A good appointment scheduling system?

Hello all, so I am in the process of wrapping up the final touches of my new business, and I just wanted to see if any of you had any recommendations for a good, appointment scheduling system; an appointment book, an APP, a website, a computer program...? Preferablely one that is easy to use, and inexpensive...

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Routt on October 14, 2013 at 10:53pm

I did a lot of research on this before I opened up shop last month and did free trials on several systems. By far, the most user friendly (client and esti) has been Full Slate. It was SUPER easy to set up, I am able to view my schedule and book appointments on my iphone, you can add a "Book Appointment" app to your business facebook page, and they give you the option of selling gift certificates and packages too for a reasonable fee ($5 additional per month - maybe, don't quote me on that :-) There are many email templates that you can customize and your service menu is easy to set up and customize too. And ASCP members get a 40% discount making it about $18/month.

Style Seat - basic booking is free. Cons: phone app is glitchy, doesn't offer many features compared to others, week's schedule wasn't easy to view. Also when a brand new client books online, they are emailed twice (welcome email and appt confirmation email) and texted once (at least with most of my clients).

I also tried Genbooks and Bookfresh but liked Full Slate better. I looked into others but can't remember their names.

Definitely do some free trials and figure out what works best for you. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by bettina on October 17, 2013 at 4:07pm

Does Full Slate have a POS system? I am looking for online booking system too and would like to add product inventory/sales. Do they give you a scanner, c/c swiper? It sounds GREAT!

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Permalink Reply by Nina on October 17, 2013 at 4:30pm

I will have to check out Full Slate, yes I do need some type of POS, I wonder if it would be that much more complicated to use a different POS system than the appointment system, incase I can't find an affordable system that has both. SpaBiz sounds great, but $100 a month just really really isn't realistic for me right now, all of the other funds for my business plus my apartment rent and phone, car, insurances, bills bills bills, I'm still only 24 just starting ! But eventually when I do have the funds, it sounds like something that would be ideal.

I also wonder if anyone has ever heard of "The Square", it's this little device that you connect to your iphone, and you use it to swipe & charge your client/customer's credit cards anytime anywhere...you just install the APP to go with it, that kind of has a POS system on it. I heard its great for starting a business, I'm interested to know if anyone here has used it/what everyone's thoughts are on it?

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Permalink Reply by bettina on October 17, 2013 at 5:09pm

I have the Square and I LOVE it! Easy to use. I also am wondering if I can do what you're doing.. different systems. I'm thinking Full Slate and Square might be the way to go. Although I haven't figured out Square's inventory system yet LOL!

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Permalink Reply by Nina on October 17, 2013 at 5:47pm

Awesome, after hearing other of feedback about the Sqaure, I actually bought it a month ago when I saw it on sale really cheap, figured its always returnable but it could probably come in great use to me, I just wanna find out more about it before I make it my official payment option, do you find the pay rate good for it? I read that it can charge either 2.75% per swipe or a monthly fee, thinking I would go with the % per swipe to start for awhile first.. I'm excited to see how the whole POS system works on it now.

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Permalink Reply by bettina on October 17, 2013 at 6:43pm

Yes! it's 2.75% per swipe (and includes AMEX) which is great :)

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Permalink Reply by Relax & Rejuvenate on October 16, 2013 at 8:20am

Are you also retailing? If so, you need a point of sale (POS) system too.

What is your future? Don't buy for now, buy for where you want to be. If you end up switching systems 2 years from now, chances are you won't be able to transfer your client records to a new system.

SpaBiz is only about $100 a month and has a lot of great features you may not need now, but will if you grow

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Permalink Reply by Dana White on November 5, 2013 at 3:56pm

We use Spa-Booker, and it has all of the services you mentioned. It's very easy to use and comes with POS software, appointment scheduling, a mobile app, and ecommerce and website tools right from the start. I use it to run my entire business, and I've never had any complaints. There is a monthly fee and a start up charge, but it's well worth it for the service.