Need recommendation: better than SignUpGenius?

Web
1

Hello! I currently use SignUpGenius to manage reminders and switches for an in-person course I teach, but I don’t really love it. I primarily organize the course behind the scenes in Airtable, and have a couple Zapier zaps to make SignUpGenius connect to Airtable which work ok, although its fairly limited.

Here’s what works well:

  1. When people are added to a SignUpGenius, I can update their contact info in Airtable. (I can also import a contact list from Airtable into SignUpGenius).
  2. Students can switch dates without my help
  3. Email reminders are automatically sent before the course, and I can include attachments.

Here’s what I’d love to work better:

  1. Assign students to dates by import or into a table. We actually assign students to a certain date (their schedules are complex and we need to make sure everyone starts with a date that works for them), and then I manually add them to SignUpGenius, which is tedious.
  2. Switching is actually not intuitive and mostly people email me when they can’t figure it out - not the automation I’m looking for.
  3. I can assign one reminder to each date, but I’d actually like the option to send multiple reminders. Email is fine, although if I can send one cheaply by text that would be better.

I’ve thought about trying to build this in Airtable, and I think I could except for the switching part, which I can’t figure out. And the UI seems limited. Anyone have a creative idea about how to do this better?

2

Would it be correct to say that what your are seeking is Appointment Calendar software with the ability of your students to make the appointments themselves? Seems to me you are not truly seeking “Sign Up” software.

There are many examples of software which let people schedule themselves - this is only one of many.

3

It’s a unique situation. These students are participating in small-group sessions - the dates and number of students per session are fixed; the facilitator is also one of a rotating group of faculty and is different each session. The sessions occur over several months in which the students’ other responsibilities change. The reminders are key - ideally I could send a reminder at the beginning of the month to all those participating that month to remind them to check the schedule, and again a few days before their scheduled session.

4

Isn’t that doable with appointment self-scheduling software where you set up a a rigid set of appointment times and a fixed maximum number of simultaneous appointments at each time?