanks,
Jamie
So if a customer books through a QR code I created, or an ad I launched, with a daily deal I also created that applies generally and does not need to be selected…I am still subject to paying Vagaro 20% or 5% of my booking? It doesn't seem like an accurate way to truly gauge how effective Vera actually is if any booking-no matter the source-is counted as a Vera acquired client.
With that in mind, if I wanted to still offer my summer discount rates, would I need to manually go into each of my services and adjust my pricing?
Hi Taylor, as long as the deal is used, a fee will apply. However, you can still manually create discounts on Vagaro that apply when you're in-house. There's no fee for these discounts, but they won't be advertised on your business page. You can make an advertisement letting customers know of the discounted pricing and how it'll be applied in-store.
Thanks,
Jamie
Gotta be honest, it sounds to me like Vagaro is going to be taking a lot of fees for services they didn't help book, and it's going to make a lot of people really cross. It's like having an executive assistant I have no control over and can't check their work.
Hi James,
Vera Fill My Books lets you control which services and employees are eligible for a discount. If you limit the discount to certain services, you still get all of Vera's marketing benefits, and the services you didn't select are never charged a fee if they're booked individually.
Vera is also completely optional. If you're not happy with the results, you can turn it off and go back to generating bookings with no fee.
Thanks,
Jamie
How do I turn off Vera? I don’t want it sending discounts to people I didn’t approve.
Hi Amanda, you can go to Vera Fill My Books settings and turn off Get New Customers and Fill Last-Minute Calendar Openings.
Thanks,
Jamie
I’m confused how to charge my VEERA bookings. Am I to deduct manually the discounted promotion? My example
-My new and existing clients book with a % offf offer
-My new and existing clients pay a deposited
-At checkout there is a deducted price set for them to pay.
-if I add the deposit plus the price VAGARO sets in CHECKOUT it equals a full price.
(If this is the case I think VEERA should be able to display actually discounted price minus deposit. If it cannot it isn’t a reliable option for me)
Thank you
Hi Starla,
The price shown at checkout should include the discount as well. If you can clarify, I'd be more than happy to help. If you're having any issues, I recommend reaching out to support.
Thanks,
Jamie
So I Cancelled Vera Fill my Books because I have never and will never charge a deposit to require a card on file. It does not work for my demographic. My plan was to keep my daily deals. Is this saying that the deposit will be required for daily deals as well?
Hi Toni, yes, a deposit will be required for Daily Deals.
Thanks, Jamie
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