Monday, September 17, 2018

This @!*!&*! Online Booking

Bear with me, folks! I promise online booking will be reliably available and running smoothly very soon.

Back at the end of 2012, while I was recovering from a broken wrist and forced to take 8 weeks off work, I spent some time researching, and painstakingly test-driving, online booking software options.

I eventually settled on one that met my rather persnickety criteria at the time and spent the next 3 years merrily paying their fee for a service that was pricey as online booking for a solo tech goes-- but worked just the way I wanted it to.

When I came back to the salon a few months ago, I promised myself I wasn't going to be such a control freak. This time around, nails is a hobby, not a full time career. I'm not running my own empire anymore (at least not in the nail industry) and it makes perfect sense to use the same system the salon I'm booth renting in does.

Right?

Except the salon uses a system I test drove back in 2012/13. I remembered that it frustrated me then, but I told myself that was because I was being unyielding. It's a popular salon booking system and it works for thousands of people-- it's just me and I can get over myself.

Weeks later-- it might just be me. But it's my business. It's my schedule. You are my clients and this is your time and schedule as well.

You deserve better.

The tiny glitches and inconveniences of working with software that I don't find intuitive costs us both time and patience. The lack of features and ease of interface on the back end that make me crazy result in too many errors in managing my schedule.

Vagaro and I don't get along.

So, you may notice that it (should) be impossible to book an appointment with me online at the moment. Please feel free to text me!

I am testing some options that are new since I chose my previous system, and revisiting a couple that didn't meet my criteria then but might now.

In the end...it's very possible that I will end up with something that's already proven itself. For the moment, you might find my "book now" button taking you to new and exciting places as I try to find a perfect fit.

Feel free to give me feedback on what you like and don't like.