How Twistid Ink Uses Bookedin’s Automation to Eliminate Overwhelm
Meet Elisha Belden, co-owner of Twistid Ink
Three years ago, alongside her award-winning tattoo artist husband Danny Belden, Elisha opened Twistid Ink. Their Inverness, FL tattoo shop combines their love of historical tattoo culture with the clean, simplistic atmosphere that celebrates the future of the art form.
On top of her daily duties as a shop owner, Elisha is the social media manager of TattooAwards, a content creator at tattoo.com and marketing manager at Saniderm. Phew.
Why Twistid Ink chose Bookedin for their tattoo booking app
After trying 30 (yes, 30) online schedulers, Elisha settled on Bookedin as their booking software. The biggest thing for Twistid Ink was having the ability to turn off the live scheduler. Elisha didn’t want her clients to schedule their own appointments, which can be a little tricky in the tattoo industry.
The second big feature Bookedin had was email customization. Elisha could change send times, frequency & whether they sent to email or mobile.
Finally, the fact she could put links right into the emails sealed the deal. That’s why Twistid Ink settled on Bookedin.
How tattoo appointment scheduling software changed Elisha’s life
When Elisha decided to switch to a tattoo booking app, two things changed immediately.
1 — Elisha found freedom. Automating her confirmation & reminder emails opened up time slots she didn’t know existed.
2 —Twistid’s vibe leveled up. With automation, the tattoo shop eliminated scheduling/reminder hiccups immediately found the professional feel they’d been searching for. Elisha told us it was *this feeling* was the reason they started sending emails in the first place. In Elisha’s words
“Everything was taken care of for us and it gave Twistid Ink a really professional vibe from the outside.”
Related → How to Get More Tattoo Clients—The Ultimate Guide
You can read our full interview with Elisha Belden below:
View this post on Instagram
Tell me a little bit about how your shop got started.
So, I myself, am not a tattoo artist, my husband is. He’s been working for about 15 years, give or take, and in other smaller shops in our area. I was in retail business management, I did area management, multi-store management, things like that.
It just kinda came down to, we weren’t thrilled with how things were operating where he was, and given my background and his background, we thought it was a great fit to open our own place. So we did. And we were incredibly pleased with the result.
We run it a little bit differently than a typical walk-in shop. It’s more boutique-style, more personal, one-on-one. And from the day we opened (just over three years ago), we were already booked out almost a month in advance. So it’s just been that way ever since, so it’s worked well.
What challenges were you experiencing in your business that led you to look for a solution like Bookedin?
When we first opened, I was manually doing all of our appointment reminder emails. I found it was really important for clients to have that information. So I was sending a confirmation that they had booked, they were getting a 24-hour appointment reminder, and then I was also sending out email links to different articles on tattoo.com. Those emails talked about how to prepare for your appointment, what to do beforehand, and tips for people new to getting tattoos, just so they had that information.
As we started getting busier, and these emails started getting more and more frequent, that was pretty much what I was spending my day doing. It was really hard to keep up. And then on the weekends, if we had appointments for Monday, I’d have to remind myself, “Okay. I’m at my kid’s softball game, but I gotta stop and send this email real quick.”
So I started looking for schedulers. I went through, I don’t know, 30 different websites before I stopped on Bookedin?
Related → Real Customers Reveal the Benefits of Online Appointment Booking
What made you choose BookedIn over other products on the market?
The biggest thing for me was that I had the ability to turn off the live scheduler, so I didn’t have to let my clients schedule their own appointments, which can be a little tricky in our industry. So that was one big feature.
The second big feature was that I could customize the reminder emails that went out. I could change the time frame that they sent out, how many times they were sent out and whether it went to email or mobile. Those were two of the big things, but the fact that I could go in and put links into these emails was a really big solidifier for me because it meant I could also then automate the reminder email with the links to how to prepare for your tattoo. So that’s why I decided to settle on Bookedin.
What specific improvements have you seen as a result of using Bookedin?
My time being freed up is a huge deal. I can just go ahead, plug the client in right when I’m setting up their initial appointment. And from there, their information is stored there. I have their email saved; I have their phone number saved, so it’s kinda like an address book for when I’m on the go as well because I have the mobile app and desktop.
It helped free up so much time for me, not having to copy and paste every single one of these emails. It was already automated and in there. And then the fact that the customers, on their end, were getting these reminders. I heard a lot of positive feedback about the reminders because I have it set to send two different ones.
So, we got a lot of positive feedback from clients on that, “Oh, hey. Thanks for reminding me.” And the fact that they can confirm their appointment through email helped as well.
Yeah, the biggest thing is it gave the shop a more professional feel, which is why we sent emails in the first place, instead of just, “Hey. This is your appointment. Have a good day. See you in two weeks,” kind of thing. Having emails going out makes it more clinical and more one on one. So it’s more like a doctor’s office versus just a regular tattoo shop. And that was a really big thing, being able to automate that process. There weren’t any hiccups. I didn’t forget anybody or anything like that. It was all taken care of and gave us this really professional vibe from the outside.
What would you tell other tattoo shops who are experiencing similar challenges like you were?
The biggest thing is just to be organized. Using programs like Bookedin really helps. When you’re starting out, you don’t wanna spend money on subscription fees and programs, but these things really do help your business.
It frees up your own time, it takes the “Oops” out of it. And it’s worth every penny you put into it. Just do a couple of free trials, find the programs that work for you. And that goes for your booking, your scheduling of social media, all those different programs. That’s my best advice to any business owner, is to try to automate your business as much as possible.
Do you have anything else to add?
The only thing I can say is that I’ve done the legwork, I’ve gone through all these different schedulers. If you’re looking to get an appointment scheduler or whether you’re looking to have your clients book your appointments for themselves, Bookedin is definitely the way to go.
It’s the most seamless, and it’s the least confusing program out there. It’s really simplified and easy, but so professional, all in one shot. So if you’re looking, just skip right to Bookedin. It’s the best one on the market.
