2021 Q2 Feature Recap!
This past quarter has been a productive one at Time To Pet! In particular, we are very excited to announce a trio of new scheduling features. These are some of our most requested features, and they make the process of requesting services much easier for you and for your pet parent clients! These features include Partial Day Blocks, Service Grouping, and Limiting Services to Specific Schedule Blocks. Please read on below to learn more about these wonderful new features and the other improvements we’ve been working on, as well!
Partial Day Blocks
Sometimes, as a dog walker or pet sitter, you need to block out a few hours for yourself in the middle of the day. Maybe you have a dentist appointment, maybe your afternoon window is completely full with other client appointments, or perhaps you are open for midday walks but totally full for overnights. Whatever your situation might be, we are very excited to announce a new tool that makes the process of blocking out a Schedule Block or two quick and easy – Partial Day Blocks!
Partial Day Blocks allow you to choose any Schedule Block on your calendar (or even the whole day) and restrict your client’s ability to request services in that block. If you have a partial (or full day) block enabled, your client will not be able to submit a request for that timeframe.
To create a Partial Day Block, just navigate to your Scheduler page and look for the Block Requests button in the top right.
You can then select the day you’d like to block or an individual Schedule Block.
For more information on Partial Day Blocks, please see our help article here: Blocking Service Order Requests.
Service Grouping
For a fast-growing pet care company, adding new services can be one of the best ways to expand your business. However, managing services for dog walks, cat sitting, hiking, rooming, and more can be a challenge – especially when your client is the one requesting services. Time To Pet is proud to announce a new tool called Service Grouping.
Service Grouping allows you to group like services directly in your company’s Services List. You can add groups, rename groups, and drag and drop services from one group to another.
Best of all, your service grouping is also visible to your clients when they are requesting services. This will help them to make sure they are submitting a request for the exact service they need and help prevent potential confusion.
For more information, please see our help article here: Grouping Services.
Limiting Services To Specific Schedule Blocks
Do you ever have a client request an overnight service in your midday schedule block? Or an anytime cat sitting service in your early morning block? With our new limit service tool, you can be sure that services can only be requested by your clients in their companion Schedule Blocks!
To limit a service to specific schedule blocks, first navigate to your company’s Services List and edit the service you’d like to add schedule block restrictions to. You’ll notice a new “Scheduling” tab for your service.
There are two options here. You can set your service not to be limited to any specific schedule blocks, which will allow your clients to choose from any of your available Schedule Blocks, or you can restrict it to specific Schedule Blocks. If you choose the latter, you will be able to check off the specific Schedule Block and days of the week in which the selected service can be requested.
When a service is limited to a specific day of the week and/or specific Schedule Blocks, your clients will only have the option to request the Schedule Blocks the service is available in. If the service is only available in one Schedule Bock (like our Boarding service), then Time To Pet will automatically select that Schedule Block for your client.
For more information on how to best configure your company’s Schedule Blocks for easier scheduling for you and your clients, please see our help article here: Best Practices For Schedule Blocks.
Client And Staff Flag Improvements
Another feature we have spruced up this quarter is our Client And Staff Flags tool! We have given the feature some upgraded functionality by upping the maximum number of flags allowed to be assigned to a client or staff profile from six to ten! This will allow you to use flags more effectively in organizing and labeling profiles with the appropriate tags. Client And Staff Flags are one of our most robust features that allow you total customization. Whether you want to track special discounts clients receive, whether a staff member is allergic to cats, or if a client’s pet is leash-reactive - flags are the secret to gleaning key information at top speed from a quick glance at a client or staff member’s profile.
In addition to upping the number of flags that you can assign to a client or staff member’s profile, you can also now add three initials as opposed to two when labeling your flags to make keeping track of your different flags and their meanings more intuitive.
For more information on how to create flags and add them to a client or staff member’s profile, please see our help article here: Client And Staff Flags.
Back To Top Link On Conversation Feeds On Staff Dashboard
Another user-friendly update we have made to our platform this quarter is that, when viewing messages in a client or staff member’s conversation thread (or from a client’s private message thread if you have Private Messaging enabled for your company), there is a new “Back To The Top” button at the bottom of the screen that you can click to swiftly return to to the top of the screen. No more endless scrolling back and forth for you or your clients!
Improvements To Inactive Staff Members
Even when a staff member has been marked inactive and may no longer be with your company, there may still be times when need access to their profiles or their data for reporting or communication purposes. While we have a good amount of this functionality already, we have made some small but important updates surrounding inactive staff members to help Office Managers and Administrators as they navigate their daily tasks.
The first thing we have done is that when you now go to send a mass email to your staff, inactive staff members will be clearly marked so you aren’t accidentally including them in communications they shouldn’t be privy to.
We have also made changes to the generating paystubs process as it concerns inactive staff members. Moving forward, if an inactive staff member has a remaining balance that hasn’t been paid out to them yet from completed events or disbursed tips, then they will automatically appear as part of the paystub process. This will have a clear “Inactive” label next to their name and can be deselected, as well
Upgrades To Admin Logging In As Client Feature
The ability to access a client’s portal as an Administrator from the Quick Actions menu of a client’s profile is an essential tool to have in your back pocket as you navigate Time To Pet. It can help you understand what your clients see from their side of things and let you make requests or changes on their behalf if they are struggling or aren’t very tech-savvy. It is precisely because we understand what a vital feature it is that we have taken steps to make it more user-friendly than before.
While logging in as a client to their portal now requires the Administrator to agree to certain terms (such as acknowledging the fact that any actions taken while logged in as the client will appear as though the client themselves made them), you no longer need to set a non-temporary password or complete any unsigned agreements in order to access their Client Portal. This way, a client’s password and agreements are just as you left them, and a client will still be required to review and sign your company’s agreements before they are able to request any services from you themselves.
