More anti-spam measures to get your emails delivered

Bookeo can send emails to you and your customers in many occasions, such as:

• booking confirmations sent to your customers
• appointment reminders
• booking notifications sent to you and other selected users
• notifications of changes and cancellations
• notification of new membership subscriptions
• etc...

It is then essentials to ensure that emails are always delivered on time to the intended recipients.

Bookeo uses a dedicated mail delivery company, SendGrid, to deliver all these emails. Using a dedicated company rather than sending emails ourselves has many advantages. These companies typically receive preferential treatment by the large ISPs and mail services (GMail, Hotmail, etc.) because they have stringent controls and reputation systems to block spammers. This means that messages sent through these companies are less likely to be delayed, blocked or sent to the Junk folder by the mail service providers.

We also adhere to the most relevant protocols in terms of anti-spam, and all emails sent by Bookeo are digitally signed using the DKIM standard, and further pre-authorized using the SPF standard.

A note about the From address in the emails sent by Bookeo 

By default, Bookeo sends email to your customers using the From address of "noreply@bookeo.com".

If you want emails to be sent using your business' email address, simply set it in the Settings/Business details and logo page of your account. These details will also be included in the header of every email, so it's the perfect place to list your street address, phone numbers, etc.

If your email address domain uses SPF records to identify emails sent by you, make sure to 'authorize' Bookeo to send emails on your behalf.. To do so, simply add the following to the SPF record of your domain:

include:_spf.bookeo.com

Example of a complete SPF record:
v=spf1 mx include:_spf.bookeo.com ~all



As usual, if you have any questions about how Bookeo sends your emails, simply drop us a line on our help portal !

Women Book Online Appointments More Frequently Than Men, Survey Shows

Keeping an online appointment calendar is all about organization. After all, what good is an online reservation system if you can't figure out how to use it? But according to a new survey, female entrepreneurs may have a new incentive to go digital: profit.

According to a recent survey released last Tuesday by PRWeb, 65% of all appointments made online are women. From nail and hair appointments to veterinary check-ups to massage appointments, 67% of businesses that accept online appointments are owned by women. In a world where women make 80% of household purchase decisions, the viable customer base for most businesses has spoken. They want online appointment scheduling and they want it now.

This gender-trending is not exclusive to booking online. A 2010 survey from the Neilsen Company found that women shop online more often than men, with women leading in almost every online purchase category. This addiction to online shopping amongst the fairer sex has led female entrepreneurs to give the people what they want, outstripping their male counterparts in digitizing the old appointment book.

As mobile devices become more prevalent, so will digital business tools like online appointment booking and other, faster booking solutions. Some businesses and online booking systems even offer cloud-based appointments and text appointments, which should help female businesses increase profits further still. According to Neilsen, women send 30% more text messages than men per quarter.

New features for the last week

Here is a list of new features introduced recently to Bookeo.
All features have been added following your suggestions - thanks!

• more customer details for personal appointments are now included in the iCal feed, making it easier to check your schedule from your phone
• new Slovenian translation - thanks again to our volunteers
• more details in the events synced to Google Calendar for tours/classes
• when syncing tours/classes/workshops to Google Calendar, you can now hide those events that have no bookings
• it is now possible to create coupon codes valid for multiple bookings. Ex an instructor offering a GroupOn deal for 6 lessons
• you can now set custom Terms and conditions for each service, tour, class, etc. These are in addition to the business-wide T&C
• you can now set Terms and Conditions for memberships - customers must accept them to enroll in a membership
• improved validation of Discover credit card numbers, accepting new number ranges

If you have any question regarding these new features, or would like to suggest more, please contact us!