In the hair and nail biz, we understand that many of you do tons of scheduling, but usually don’t have a computer in the work space. We also understand that pen and paper (or your book) are the norm for keeping track of your life! Pencil’em Mobile gives you, the independent operator, access to one of the most powerful tools in the industry and will dramatically simplify your life. Pencil’em Mobile unlocks the power of your cellphone and enables you to schedule, confirm and remind clients of upcoming appointments, all automatically, using only your cellphone! It will also provide you with a complete record of what you’re doing today, tomorrow or on any future date. Pencil’em will also help you eliminate all the calling, texting, and emailing that bogs you down throughout the day. You will also see a drop in the many calls you must take every day from clients who are just checking on appointment times and dates. If you’re not already using Pencil’em Mobile, we encourage you to take a look. You will be glad you did!

Hello Pencil’em Pros!  I wanted to take a moment and let you know about a change that will soon be in place.  We will be adding the service name to the confirmation / reminder emails.  So, along with the Date and Time of your clients next appointment, they will see the service you’ll be performing.  The new emails will look something like this:

New reminder / confirmation email screen shot

We will be implamenting this feature on Wed. Aug. 5th.  We wanted to give you a few days notice in case you need to make any adjustments to your service names. If you have any questions regarding this new feature please leave them in the comments so we can address them publicly, or email support@pencilem.com.

EDIT: We will be delaying the implamentation of this feature by a few days to run a few more tests.  We expect to have this feature in place by mid next week.

Over the last few weeks we’ve launched a few upgrades to the Pencil’em Mobile platform.   We are always striving to make things easier when it comes to the mobile platform, and our new upgrades bring a whole new level of functionality to your hand held device.

Client List

We’ve changed the way the “Clients” button works to make it a little more user friendly.  Clicking the “Clients” button now displays your entire client list.  You can scroll through the list and click on a client who’s information you would like to see.  The new client screens look something like this:

New Client List

New Scheduling Features

We’ve also made some changes to the way you interact with your schedules.  We’ve added a delete appointment function that you will find when viewing your daily schedule.  Click the “View Schedule” button and you will be taken to a screen with today’s appointments.  (You can select a different day by changing the options in the drop down menu at the top of the page and clicking “Go”.)  Notice, there is now a red x floating off to the right hand side of each appointment.  Clicking this X will bring up a confirmation screen, so you don’t accidently delete an appointment you didn’t mean to.   This looks like this:

Delete Appointments from your mobile device.

New “Appointment Quickview”

We’ve added a new feature from the same “View Schedule” screen that gives you a more detailed look at any particular appointment.  To open the “Appointment Quickview” click on “View Schedule” in the main navigation.  Click (or press) on the client name and the “Appointment Quickview” will open.  This view gives you a more in-depth view of the appointment, service being performed, client information, and appointment notes you’ve left for yourself.  See below for more details:

New "Appointment Quickview"

Pencil’em Mobile was built for ease of use and portability of your schedule.  If you haven’t already, check it out!  If it’s your first time accessing Pencil’em Mobile on your mobile device, simply enter the web address below in your mobile web browser.

http://m.pencilem.com

You will see a log in screen where you will enter your email and password.  Once logged in you will have full access to your schedule, client list,  and appointment creating functions.  Everything will be auto-synced to your desktop version, so any changes you make on your mobile device are available to you online as well.

Don’t hesitate to contact Pencil’em Support at “support@pencilem.com” with any questions or comments you might have.

We’ve recently received a lot of requests for storing more than one phone number for your clients.  We agreed and our techs have been hard at work to bring you this feature!  Once you’re logged into the Pencil’em application, click on the Clients Button, then select the Add New Client tab.  There are now three fields for phone numbers, the Main Phone, Cell Phone and Work Phone.

New Phone Number options for clients

Now that you’ve added those new phone numbers, let us show you where you can view them later.  From the clients screen, simply click the “Client List / Appt. Log” tab, then click on a client from your client list.  There information will appear on the right hand side of the screen.  Each field is not denoted with an icon, to make it easy to tell what your looking at.  Notice, next to the main phone number there is an option to “Show All”.  Clicking this button will reveal secondary phone numbers (cell and work) below the main phone number.  It looks something like this:

Showing multiple phone numbers for one client.

That’s all there is to it!  We’ve got a lot of exciting new features coming in the next week or so for helping you better manage your clients, so stay tuned!  As always, if you have any questions or comments please send them to support@pencilem.com.

Thanks!