I love teaching guitar, but I hate the tedious administrivia part of running your own business, and until recently the worst part was scheduling and billing my students. I tracked their lessons with pencil and paper, and used email to schedule and bill. Looking back on it, the whole process was incredibly inefficient and prone to miscommunication and mistakes. Now my calendar is synced with my students, and the billing happens behind the scenes. When I first signed up with Fons I think it had just opened for business, and I'd occasionally encounter bugs. Their customer service is AMAZING. Like, "how do you stay in business with this level of service?" amazing. Not only did they genuinely care if I had a problem, often things I reported got fixed within a few days. The app now feels solid and I recommend it without reservation.

Not spending six hours at the start of every month calculating and emailing invoices to each of my students.

A minor gripe: I'd like to have access to a record of each email Fons sends on my behalf.

Very good experience and I wish the features (enhancements) I needed could have been worked in to their 'roadmap', but unfortunately it wasn't to be.

The team behind Fons is exceptional. My experience was that they did more than any other SAAS platform to get to know me, my work flow, and connect on a personal level. Extremely helpful and responsive.

There were features I needed (down-time "padding" before and after appointments, keeping count of the number of appointments used in a billing cycle to name a couple) that I really needed and did not seem to be forthcoming.There were a couple of incidents of clients getting double-billed which, to their credit, Fons made good on right away ... but I just can't have that happening to my clients.

I like the quick customer service feedback, but I have two pieces of advice to make the customer service experience better. Sometimes it feels like the team is defensive about bugs, despite this being a new software and therefore understandably prone to bugs. For Fons, it doesn’t seem like the customer is always right. I had a rather negative experience when the CEO responded to my anxiety in an email badly, accusing me of not reading it thoroughly getting impatient when I didn’t understand. I think this is unfair, since I am not a tech person and operating this level of technology for my business has been daunting and stressful, especially since adopting it correctly affects how and when I’ll be paid. As a disability rights activist who is married to someone with a reading disability, the accusation of not reading it correctly came across as rather ableist and condescending. I’d rather keep things professional, which for the customer service side I think means dealing with understandably nervous and anxious clients with grace and kindness. Or not taking their money. Which unfortunately I had already paid for the entire year just before this distressing exchange.

It’s pretty easy to use, but has a learning curve that can be overwhelming, especially since it’s a new software and there are still bugs being worked out as features are added.

The high learning curve and how that affected how quickly I’d be paid.

Basically this platform has been life-changing for my business! I love the internal messaging feature. It allows any communications for scheduling or payment processing to be done through the software. This frees up my email and really brought my anxiety down by having everything organized in one place. I also love being able to charge a client’s credit card anytime I need to. The client doesn’t have to do anything. There is absolutely no friction on their end. This was of the utmost importance for my business.

The best thing about Fons is that they keep making it better. They are interested in their clients needs. This was crucial for me as I think it is the most important thing when it comes to your business. No platform is perfect, but I am confident this is going to be the best one out there, given the drive and dedication of the Fons team

When I am editing appointments there are no batch actions and it always takes me back to the home calendar page… So it can be a bit clunky and time consuming when doing things like this. I’m sure they will fix it!

I've used Fons for my studio of around 40 guitar students since spring of 2019. It's helped smooth out the day to day running of the business in numerous ways, from enabling me to automate payments, to giving students an easy way to reschedule missed lessons. Fons' CEO, Eric, is one of the nicest people out there, and makes himself remarkably available for someone who's surely very busy. Their support staff is simply the best I've ever seen. They reply often within minutes of me contacting them. The platform is easy and intuitive to use. I learned my way around it quickly, and have had almost no issues with clients' ability to use it.

Fons is still a little ahead of it's time. It, and other services like it, are still not widely used by music teachers. Thus, music teachers can sometimes encounter resistance to using the service from clients. On the other hand, there are clients out there who really like it, and see it as something that positively sets me apart from other teachers in my area.

Awesome.. can’t say that enough.

As a vocal Coach I struggled for YEARS with working out a convenient way to bill people, especially in the event of having to hold students accountable for my 24 hour notice cancellation policy without just losing the student altogether or having an awkward conversation with them. (I am very non-confrontational) Fons has COMPLETELY fixed that for me! I have never heard a complaint for my policy since using Fons and never missed receiving a payment because Fons retrieves it for me. Also never lost students over it. I honestly make $300-$400 from cancellations a month that I would not have been paid prior to using it. Fons is the middle man for me and it makes everything so easy!

I honestly have no real complaints. Customer service is always asking how to improve the product and they have actually taken and worked with multiple suggestions I’ve given!

Wonderful

Amazing support, easy onboarding for my students

Took a bit to adjust to credit card billing, but it is the best!!!

Every time something has been wrong or I have had a question the team is always there to answer and they are real people, which is really cool. It is just smooth to see my money come into my bank account without having to deposit a bunch of checks.

I like how people can pay me through it via a couple of ways. Monthly subscription, a package or by appointment. Fons keeps track of how many appointments you have had with that client and leaves the guessing game of how long was each one and how many in the past, because they keep track of all of that. Just a way to just focus on what you want rather than keeping track of payments.

I think I would like to be able to enter more of my clients information, specially if they have more than one kid, I would like to enter that information myself because parents are a little lazy doing this.

I've invested time into getting my Fons account set up and running... but now, it's ready to run. Less time at the bank, less awkward money talks with clients. More of doing what I love. That's what Fons is for me, and the peace of mind and professional front it gives my business is worth 5 times what they're charging.

What I love most about fons is that my clients love it. It's easy and straightforward for them, and looks super professional. For me, Fons has given me so much more peace of mind. Happier clients=happier me.

I have run into a few bumps, but there's a great support team that will stick with you and help you figure everything out. Most of my minor problems come from me not being able to see what my clients see. When they run into problems, it's more difficult to resolve the issue.

10/10 - amazing community, great customer service that will help you even when you just need to read something correctly (Thanks [SENSITIVE CONTENT] and [SENSITIVE CONTENT]!). It has boosted my SEO here locally and helped get my website in front of many more prospective students and parents. This is the best thing you can do for your teaching business hands down.

The online portal is great, the ability to put a booking link on my website increases my professionalism greatly. I love that once my clients are set up, Fons takes care of reminders, invoicing, and keeps an up to date calendar of my availability. The biggest part was the SEO boost

I wish there was a "client view button" right now I have a dummy account in my own name to see things as a client. Totally not a big deal at all.

Fons has been invaluable to my business. I appreciate how the customer service team really listens and implements suggestions. It's very collaborative which is a unique experience for me as a business owner using software!

Fons is an amazing tool for scheduling & keeping my business organized. I love how easy it is to collect payments and give refunds.

Some of the features are not very advanced, such as the emailing. But they are constantly making improvements!

Benefits include: Less headaches, bigger bank account, and more time to focus on making/teaching music.

First off, the customer support is amazing. Very quick to respond, friendly, and of course helpful. I've been teaching private music lessons and tutoring for almost 10 years, on and off though because of the headaches that come with scheduling miscommunications, chasing payments, etc. Fons takes care of all that without me having to work for an agency that will take a 70% cut. I've never been happier to teach since using Fons.

I wouldn't consider it a con, but as a user in Canada, I hope that one day there will be alternative payment options for my clients other than credit card.

Fons really zeros in on the core of business admin: the transaction. It really gets it right. This pivotal change, updated everything for my admin. It’s like I have a brand-new business that’s already running.

The biggest impact is the auto-pay feature. It eliminated a huge monthly task. All but 2 of my clients were happy to jump on board. Fons gave me a form letter to customize and send to my clients. The letter was positive and respectful, not pushy. No salesman speech, just a frictionless transition. This is the vibe of all my dealings with Fons. Integration was a breeze. I spent a weekend entering client info, and sent them the form letter. Then just waited for clients to roll in.

The transition also meant a significant policy change for my clients, and a raise for me. So I’ve been very alert to potential glitches bc i don’t want to bother them at all. So far it’s been good, but a few minor things have needed to be re-entered. However, it’s hard to tell if that is a user error or a glitch.

I've been a private tennis instructor for over 20 years. I teach 25-30 hours of private and group lessons per week and typically spend 10-15 hours scheduling, rescheduling, tracking down checks and depositing them into the bank. I've tried a number of different scheduling apps (Mind Body and others) as well as a combination of google cal and fresh books to help with efficiency. I've found these platforms to be either super clunky, cost too much or just flat out sucked. I started using Fons a few months ago and at first it seemed too good to be true. From the moment I signed up the customer service team was there and has been incredibly responsive. I'm not very tech savvy but it has been so easy to use and all my students love it. It basically combines scheduling, billing and payments into one easy program. Now that all my students have converted over to Fons I spend less than an hour on administrative time per week.

Fons allows me to invest my full energy into teaching my students when we have our lessons, rather that spending time and energy discussing policy and payment. My relationships with families of my students have been greatly improved because of Fons!

I am a piano teacher, and I love that Fons has eliminated all of the awkward conversations about money and payment with clients. Fons automatically bills clients on a per lesson or monthly subscription basis, it has been really great to not have to keep track of forgetful clients and chase payment. Fon’s customer service is very helpful, friendly and quick.

While the monthly fee is very low, the processing fees are slightly higher then other comparable services for music teachers. The processing fees are more than worth it for the time I save, and the ease of use of this program!

Amazing :)

The automatic billing has saved so much time! It has allowed us to easily scale and leave behind all the manual labor we were doing with tracking payments.

It can be a bit slow but the team is great and fixes any lagging quickly for us!

Fons has completely automated by business's billing and scheduling. Parents of clients are happy and have had no issues. Customer support is OUTSTANDING and IMMEDIATE.

Fons truly automates billing so you don't have to invoice your clients. It makes it easy to send out appointment requests, reschedule them, and the link to my phone calendar is fantastic and updates instantly. The layout is clear and unfussy, and the product does exactly what it says it will do.

I would like a couple of additional features, which I hear are in the works for the near future. One is the ability to bill a client for a simple fee not connected to a calendar appointment. And the other is to connect to Quickbooks. That said, this software is doing GREAT things.

The timing of my income has stabilized and I've reclaimed time spent worrying about/following up on billing and money stuff.

I love that once I have a client set up, we never have to talk about money again. Instead we get to talk about (in my case) how they're progressing in their studies, or how their child is doing, or dozens of other topics that have anything beyond a bookkeeping relationship to our work together. Nobody has to remember cash, or a check, or any of that nonsense. It's great!

Some of the functions are still a little odd, in that sometimes you have to order different types of charges (tuition vs. one-time) to keep things straight with payments, at least at first.

Recurring automatic payment based on actual appointment usage is brilliant. Team is extremely responsive and always incorporating feature requests as upgrades to the site. I've only been all-in on this platform for about a month and it's already better than when I joined because they are so quick at building new features. Customer service is stellar.

Integrates scheduling and payments beautifully, makes it easy to tie payment requests to scheduled appointments. Killer feature for me is the ability to schedule recurring package purchases that are automatically billed when the previous package runs out.

I wish it had more bookkeeping functionality, more customizable reports, ability to record expenses, etc.

My school is new to Fons and we are continually impressed with the level of customer service. We have received absolutely top-notch service from the moment we became a prospective client and throughout the onboarding process. Their rapid-fire response team addresses issues quickly, honestly, and is constantly showing proof of ongoing product innovation. We are looking forward to a lasting working relationship with Fons. Bravo!

limitations in reporting and attendance records

I don’t have to chase after payments any more

Fons is easy to set up, simple to onboard customers, a snap to receive payments

Not much; any issues that have arisen have been quickly resolved

Have had 3 different service providers use the app and love how easy it is to schedule, pay, communicate, etc. Would definitely recommend for small businesses who need scheduling and payment systems.

super easy to use for customers - intuitive, simple, clean, never have any questions

no applicable. I'm a customer of the primary users

It's saved me a load of time on my admin and makes it so much easier to organise my schedule. Invoicing is seamless.

Can't think of anything! The new features have really streamlined the experience and mean I don't have to chase payments.

Really great

I love the ability to schedule clients and sell packages. Having the software immediately deduct lessons from the packages, and track all billing, has saved me 5-10 hours a week on admin tasks

It is a little expensive, especially with the Canadian conversion. I'm paying about $45 a month plus around $150 in credit card fees... $200 less a month is pretty significant for my income level.

By the end of the free Fons trial, I already had enough money from students to pay for a whole semester of Fons. The price is very low compared to the high value & support you get. They could easily charge double, so I'd jump in now while it's still growing. Their Facebook Group alone should almost charge haha, so much good stuff in there and free weekly webinars about relevant topics to help your business grow!

-Simple and easy to use (user friendly) -Create customized packages -Creates more free time by removing scheduling headaches -Easy for students and parents of students to pay me on time -I can quickly communicate any schedule changes or announcements -Amazing staff and extremely helpful -They have an awesome affiliate program as well

-Has opportunity to add even more features