BUILT BY ORBIT STUDIO
Building Pingflow: what to automate, and what to leave to the owner
Pingflow is our own product: WhatsApp booking admin for appointment-based businesses. It sends reminders, handles customers’ requests to move a booking, and logs every message. It isn’t client work, and the screenshots on our homepage use a demo account. Building it settled a few decisions we now make the same way on every system.
Automate the routine message, not the decision
A reminder is the same every time, so Pingflow just sends it. Moving a booking is different, because it affects someone else’s day. So a request to reschedule never changes the diary on its own. It waits on one screen until the owner approves it. The owner only deals with the messages that need a decision.
Use the channel customers already answer
Pingflow works over WhatsApp because that’s where its customers already reply. The same thinking applies to any firm: send reminders and confirmations by whatever your customers use, rather than asking them to sign up for something new.
Log everything in one place
Every message sent, every reply and every change goes into one activity feed. People only trust automation when they can see exactly what it did and when. Without a log, the first time something looks wrong, they go back to doing it by hand.
The same parts, in a trades office
- Appointment reminders become gas safety, EICR and service renewal reminders.
- Requests to move a booking become visit confirmations with the tenant or site contact.
- Owner approval becomes the office signing off a quote or a booking change before it goes out.
- The activity feed becomes a record of every enquiry, chaser and reply, by customer.
You can see the screens in Software we’ve built on the homepage, or try the working demo set up for a fictional heating firm.