How ANNA clients use payment links: Sacred Space Yoga Studio

Hi Kerrina!

Can you tell us a bit about your business, how did you start it?

I’ve been enjoying yoga for over 20 years, and did my first teacher training back in 2005. I incorporated my company in January of this year and I was due to open a physical location on the 11th April, but obviously Corona had other ideas. I made the pivot to online classes, and I’ve not looked back since! Although I’m happy to be able to teach small classes in person again – for the moment.

How do you market your business?

I advertise mainly on Facebook and less so on Instagram, they’re the main places where I’ve built up a community. I offer a couple of free community yoga groups on Facebook – it’s my lifeline, really. Since lockdown my website has become even more important as a means of spreading the word about my classes, because people can sign up to my newsletter from the website. There’s not that many yoga studios around my area, so advertising locally is important.

How do your customers make purchases with you? And what challenges do you face with cashless payments?

Before lockdown I was being paid in cash after classes, but since ANNA launched the QR code and payment link options I’ve been able to offer them both to my customers. ANNA delivered what I needed before I had to think about it! I put the payment link in the ticket URL when I create Facebook events for my classes, and it means I can have quick and easy financial interactions with my yogis.

My students (in particular the younger ones) like using the payment link and the QR code, and if I do have customers that want to pay in cash after a class, I’ll send them the link while we’re together and talk them through it. The odd person’s bank might not recognise the payment link, but for the most part it works.

How do you use your payment link, and share it with your customers?

As I mentioned, for my physical classes I share the link via a Facebook event page, and for online classes I share it via WhatsApp and my yogis pay monthly – I just send out a reminder message on the 20th of every month. The great thing is that they can save the link and just re-use it every month (although I re-share it, to be on the safe side). I’ve even had customers use the payment link as a gift voucher for a friend or family member. They send me a payment with a reference so I know it’s a course or class they’re gifting to someone else.

Do you have any suggestions for how we can improve payment links in the future?

Recurring payments would be a helpful feature, because I teach ongoing yoga courses to a lot of regular customers. Also if people want to use the payment link as a gift voucher, it would be nice to add a photo as well as a written reference – to make it more personal.