Small business Q&A: Yellow Schedule

On this week’s Small Business Show, Kehlan talks to Martina Skelly from Yellow Schedule.

The company has developed a scheduling system which has had a major uptake within the psychology and counselling sectors. Martina talks about how they have developed and are making tough life choices to progress the business.

What is YellowSchedule?

YellowSchedule is an online appointment management tool targeted at therapists, counsellors, and social workers. We help to cut ‘no-show’ rates (in some cases by 60%) plus enable them to take appointments online and interact more in the appointment process with their patients. It is designed to cut the amount of time they take on appointments and also streamline their time in order to be able to see more and treat more cases.

Does it also show possible vulnerable patients?

In any other business, when you get a cancellation or a ‘no-show’, it’s not a big deal. But when you are dealing with people who may be dealing with certain types of issues, it can mean something more serious. Our system allows the patient respond to potential appointments up to two weeks beforehand and you can also see a pattern for that patient too.

Why are they canceling, and is this a pattern that should be looked at as something more?

YellowSchedule allows you to view these patterns and figure that out.

You had tough life and business decisions to make as well?

Yes. We, as a business, and me, a mother with a family, had a crossroads a while back. Silicon Valley, San Francisco, in particular, was where we were deciding whether or not to move to. Silicon Valley is the Disneyland of global entrepreneurs and start-ups, so we decided to look seriously at moving there. My husband was in a job that he could have transferred. But after delving deeper and looking at social issues which concerned us we decided that Ireland, rather than San Francisco, was the right place to raise our children. So, now we, as a business, are going to open a virtual office in the US and continue business that way. It was a tough decision but we made the right one and I think the business can thrive. It’ll be about finding the right people to bring on board over there.

So where does the future lie for your business?

Well, the beauty of our system is that it can be accessed and utilised remotely. That means when it comes to offices in the US, we work together over vast distances while still working on sales and marketing. We’re targeting the psychology and counselling spaces but we’ve had businesses outside of that sector sign up to the service. So we have universal appeal and it’s something that holds great potential for us in the future.