Patterns for small businesses
Most small businesses don’t have a developer sending events from an app. Their records live in a booking book, a spreadsheet, a WhatsApp chat and the owner’s head. The playbooks for salons, gyms, restaurants, landlords, cooperatives and schools are built so that everything they need can come in through screens you already have in Origamy. Each playbook’s Where the data comes from section says which of these it uses.
How data gets in
Section titled “How data gets in”| Pattern | What it is | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| A form people fill in | A public Origamy form: a link, a QR code at the counter or table, a button on your Instagram bio. Each answer can be saved on the person. | Enquiries, sign-ups, feedback, registrations, “tell me when” lists |
| A booking form | A form with a date-and-time slot question tied to your services and opening hours, optionally with payment. Each booking sends booking.created with the slot’s start time; a cancellation sends booking.cancelled. |
Appointments, viewings, tours, trial classes, consultations |
| A form your staff fill in | A short staff-only form, matched to the customer by phone number, that records something that happened: a visit, a sale, a payment, a no-show, a decision. A date question with “today” as the default saves when it happened. | Anything you’d otherwise write in a book: “Ada came in for braids today”, “Chidi paid”, “Tunde missed his appointment” |
| A synced sheet | A Google Sheet or Excel file you already keep, synced as People every 15 minutes to daily. Each column becomes a trait on the person matched by phone or email. | Ledgers with dates: rent, fees, loan repayments, contributions, memberships, policy renewals |
| A CSV upload | A one-off import of a list, as People or as Events. | Bringing in your existing customers; a weekly export from another system |
| WhatsApp replies | Messages people send to your WhatsApp number become events on their profile. | Letting people reply to a reminder |
Developers can still send events from an app or a webhook; some playbooks (abandoned cart, trial to paid) need that and say so.
Reminder patterns
Section titled “Reminder patterns”Follow-ups can wait (“2 days later”) but can’t wait until a date. Every date-based reminder in the library uses the same three parts instead:
- The date lives on the person as a trait: from a synced sheet column, from a staff form’s
date question, or copied from a booking by a follow-up (
booking.created→ saveslot_start_tsasnext_appointment_at). - A segment finds who’s due with a date rule: “within the next 3 days”, “more than 6 weeks ago”, “same day of the year” (birthdays).
- A scheduled follow-up runs over that segment every day (or every hour for appointments), with a cooldown so each person gets each reminder once per cycle.
Paid or done is a second trait (rent_status, fee_status, membership_status) the sheet or
a staff form keeps up to date, and every reminder segment excludes it.
Calls and tasks
Section titled “Calls and tasks”Most small businesses win or lose a customer on whether someone called back. Playbooks that take enquiries give a team a task with a due time. Origamy reminds them halfway and at the due time, escalates to a second team if nobody responds, and saves the outcome and note on the customer. Teams can be one person: the owner.
Channels
Section titled “Channels”Email is the cheapest channel and needs a verified sending domain. Many small businesses run on SMS and WhatsApp alone, so the SME playbooks lead with those and add email where people expect it (receipts, longer details).