Choosing Client Management Software For Your Venue — Five Checks Before You Compare
Comparing client management systems by counting features rarely settles anything. Map your own day first, then check five things against it: the phone, do-not-book lists, multiple venues, dispatch or rooms, and how easily your existing records move in — and out.
You lined up three systems and ticked their feature lists. All three had plenty of ticks. Nothing decided it.
A month after going live, you noticed the front desk's phone work — the thing you do most — hadn't got any easier.
⚠️ Pick client software by how it fits your day, not by how many features it lists.
The short version
- Before comparing, map your own day
- Check five things: phone, do-not-book, multiple venues, dispatch or rooms, moving records
- Test with a real call and a real booking
- Re-price for your number of venues and staff
- Check how you get your data out before you commit
Map your day
Phone rings → who is it → check do-not-book → take the booking
→ assign driver or room → settle up → handover notes
⇒ Where the time goes in that flow is your yardstick.
Five checks
One Phone …does the client pop up on a call (CTI), and what shows?
Two Do-not-book …is a blocked client–entertainer pair visible at booking time?
Three Multiple venues …can one client have a different category at each venue?
Four Dispatch / rooms …outward and return drivers for outcall; rooms and turnover for in-house
Five Moving records …bulk import from what you have now, with help?
⇒ Weight them by where your day loses the most time.
Test with the real thing
Take one normal call through to a confirmed booking
Add a do-not-book pair and see how it shows on the booking screen
⚠️ Don't decide from a demo. Push one booking through yourself.
Re-price it
Monthly fee × (varies by venues and staff)
+ set-up + phone-side (CTI) costs
⇒ "From X a month" is the smallest configuration. Price your own.
Getting data out
Can you export the client list and booking history?
⚠️ Getting out is often harder than getting in. Check before you commit.
The numbers to keep
One calls and bookings per day
Two do-not-book pairs
Three venues and staff
Four clients in your current records
⇒ With these four, every quote can be compared on the same basis.
A sheet for the office
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Choosing client software
First: write down your day
Five checks: phone / do-not-book / multi-venue / dispatch or rooms / moving records
Test: one real call through to a booking
Price: for your venues and staff
Check: data export before you sign
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Common objections
"More features is safer"
⇒ Unused features clutter the screens people use all day.
"We'll just take the cheapest"
⚠️ Thirty minutes a day saved at the desk shows up in the wage bill. Count time as well as price.
"No time to test"
⇒ One booking. Thirty minutes.
This week
One write down your day
Two mark where it loses most time
Three decide what each of the five checks means for you
Four note venues, staff and client counts
Five push one booking through each candidate
Doing it by hand, or on a screen
Here's how tasteck answers the five (each checked against the product's code):
One Phone …on a CTI call: which venue's number, client/entertainer/driver/staff, client name and category (CTI service needed separately)
Two Do-not-book …blocked pairs show red on the booking screen (warning, not a block); hidden in the client's own app
Three Multiple venues …categories can be set per venue
Four Dispatch / rooms …separate outward and return drivers; room-by-room schedule with turnover time for in-house venues
Five Moving records …CSV import, with free help importing existing data
⇒ Pricing starts at ¥5,000 a month per venue, with a 30-day free trial and no card required. It varies by venues and staff — check the pricing page against your setup.
⚠️ Whether it fits depends on your day. Put every candidate through the same five checks.
Wrapping up
- Map your day first
- Check five things
- Test with one real booking
- Re-price for your setup
- Check data export
The right system shows itself when you hold it up against your own day, not its feature list.
Related articles
Who Should Be Able To See Your Client List?
Client phone numbers and notes leave with whoever could see them. Here is how to decide who sees what — manager, desk staff, part-timers, entertainers and drivers — why bulk export and delete should be manager-only, and what to do on someone's last day.
"Same Girl As Last Time" — Answering In Three Seconds
When a regular rings and asks for whoever he saw last, a desk that has to flip through booking sheets loses him. Here is what to look up — last entertainer, last date, usual request — how to check she's working today, and what to offer when she isn't.
Entertainers' Notes On Clients — Fewer Fields, And A Set Time To Read Them
Notes entertainers keep on clients stop being written when there are too many fields, and are useless if nobody reads them before the next booking. Here is how to cut them to five fields, put reading time just before the session, and separate what the venue sees from what stays personal.
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