Cloud-Based Business Solutions

Customer Stories

The Rimini Scheduler was developed with our customers. We worked with several customers to address their specific needs that were not well addressed by other scheduling software providers. 

Our customers have some very tough requirements.

Monroe Therapeutic Massage

Monroe Therapeutic Massage (MTM) is a large massage therapy practice in the Seattle area. They have eight locations, over 100 massage therapists, and thousands of customers. Their therapists are highly trained and sought out for their expertise. The business needs of MTM are what drove Rimini Software to develop the Rimini Scheduler.

MTM used appointment books at each of its locations. Every three months new books would be purchased and the therapist schedules would be entered into the books. There were several shortcomings to this system.

1)   The appointment book was the only source for appointment information.

2)   Changes to appointments meant making a mess of the book – white out, cross outs, etc.

3)   Nobody knew their work schedule unless they could look at the book or called and had someone else look at the book.

4)   Business managers would go through each book at the end of the month to count appointments, types of appointments, and try to see trends in the business. This was very time consuming and not very dynamic.

The list of requirements for a computer-based scheduling system seemed straightforward. Yet when MTM reviewed the software available, nothing seemed to fit. 

Rimini Software developed the Rimini Scheduler for MTM to meet their specifications. Among the most important –

-       Ability to quickly adjust a work schedule for a specific day and not effect the on-going work schedule. This included adjusting break times and days off.

-       Any person who was responsible for scheduling could schedule an appointment at any location

-       All therapists could access their schedule from the Internet. Daily appointment schedules would be sent via e-mail or text on days the therapist was working.

-       A wait list could be setup

-       Reminder calls to clients would be automated and clients would be given the option of receiving text message or e-mail reminders instead of a phone call

-       Business reports and status could be generated at any time

-       Appointments could easily be moved.

-       The ability to search for appointments with advanced options like location, a group of locations, specific specialty, specific provider, gender, time of day, and more.

Version 1 of the Rimini Scheduler was deployed at all MTM locations in March 2011. Staff response was positive but we learned some valuable lessons. Version 2 was released in August 2011. With version 2.1, the Rimini Scheduler is loved by MTM. It has had a huge impact on MTM’s business – from the managers and therapists and now even their clients. Using an advanced scheduling system is transforming the business, making it better managed and more efficient. It has changed how therapists view scheduling –no more reminder calls and no more wondering if the first appointment of the day is booked. Clients know they have more options for booking appointments because each location can book an appointment at another location.

What’s coming in version 2.2: plug in for the MTM web site so clients can book their own appointments. Ability to give doctor offices access to schedule their clients for appointments (with tracking of who referred the appointment). More advanced waitlist functionality. And more.

Acupuncture Client

In an acupuncture office, one therapist can see more than one patient at a time. There can also be multi-client rooms where 4 patients are treated at the same time. When there are more than one therapist working at a time, scheduling can become difficult!

The Rimini Scheduler has the concept of resources. A resource can be a room and a room can have a capacity. A resource can be a piece of equipment that is needed for a type of service. Resources can be easily defined, assigned to a type of service, have a capacity, and assigned to a location. If a resource is defined to be a room with a capacity of 4, then the Rimini Scheduler will let 4 patients be scheduled at a time.

Another scenario was our customer had 2 therapists and 3 rooms, each room was for one patient. One therapist could see two patients at a time. Only three appointments could be booked at a time with either therapist working with two patients.

Chiropractor

A chiropractor can see 50 patients in a day (we’ve heard of up to 90! in a day). This requires a lot of reminder calls and a smooth running schedule to move patients in and out of the office. Multiple patients are setup and treated at the same time, sometimes in private rooms, sometimes on specific equipment, etc. The Rimini Scheduler is designed so you can define your resources (equipment, rooms, whatever) and add those as rules to your schedule.

The time required to call 50 or more clients each day can be huge. With the Rimini Scheduler, you define when you want calls to go out each day and you're done. Our system will place hundreds of calls (using your phone number for caller ID) in a few minutes. And we log each call in the appointment notes so you know the reminder has been received. Same goes for text message or e-mail reminders.

Spa

Our customer is a busy spa. They offer many services – massage, facials, manicures, access to saunas, and more. It’s a busy, thriving business with a lot of clients! Efficient scheduling means their business is better utilized and their clients have a better experience. They need to

-       Offer a package of services that are provided in a series of appointments – one client is seen by several providers: service 1, then service 2, then service 3. Sometimes order matters, sometimes it doesn't.

-       Book groups of people into their facility, each person within the group could have one appointment or a series of appointments.

-       They must be able to quickly swap appointments and move appointments. The scheduling system needs to be smart enough to know when that can be done (you should not be able to move a massage appointment to a hair cutting appointment or to a room without the right resource). With the Rimini Scheduler, you can drag one appointment to another slot. If everything looks okay, you're done moving an appointment. If you need to swap one appointment for another, just drag one on top of the other and the two appointments will swap places on the schedule. If there is a conflict (with resource, provider type, etc) our system will let you know and not make the appointment swap.

Many of these features are built into version 2.1 of the Rimini Scheduler. All will be available in version 2.2.