When it comes to giving their children an academic boost, parents will do almost anything.
But students and parents lead busy lives. Finding the right time for tutoring between work, class, sports practice, and clubs is hard enough. On top of that, scheduling a parent conference used to mean phone tag.
Mallory Gazda runs two Huntington Learning Center locations in New Jersey, where her team helps hundreds of families a year with one-on-one tutoring and test prep. When she went looking for a way to streamline the centers, she wasn’t shopping for appointment reminder software. She found that automated appointment reminders and a parent-facing booking page became, in her words, “an absolute must-have.” No-show conferences have been cut in half, easily, if not more. Here’s how.
How these Huntington Learning Center locations use Apptoto
50%
Fewer no-show conferences
2 Locations
One Apptoto account
Google Cal
Connected from day one
About Mallory Gazda and Huntington Learning Center
Huntington Learning Center provides personalized, one-on-one tutoring and test prep for the ACT, SAT, AP exams, and more. “We understand that one size does not fit all students,” Mallory says. “Our method is a four-step approach that works and truly sets our programs apart. We have decades of experience and countless success stories to prove it.”
Mallory runs two of Huntington’s New Jersey locations and works with hundreds of students and families every year. “An important aspect of our program is that we meet with families frequently regarding student progress and instruction,” she says. That means a steady stream of parent conferences to schedule, confirm, and keep, on top of the tutoring itself.
The challenge: booking phone tag, voicemails, and no-shows anyway
Parent conferences are not optional at Huntington. They happen often, and each one involves at least one working parent, sometimes two, plus a student and a center director. Booking one over the phone meant checking calendars back and forth until something stuck.
Confirming them was a weekly job in itself. Staff spent a chunk of time each week calling parents, and most of those calls went to voicemail. Some went nowhere at all because the mailbox was full. Even after all that, parents still didn’t show up. “With so many appointments to keep track of, on top of all the other parts of running a center,” Mallory says, the manual version didn’t scale.
Where the week went wrong
- Phone tag to find a conference time that worked for two parents and a director
- Weekly confirmation calls that mostly went to voicemail
- Full mailboxes that meant some parents got no reminder at all
- No-show conferences despite HLC’s best efforts
Why Apptoto: integrated with Google Calendar, plus additional features
Mallory’s search was simple: something easy to set up that would remind parents about scheduled conferences. “What set it apart initially was that it would integrate with Google Calendar, which we use religiously for all of our appointments,” she says. Once she started looking at what else she could customize, “it was clear that Apptoto was the best option for us.”
Google Calendar Sync
Conferences on the centers’ calendars trigger reminders automatically. No second system to keep in step.
Booking pages for parents
Parents see Mallory’s availability and pick a time. No phone tag.
Two-way texts, one number
Parents reply to the reminder to confirm or say the time doesn’t work.
One-off messages
Staff can text a parent directly from the same number when something comes up.
“I love that parents can text back to the same number. And I can do one-time messages to them as a conversation when needed. This is a feature we haven’t really seen in any other programs. It is an absolute must-have for us now.”
Mallory Gazda, Huntington Learning Center
The setup: booking pages, reminders, and two-way messaging for rescheduling
Parent picks a time
On the booking page, based on the center’s availability.
Automatic text
With date, time, location, and an add-to-calendar link
Parent texts back
Confirms, or says the time doesn’t work and rebooks
Conference held
On time with students, parents, and tutor
Mallory uses Apptoto’s client messaging and scheduling capabilities but leans on appointment reminders most. With two locations, the key detail is that each reminder says where the conference is, and parents can add it straight to their own calendar. Setup, she says, “was incredibly easy.” Getting the messages exactly the way she wanted took some tinkering, “but it was not hard to do at all.”
The results: 50% no-show reduction, weekly call time eliminated
“Our no-show appointments have been cut in half easily, if not more! Parents are quick on the responses, either to confirm or reschedule if needed. But we get very few cancellations and no-shows now.”
Mallory Gazda, Huntington Learning Center
The weekly confirmation calls are gone. Parents get the reminder when it’s convenient, and they can forward it to whoever else is coming. What Mallory hears most from families is how great it is to have text reminders they can also text back. The booking page, she says, “has been a lifesaver for some families. Trying to coordinate with both parents, student, and myself over the phone versus seeing my availability and picking the best time for themselves is wonderful.”
For parents who need to reschedule, two-way messaging gives Mallory, her students, and their parents an easy way to let her know when a conference time doesn’t work, and to work together to find another time.
“It’s definitely a time-saver that is worth the investment and can help improve customer service in a very customer-service-oriented field.”
Mallory Gazda
Questions tutoring and learning center leaders ask
Yes. A booking page shows only the times you’ve made available on your calendar, and the appointment lands on that calendar as soon as a parent picks a slot. Mallory’s centers use booking pages for parent conferences so nobody has to trade calls to find a time.
Yes. Text and email reminders are two-way. A parent can reply to say a time doesn’t work, and the reply lands in your Apptoto inbox where staff answer from the same number. Alternatively, you can use Auto Replies to respond to reschedule requests faster and include a rebooking link. You can also send a one-off message to a parent without an appointment attached.
Yes. Add each location under Settings > Locations with its address, phone, and directions, and tell Apptoto how to recognize it, usually a word like “Downtown” somewhere in the appointment title, body, or address. When an appointment matches, the reminder can automatically fill in the correct location’s address and/or a map link using the {{ location.address }} and {{ location.map_link }} fields. One reminder template can serve all of your locations, or you can create unique reminder templates for each.
Yes. Google Calendar, Outlook and Office 365, Exchange, and iCloud all connect directly, and appointments added there trigger reminders without any extra step. See the integrations page for the full list.
Yes. An appointment can have more than one participant, each with their own phone or email, so multiple invitees get the reminder. Or, as Mallory’s families do, one parent forwards it to the other.
