In detail
An acupuncture practice with sessions in the calendar and the phone switched off.
During acupuncture the patient lies still with the needles in for quite a while, and the room has to stay quiet: one ringtone spoils it. At the same time, people starting a course of treatment come back often, a week or two apart. Here is how a booking app handles arrivals without disturbing whoever is on the table.
A long first session, shorter ones after
The first time takes longer: you hear their story, explain how it works, then place the needles. That is why the starting list has a one hour first session and forty-five minute follow-up sessions. Add moxibustion, cupping or ear acupuncture, each with its own length. Newcomers pick the first session and only see times where the full hour fits. The following ones you agree on with the patient, because the pace depends on how they respond: put that in the notice at the top of your page, so anyone looking for them on the link knows they are set at the practice.
The phone stays silent
Bookings come in from the link while you work, without a single ring: after the session you find the alert and the day already updated. Anyone who calls anyway gets a call back later and goes in within seconds, perhaps by dictating the name and time. When the patient gets up from the table, set the next two or three sessions together: you add them to the calendar and they find them on their page, where they can also ask to move one by picking another free time. Online each person holds at most two active bookings; you add the rest.
Reminding without saying what it is for
Anyone who turns on notifications gets a reminder the day before and two hours before, and a locked phone shows the day, the time and the practice name: the treatment never appears. From the reminder they can tap “I’ll be there”, so you know who is coming. For people without notifications, you send a pre-written WhatsApp message from the practice number with one tap, or start a call. When a patient skips without warning, mark them as a no-show and from then on their link bookings wait for your approval. You can also set a cancellation cutoff, say twenty-four hours, so late cancellations have to go through you by phone.
Several practitioners under one roof
If you share the practice with another acupuncturist or a shiatsu practitioner, each one has their own calendar, days and items, up to 12 people per account. Patients choose who to see or the first free time. Vacations and conferences are set once and nobody books on those days. If the session before runs over, mark the delay with one tap and the next patient sees the new time before heading out. SeeYouNext stays a calendar: no diagnoses, points treated or therapies, no invoices and no Italian health system filing. Notes hold practical details only, like “prefers late afternoon”.
