Online Booking For Yoga Classes

The result of collaboration between small business owners, investors, and an experienced web developer, Smoothbook brings fitness class booking software into the 21st century. Dismayed at the existing methods of online booking, something new was needed and Smoothbook is the answer. 

If you’ve been researching online booking systems for fitness studios you have probably found that they fall into two categories: very expensive and/or lacking the specific features that you, as a fitness instructor, require. What’s even better, Smoothbook can be used for free*.

Smoothbook has been designed to meet the rising demands of modern fitness class booking software that not only makes it easy to use for yourself and your clients but allows a high degree of customisation for each business, offers a high standard of booking and facilitates the integration of modern and popular platforms.

At Smoothbook, we’ve been working for some years with yoga instructors and gyms to develop online booking software for fitness classes specifically suited to their needs – whether simply an individual instructor or larger gym/studio.

Through one vision and one goal; to be the leading provider of online booking systems, our “less is more” philosophy has been developed around an ease-of-use system with advanced features and options to meet the requirements of all of our customers.

Whether your passion is Bikram yoga, ashtanga yoga, Hatha or Iyengar, the Smoothbook yoga class booking system gives you the ability to work on the things that really matter: your passion and your students whilst leaving the yoga class online appointment scheduling and management to us.

As the leading all-in-one booking software for yoga studios, the advanced features of Smoothbook include:

• Yoga-specific booking system
• Social media integration
• Remote classes
• Free access
• Ease of use and support
• High customisation
• Support for all sizes
• Waitlists
• Digital integration

The many features of Smoothbook have been carefully designed into one very easy-to-use web based platform. What’s more, we are likely the only company to offer an app interface for easy on-the-go management and booking. Both customizable platforms offer a system that is familiar to both you and your clients while being very powerful behind the scenes.

The intuitive booking system of Smoothbook easily allows for multiple class bookings with a single payment, rather than a more tedious individual class booking system. We also offer various methods of signup and payment of any (or multiple) yoga classes through recognised and secure third-party brands.

Security even goes one step further as Smoothbook operates under a strict user access system that prioritises data access based on assigned user roles, ensuring confidential data is only seen by those who are authorized to see it.

In addition, waitlists can be assigned to popular classes while Smoothbook’s advanced features mean that the system can be used by all of today’s popular social media and digital marketing systems such as Facebook and MailChimp. 

This System Was Specifically Designed for You and Your Students

The Smoothbook platform is yoga class management software that has been built from the ground up based on the feedback of yoga teachers from all over the world and there are hundreds of yoga teachers who use Smoothbook every day. Your students will love the access to view availability of specific class schedules and their Vinyasa, Hatha or Yin yoga classes online themselves at any time of day.

Because of its quick and easy interface, you can enjoy the extra time that Smoothbook will save while you focus on the more important things that you need to be doing such as planning classes, teaching them and taking time for yourself. 

Additionally, there are many other features to help you connect with your students and grow your business since Smoothbook is built specifically for classes. For example, your students can book multiple Asana classes with you at the same time instead of completing the booking process for one appointment and repeating it every other time they’d like to book: not many systems accommodate this type of booking.

Unlike most online booking systems, Smoothbook facilitates multiple bookings by each one of your clients for a series of yoga classes rather than just one or two per week through a tedious and repetitive process. Your clients don’t want to search, book, pay and confirm every time they want a class as they would much rather save time by having the option to pay for the multiple yoga classes that form their routine.

Upon booking yoga classes and then paying for them up to six weeks in advance, your clients will automatically receive a payment receipt that summarises their schedule via their provided email.

Connect and Communicate With Your Students via Newsletter and Social Media

More than just a yoga booking system, Smoothbook has been designed with communication and connection in mind. We understand the need to connect and communicate with your students and you can do this in a variety of ways using the app’s modern technological system. Smoothbook is built for classes and gives you the ability to message them directly at any time in order to relay any important information such as pre-class instructions, cancellations or special events.

You can also integrate with MailChimp so that your students can automatically register for your newsletter. You can add your social media links to your booking calendar and confirmation emails and, should they wish it, you can add your customers to MailChimp newsletters automatically. To give you extra advertising bang for your buck, we suggest adding your social media links to every email that is sent from Smoothbook on your behalf.

Intuitive social media integration also allows your clients to pay for any scheduled events (such as charity events, private classes or exhibitions) directly from your social media page. This  makes it quick and easy for both you and them, with options to accept full or part payment. No more losing clients through linking dated sign up procedures.

Offer Your Yoga Classes Online with Zoom

Throughout the pandemic in the UK, gyms have been one of the worst affected establishments, on par with the restaurant and pub industry, since they were forced to close last year. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of remote video software packages, such as Zoom, increased by a substantial amount as government-imposed isolation brought most countries to a standstill and people looked for alternative ways to connect with each other. 

For many, lockdown meant not being able to attend classes but video communication offered a simple yet powerful solution to this problem. The fact remains, however, that many people find video packages such as these to be difficult to set up and use. Smoothbook has picked up the slack and offers the ability to seamlessly integrate your online video classes with Zoom straight from the app. Things couldn’t be easier or more manageable. 

Smoothbook is a verified Zoom partner, meaning the system was rigorously tested before being accepted by Zoom. Smoothbook works seamlessly with Zoom by simply connecting your Zoom account to Smoothbook and specifying which yoga classes you’d like to make available online. Both you and your students will receive joining links in your confirmation emails and you can retrieve the joining links through Smoothbook as well.

This extra feature and ease of use means that Smoothbook is unrivalled when it comes to booking software for yoga studios that can get people through a pandemic. We also continue to offer online classes as restrictions ease and people are still a little apprehensive about returning to the studio in person. This ensures that you can still offer the same excellent service to all clients no matter their health hstatus, location or beliefs. 

Smoothbook Yoga Scheduling Software is Free and Accessible: Supporting Our Users

We wanted to be different at Smoothbook. In a sea of complicated and expensive class management systems, it’s very important to us that Smoothbook supplies online yoga studio software that is accessible to everyone. This means, regardless of their budget, where they come from in the world or whether their organisation is an established studio with twenty instructors or a newly qualified instructor who is just finding their way on a limited budget, Smoothbook is a trusted booking solution.

We’ve witnessed firsthand the collapse of bookings for yoga and fitness studios as a result of Covid-19 and have been inspired by the fighting spirit of the people who keep moving on under exceptionally difficult circumstances. 

Because of this, we want to support people at this very difficult time by offering unlimited and free access to Smoothbook*. We wanted our offer to be ridiculously simple: the system is unlimited and completely free and is supported by carefully placed advertising on the booking calendar which you can be removed through a nominal subscription fee.

While this type of offer isn’t unheard of, what sets Smothbook apart is that every single feature is available in the free version for an unlimited amount of time and is supported by unobtrusive ads that are placed at non-specific calendar dates. This allows us to continue to earn money on the system in order to offset the fee that you would usually pay and, in turn, keeps you in business through difficult times, right now and for the foreseeable future.

Easy for You to Set Up and Use, Lots of Help, Support and Community

We wanted to create a yoga booking system that enabled you to set up your own fully functional calendar within five minutes of registering and we believe we’ve done an excellent job of it. From there, you can add and configure all of the additional features that you and your yoga students will love. Smoothbook provides loads of support for you as you get started: from our online help, email and phone contacts to our friendly online community forums.

Should you decide to look up any information for yourself, our extensive knowledge base can help with almost every aspect of Smoothbook, including:

• Getting started; basic setup, payment options and booking.
• Calendar customisation; labels, translations and forms.
• Calendar integration; WordPress plugin help, services/resources and Facebook.
• Calendar settings; payment options and waitlists.
• Charging for appointments; promotions, packages and memberships.
• Events and workshops; how to charge for and schedule events. 
• Integrations; Zoom and Google Calendar integration. 
• Scheduling; manage shifts, appointments and time slots.
• Settings and configuration; memberships, subscriptions and payments.
• Setup; booking management, resources and adding calendars to websites.
• WordPress integration; plugin help and WordPress posts. 

On top of the expected communication channels and help topics that are available to you, a human-monitored, reactive live chat interface is also waiting to answer any queries that you might have. 

Your Brand, Your Studio, Your Yoga Booking Software

One of the best methods of retaining customers, especially when it comes to email and newsletters, is to provide a tailored experience that speaks directly to their concerns with products, services and news that they are likely to respond to. One study has found that on average, businesses lose a staggering 67% of clients through poor customer contact and relationship building.

Other important features can also be configured in accordance with requirements, such as booking forms and terms and conditions, both of which are subject to change at any time owing to company policies, legal compliance or external factors such as a viral pandemic.

Smoothbook is hugely customisable and allows you to: add your logo to the booking calendar and match the colours to your brand and website, tailor all of the emails to your yoga students and even change any of the wording as you like. Emails could be customised for one group of students over another such as for different yoga classes like Yin, hot or Kundalini. 

Should your establishment cater for multiple businesses then the use of custom logos can also help to see which studio is currently logged into the system at any given time, reducing confusion and the potential for unauthorised access and scheduling mix-ups.

Grow Your Business with Taster Classes, Class Passes, Memberships and Gift Certificates

You can greatly simplify your yoga business as well as attract and retain customers by allowing your students to pay for their classes when they book. Smoothbook has a very advanced payment system where you can offer introductory classes, class passes, memberships, gift certificates and more.

By conveniently offering multiple payment options and novelties, you increase the chance of retaining new customers who may otherwise have passed on your yoga studio and classes. In addition, multiple payment options also offer existing clients the flexibility to pay for what they know they will use. For example, with Smoothbook, you can offer memberships to your students on a monthly, tri-monthly or annually recurring payment schedule that allows them access to some or all of your classes through whichever yoga packages you have developed.

By paying in advance, a customer can also order a gift certificate that grants a recipient access to a specific class or membership option that can be redeemed at your business in exchange for the specified service. Gift certificates are purchased in advance as a gift for somebody and are an excellent method of attracting new clients since a recipient might decide to stay on as a regular paying client at any of your classes.

Supporting Your Yoga Business – Whether Large or Small

We work with large yoga studios that employ 20 instructors or more and we work just as enthusiastically with independent yoga instructors who are part-time. Some businesses using Smoothbook take thousands of appointments per week and the system is designed to handle hundreds of thousands per month.

From the smallest studio to the largest establishment, there are common concerns when it comes to business, information security and scheduling and some of these include:

• Class management
• System access
• Personnel management

Smoothbook is, at its core, an extremely efficient management system that can manage all aspects of a class, such as: booking availability, time limits and even limiting bookings for up to 6 months before a class begins or blocking cancellations for up to 30 minutes before the commencement of a class.

In addition, your yoga instructors can be independently managed on the system in terms of their availability for classes depending on their personal time off and holidays which prevents clients from becoming confused as to when they should attend.

From a security perspective, Smoothbook operates via the popular role-based access control (RBAC) system that sets system user permissions based upon an assigned role. This means that instructors can log on to the system without accessing any sensitive information about clients while administration staff can schedule appointments without necessarily knowing personal data such as addresses. 

Waitlists

Yoga classes are extremely popular these days with more people than ever using gyms and yoga instructors together since yoga can help prepare muscles for lifting weights. However, for many people, the thought of going to an exercise class is more appealing than simply attending the gym. In fact, only around 18% of gym membership holders attend on a regular basis. Therefore, it is a safe assumption that some scheduled attendees won’t show up to your class when they are supposed to.

However, your popular classes such as hot, Kundalini or even restorative yoga might be receiving more requests than the class can physically hold and this is where one of Smoothbook’s greatest features can be used – waitlists.

Waitlists are an important part of any modern scheduling system, however, not all booking and scheduling software platforms include them. A waitlist essentially allows you to prevent any more bookings for a popular class by putting clients on hold.  Should spaces for your most popular yoga classes become available, then the saved contact information can be used to contact the client in order to inform them that a space has become available.

Integrated Support for Workshops and Events

Workshops are very popular in the yoga world and you can offer them easily with Smoothbook, including whether you’d like people to book the whole workshop or individual appointments when they reserve.

You know the benefits of asanas, pranayama, Dharana and kundalini and we know the benefits that a specialised yoga online booking system can bring to your business.

While many customers may simply call to make appointments, confirm attendance at events or enquire about upcoming workshops, most people these days would rather be able to quickly and easily connect using a social media platform or some other digital interface.

Additional popular software packages such as Zoom, Stripe and Google can be integrated into your customised Smoothbook package with additional joining links and payment options for any extra events and workshops. Zoom is able to connect with Smoothbook very easily and the interface automatically sends out joining links to user emails but can be configured for use with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube with features such as Book Now buttons.

Stripe is one of the most secure online payment providers currently available and is quickly becoming a recognised alternative to PayPal and can be integrated into any extra workshop or event messages with full or part payment options available.

*Free access to Smoothbook requires the placement of paid advertising within the software. This can be removed with a £9.99 recurring monthly subscription.