Fons Reviews

Best business decision I have ever made

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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

Cons:

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 is great

Comments: Fons has definitely simplified by life by providing a super simple way for my students and clients to schedule appointments *for themselves*. No more exchanging dozens of emails/text messages to try to nail down a time to meet. I just send them my link and they find a time that works for them. I am so pleased!

Pros:

Makes scheduling appointments with clients SO MUCH easier

Cons:

Can be a bit bulky to navigate at first, until you get used to the terminology they use to describe the various different services they offer.

Fons customer service feedback

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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

Just What I Needed

Comments: I had been monthly invoicing people for piano lessons and often having to ask 3-4 times and suspend lessons in order to get paid. Fons has now taken over all the work for me. I got my time back and no longer have to create monthly invoices. Payments are automatically done so I never have to ask twice for payment, it just shows up. The amount of stress this has taken off of my is tremendous!

Pros:

This software is easy to navigate and understand. It solves my problem of creating invoices and hoping that payments come in.

Cons:

It has not worked 100% yet. Each month so far I've had to get help with some aspect of my getting payments.

I no longer dread billing my students.

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Appointment based business automated

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Life... simplified

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Great Scheduling tool & platform

Comments: We have been using Fons for several months in our music related businesses, it's been a great experience so far, keep it going !

Pros:

We love how easy it was to set up, the interface is easy to use, there are several possibilities of automating and integrating the key functionalities, and the pricing is reasonable.

Cons:

I don't think there is anything specific we disliked about Fons, it's a great service overall and happy to keep using this in our business!

great app!

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Everything I need in a scheduling app!

Comments: I needed a simple to use scheduling and payment processing system. Fons delivers beautifully! Other programs can be somewhat complicated. Fons has the bells and whistles I need now but also has the ability to grow with my business too. I can't imagine using anything else!

Pros:

Fons is gracefully simple to use for my clients and myself.

Cons:

So far, I haven't found anything I don't like!

Fons: The Deal Breaker

Comments: Fons has taken the stress out of billing and payments. Bravo! I do wish, however, there were other companies like Zelle that could be used instead of Stripe; they have no transactions fees. But for now, I have passed this cost on to my clients by raising their rates.

Pros:

The simplistic and streamlined nature of this software makes it very simple to use, especially for those of us who didn't grow up in the computer age!

Cons:

The scheduling features are quite adequate, but it would be nice to see a more robust approach to different kinds of customization. ALSO, the web browser experience could be improved in terms of how everything appears on the page; there are parts where certain icons (like your messaging center, in the lower right-hand corner) cover up the text and changing the size of the font does not correct this.

Amazing customer service

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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

Cons:

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!

So helpful for my business

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

5 stars!!

Comments: 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!

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Fons is a life-saver

Comments: Best thing I ever did for my business. Fons customer service is top notch!

Pros:

Gives my business a more professional feel, streamlined admin work, and the best of all is streamlined payments!

Cons:

I wish there was a way to set up a default description of each appointment (when scheduling new/returning students who don’t necessarily have recurring regular appointments). So I don’t have to copy/paste the info each time.

Fons Review

Comments: Very positive and is now a key part of our business

Pros:

Excellent customer support team who is there to help with any of our needs as our company is growing. They have helped us use the software better to be more efficient with our own time and resources. Thanks [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] !

Cons:

Needs to be updated a lot.

Fons makes finances easy

Comments: I don’t have to chase after payments any more

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

FONS = LIFE.

Comments: YES. EVERYONE needs fons. i shout it from the rooftops all the time.

Pros:

I LOVE that because everything is automated, i never have to worry about chasing down payments or losing track or trying to trust venmo. The administrative time has cut down by HOURS a month and i feel like i have way more time to focus on being a good teacher and less time scheduling or billing.

Cons:

There are some features that I think could be added to the software, but i've already sent my ideas to [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and he has been so helpful!

The perfect fit for my needs

Comments: I've had great experience with the software and the customer service team. I can't wait to see what the team brings us next with fons!

Pros:

It's very user friendly, and so easy to set up. The instructional video for clients is very useful. The prices are reasonable, especially for a small business owner like myself.

Cons:

I would like to see more customize-ability with the product, but I'm sure their brilliant team are already working on it.

Pros:

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.

More features than I will ever use.

Pros:

I am still getting a few referrals per year through the site.

Cons:

I am a legacy user from LearningMusician.com. I only need this software to serve as an advertising website. When Fons took over, they added a bunch of features that I don't and never will use. In fact to use the payment processing that is offered would cost me more money use. To top it all off, after promising that legacy users wouldn't have a rate increase, they tripled the cost after a year. I am still getting a few referrals through the site, so for now, I will keep using it.

Fons has made scheduling so easy

Pros:

We use Fons software for scheduling our son's music lessons. It has really streamlined both scheduling and payment for us. Before, we'd have to remember to bring a check in to each lesson, and any time we'd want to adjust or cancel lesson times, we'd have to try to get in touch with his teacher with a phone call/email, etc. and there was back and forth about what other times could work.Now payment is automatically taken care of, and scheduling changes happen directly through the app. I can see the calendar of possible lesson times, and his teacher can approve of them directly.

Cons:

Credit card transaction fees seem a little high

Fons Is Great!

Pros:

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!

Cons:

limitations in reporting and attendance records

Fons has been awesome and it keeps getting better. Makes everything so much easier.

Pros:

For the most part it works really well and is super easy to use. The Fons team is always ready fix any problems and their support is above and beyond.

Cons:

Right now that the bugs have been worked out. I don't have any cons.

I LOVE FONS!!!

Comments: Easy to use. Easy for my customers​ to use. Does not get 'buggy.' and not work like other business systems I have used. The price is great.

Pros:

Fons's customer service is my favorite feature. I feel like I am being taken care of with the personal attention that I get from them. The system is easy to use. Fons has made my life much easier. I also love the notifications that I get when I get a deposit. They take care of PCI compliance for you too.

Cons:

No cons. I like everything about the system. I really have no complaints or issues.