Questions
Answers, including the awkward ones.
What people actually ask before signing up. Where the answer is no, it says no.
01 / 08
Trial and pricing
- How much does it cost?
- Two plans: Essential at $49 a month and Complete at $99 a month. That is per business, not per person, and there is no setup fee and no commission on anything you sell. Prices are in Canadian dollars. No sales tax is charged.
- How long is the trial?
- 7 days of the Complete plan, so you try the whole thing and not a cut-down version. Your advisor sets it up with you during those days.
- Do I need a card to start?
- No. You get 7 days of Complete free without a card. Add one any time during the trial to keep DeMark afterwards; with no card, the subscription ends with the trial and nothing is charged.
- Is there a contract?
- Your membership renews automatically for the billing period you choose. Cancel in Settings → Membership before your next renewal. There is no notice period or cancellation fee; access continues until the end of the trial or paid period.
- Is there a setup fee?
- No. Setting you up, importing your clients and getting the booking page right is part of the membership, not an extra invoice.
- Can I pay for a year at once?
- Yes. Choose yearly billing when you sign up; the year is paid in one payment.
02 / 08
Bookings and no-shows
- Will this actually reduce no-shows?
- Reminders are the part that is measured: a review of 29 studies found they cut no-show rates by about 34% on average. Whether that holds for your shop depends on your clients, and we would rather you check it against your own numbers than take ours.
- When do reminders go out?
- By email, 24 hours before the appointment, and optionally an earlier one — 48 hours, for example. On the Complete plan the same reminder can go by text instead.
- Can clients move or cancel their own appointment?
- Yes. Every confirmation has a link to the client portal, where they can move or cancel. Your agenda updates on its own, so nobody has to phone during a service.
- Can I take a deposit or charge a no-show fee?
- Not at booking time. You can invoice an amount and have it paid by card before the work, but there is no card held at booking and no automatic no-show charge. If that is what you need, say so — several competitors have it and we would rather you know now.
- Does it sync with Google Calendar?
- One way. Each appointment has an add-to-calendar button, and your business has a calendar feed you can subscribe to from Google, Outlook or Apple. Two-way sync, where a block you create in Google shows up here, is not built.
03 / 08
Your data
- Where is my data stored?
- On a server in a Canadian data centre in Quebec. Backups run every night and a restore has been tested. See the data page for the details.
- Can I take my data with me?
- Yes, in one click, any day, without asking. You get a JSON file with everything and a ZIP of CSV files that open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets: clients, appointments, services, requests, chat, invoices and your settings. Before leaving, download the records you need. When the paid period ends the account is suspended, not deleted: your data is kept for 30 days and export keeps working the whole time. Contact us if you need help moving your records.
- Do you back things up?
- A backup runs every night at 03:00 server time, using SQLite's own backup API so the copy is consistent even while the site is being used. Restoring is a tested path, not three lines in a README: the restore checks the copy before it touches the live database, and it moves the old one aside instead of overwriting it.
- Who can see my data?
- You and the people you invite. On our side, one person — the advisor who runs DeMark — can reach the server for support and maintenance. There is no analytics company, no ad network and no third party with a copy.
- What about PIPEDA and PHIPAA?
- PIPEDA is the federal privacy law that covers commercial activity across most of Canada: it means keeping your clients' information safe, telling you if something goes wrong, and keeping a record of any breach. In New Brunswick, PHIPAA is the provincial health one; if you are a custodian under it, section 52(3) says you need a written agreement with whoever manages your information, and we will sign one with you.
04 / 08
Switching from another tool
- Can you bring across the clients I already have?
- Yes. Send us what you have as a spreadsheet and we import your clients for you. We look at your file rather than making you match a format.
- Do I have to do the move myself?
- No. Your advisor sets up your services, hours, booking page and templates with you, and imports your clients. You check it before anything goes live.
- Can I run both tools for a while?
- Yes, and it is usually the calm way to do it: keep taking bookings where you do today, put the new booking page somewhere quiet, and switch the public link when you are happy.
05 / 08
French
- Does it work in French?
- The product does, fully: the booking page, confirmations, reminders, quotes, invoices and the chat are in English and French, and each client gets the language they picked. This marketing site is in English only for now.
- Why is this website English only?
- Because keeping two marketing sites honest is work that would come out of building the product, and we would rather be bilingual where it matters, which is what your clients see. Write to us in French and you will get French back.
06 / 08
Text messages
- Are text messages included?
- Essential does not include text messages. Complete includes 1000 text messages per business each calendar month. There is also a daily sending limit of 50 per business. At either limit, further texts are not sent; there are no automatic overage charges. Check your usage in Settings → SMS, and contact us before you reach the limit if you need more.
- Is there a limit on text messages?
- Yes, a cap of 50 a day per business. It exists so a mistake, a loop or a bad import can never turn into a phone bill, and it can be raised if your volume genuinely needs it.
- What about consent rules for texts?
- Canada's anti-spam law treats an appointment reminder to someone who booked with you differently from marketing. DeMark sends transactional messages, honours STOP, and does not send campaigns. If you want to send marketing by text, that is a conversation to have first, not a button to press.
07 / 08
Your advisor and the chat
- What hours is support available?
- Send a support request from your dashboard; we reply in the same conversation and by email. Support hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Atlantic time. Usual first-response time: one business day. If something stops you working, say so in your request. To talk before signing up, request a call or call (506) 424-7974.
- Is the chat on my site an AI?
- No. It answers from the questions and answers you wrote yourself, and everything else it turns into a request for a person, with a name and a way to reply. Nothing reaches your client that a human has not written.
08 / 08
Websites
- Is a website included in the membership?
- Complete includes a website you build and edit yourself: choose one of the 44 designs, add your text and photos, and publish it on DeMark. You can connect your own domain. You buy the domain from the registrar of your choice; its cost is not part of the plan price.
- What does a website cost?
- Want us to design a site around your business? Custom website projects start at $900 and are quoted separately.