Rate my app: online appointments done right
bookingly.com
bookingly.com
Didn't investors have a saying 10 years ago, YAC (Yet Another Calendar)? What makes this clearly different?
Three random use cases:
* Medical and pseudo-medical practices
* Oven cleaning companies and other property maintenance services
* Advice services
Does something like Google Calendar work well for that? You could use it when you have a diary secretary in the way, but not if you want a self-service element.
She primarily sells to hair stylists and those people, but has lots of different customers that use it in pretty out-of-the-box ways...
I know a company that build billing for medical and they tried to build out a product like this but the people running it just hated it. They either get people all booked in horrible times or for a non-busy place people see that and associate it with being bad. One solution they never tried is trying to make it like the Apple store booking engine.
genbook.com seems to have some decent traction in the space
In fact, the whole app that you've looked at is really just meant to be a big funnel for the actual service. The paid part is a comprehensive web-based app for managing bookings for a small business, aimed at being used at the front desk (and indirectly by clients booking through the site).
On a related note, the description in the left sidebar is the same as in the calendar view, except it also has a start time. You could just put the start time into the calendar view and get rid of the sidebar description altogether, saving users from a little extra navigation.
Are you planning an API so that other sources can read and write data? (eg client contact details)
Is the Pro version suitable for use with confidential client lists?
Also, it's important to allow the business owner to set a minimum clearance for new appointments. E.g. if a dentist decides that they need at least an hour-block for a half-hour appointment (prep and cleanup time, etc), then the calendar shouldn't allow a patient to schedule an appointment in a half-hour opening.
But overall, I'm also unclear on how this alternative is better than Google Calendar? Is there a private-label version that could be integrated easily into my own site? Though, I guess Google Calendar now kinda has that as well.
It's fair to expect the person making the booking to create an account.
However, to expect the receiving party of the booking request to also sign up for account is asking for too much and is unlikely to happen.
Also, why do you ask for people's contact details (address, phone, ...). Do you really need that info?. If anything just put the necessary stuff on the create an account form and put the rest of the info on a profile page that people can edit later.