Online Scheduling Services
August 1, 2010 at 12:26 am (Massage)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Read this, then read the update on February 23, 2011
I have a new business opening in two days. (!) It will be a second location to complement my wellness clinic and will focus more on spa treatments. I spent two months researching every nuance of software services to find a new scheduling system that will accommodate two locations. I reviewed nearly 100 services and programs.
The first thing I did was an extensive Google search. I found a few programs, but not quite what I was looking for. I was very disappointed – and worried. What I did find was a fantastic site that informed me about dozens and dozens of options: Capterra. It helped me reach the conclusion that I preferred an online service rather than a locally installed program.
I quickly chose spa-booker.com. Two months went by and I realized that choice was a big mistake. The program was tedious, inflexible and did not live up to promises made by the sales rep. Some reps were nice to work with and some reps – well, it was like having a conversation with a teenager trying speed for the first time. I canceled my account, asked for my money back, and when they denied my request I enlisted the help of my credit card company to get the money back on my behalf. They did.
I learned to not believe everything I read at Capterra as the information is submitted by the vendors, but overall it was a very helpful site.
Based on what I gleaned from Capterra, I created my list of criteria for the new business and started the search anew. The list has 6 categories: must have, should have, would be nice, way cool if not too expensive, don’t know, and don’t need. I downloaded free trials like crazy and tediously dissected online demos over and over. I left no stone unturned.
Before I tell you my final choices, let me first say a word about genbook. I’ve been using genbook for 2.5 years and highly recommend it for those who only need a scheduling system and don’t need the software to manage POS or the financial side of things. It’s dependable, it easy to use, it’s beautiful to look at – well, relative to other options – and the customer service has been fast and reliable. They supported me at every turn. There is even a free option that is very usable for a moderate private or small group practice. There is no excuse to not have online scheduling. It’s free! Probably 90% of my appointments are self-booked online, often in the late evening. 90% of new clients book online before I even meet or talk to them. Seriously, it’s the best thing you can do to increase value and convenience for your clients – and therefore increase your revenue. Another good program in this category is Bookfresh. It has a free version, but it really is not usable for more than a trial period.
For those who need more, here is my list. You are welcome to add your recommendation for software in the comments and I will tell you why I rejected it. 
In alphabetical order:
Book4time
Millennium
MindBodyOnline
Rosy by Floydware
Millennium is WAY COOL but actually turned out to be too complicated and WAAAAY too expensive. Thousands of dollars. And with two locations the price is doubled. Every little feature added extra cost. Customer service wasn’t so great, either. Book4time is also expensive. The set up fee is about $1500 and the monthly fee is about $200-400 depending on sales volume. It just squeaked into the affordable range as it has so many cool features that it seemed I could make up the expense with the extra bookings that it would generate. And all the features are included in the base price. I decided to go with book4time. However the customer service went from bad to non-existant. The sales rep was difficult to get a hold of and when I left a message saying I had picked book4time, he didn’t return my call and I haven’t heard from him since.
This left Rosy and MindBody. Both excellent choices. There really is no wrong answer between the two. Rosy has the advantage of being more user friendly and more affordable. It would have been about $80 a month for me. It is also a bit more rudimentary than MindBody. MindBody is more rich in features including payroll integration and an online retail store. It costs about $170/month at my level. I would have chosen Rosy except for the fact that my payroll is going to be very complicated. Rosy does not have payroll integration nor does it calculate commissions. So Mindbody was the winner.
It’s been a few weeks now and I have not regretted my decision. The customer service has been stellar – i.e. fast and effective. It’s a complicated system and some of the processes are tedious. But I have a lot of control over the features. I can customize them to suit my needs. That means a lot to me. It was missing one item from the “must have” column. It currently does not support the booking of multiple services. (They assure me it will be coming soon.) On the other hand it has a few items from the “way cool” list including memberships and class enrollments.
So there you go.
Body Massage said,
September 7, 2010 at 5:59 am
I offer massages in London and have always opted for cash, thereby losing some customers. This article is helpful for me to take a look regarding other payment options for my massage services
INeedaMassage said,
September 23, 2010 at 8:19 am
Massage traditionally a cash transaction but good to consider other payment options to bump up business – thanks
Tonya said,
September 30, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Awesome article. Thanks for putting it up. I had just put together my own list when I happened across your site. How timely! I had everything on your list except for Millennium, plus I had Spabiz.com. I am leaning heavily towards Book4Time and MindBody. Great customer service is a key requirement for me so I’m definitely going to be peering closely at MindBody now that you’ve given a good review on that. I’ve been in business for over a year and a half, much of that time I used Spa-Booker and what a costly mistake that was. My last straw was the SpaFinder Deal Days – they sent out an email blast listing my location as Miami, FL — my business is in Massachusetts! Then they promised to fix the issue but didn’t – I wound up not even making enough from Deal Days clients to cover the expense of participation. I was so mad that I sent them an email giving them 30 days written notice that I’d be closing my SpaBooker and SpaFinder accounts – they canceled my SpaFinder Profile the next day — the Deal Days event was still going on so clients were not able to find me on the site anymore even though I had paid to participate. What steller customer support. You are dead on about SpaBooker and their support and SpaFinder (which makes SpaBooker) is the same!
Tonya said,
October 1, 2010 at 12:06 am
Capterra’s list is great. Here’s another list I found that might be helpful:
http://www.discoverspas.com/spa_business_resources/spa_software.shtml
Wellness WORx Massage Bozeman said,
October 1, 2010 at 11:14 pm
We use mindbody online for our scheduling needs as well as business tracking and reporting needs. It seems to work quite will but isn’t very pretty or streamlined in areas where customers interact with it. I would prefer schedulicity but they don’t have POS integrated….yet. If they ever get a POS integrated I will make the switch immediately.
Darren Negraeff said,
October 11, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Hi Lynn,
That’s a great article you have there. I love to read about online booking and different users’ takes on the different services (full disclosure: I’m the Marketing Director for OpenCal – an online booking solution for small businesses (http://opencal.com)). I have talked to some other users of MindBody and they reported similar things – great customers service and a full suite of features. However, as you mentioned with Genbook, if you don’t need POS, adding online booking is still a great move for almost any business. While there are quite a few options out there, we believe OpenCal is the best online booking solution out there, particularly from an aesthetics and usability perspective, but obviously we’re biased!
Ross Bergfalk said,
October 14, 2010 at 12:35 am
Great article. Thanks for the effort and thoughtfulness. I it is information like this that makes running a business easier. Keep it up.
KC said,
October 15, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Hello, I have been in need of an online booking module or my Thai massage website for quite a while now. Today I read your post and I signed up with Genbook to get me started. It was so easy I can’t believe I didn’t have one already. I continued to read your entire front page and love your advice. You have officially gained a new follower, me!
Alberta Momentum Massage said,
November 6, 2010 at 10:24 am
We have a clinic in Edmonton, Alberta and have found online booking to be a huge help in generating new clients, as well as making things easy for the regular clients. Did you look at appointment.com? They are a little light on the customer service side of things, but it is an affordable program with pretty powerful tools. Some of the administartion can be a little tedius, but the day to day use is quite easy and reliable.
Great site! Keep up the good work!
massage orlando florida said,
November 6, 2010 at 12:06 pm
First of all Good luck on opening a new business! Your website and the blog look great. As you probably figured out a good website is very important for a business as a good marketing tool. Keep on posting your success stories
Dana said,
November 19, 2010 at 1:00 am
Nice blog! I’ll be sure to check back often. Thanks!
massage business said,
November 25, 2010 at 4:37 pm
The trials and tribulations… Thanks for sharing all of this information on scheduling software for us all.
Retail manager CV Template said,
November 29, 2010 at 4:40 am
Thanks for the capterra.com..its really to help any business needs..i have bookmarked this for my future..as i may start a business just after Christmas..please keep sharing if you have any new thoughts on business!
Richard said,
December 6, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Thanks for putting this information out there. Always good to get unbiased viewpoints as the sales pitch can appear compelling at the time and it’s only down the track you realize that you’ve been sold a dud.
jjones444 said,
January 7, 2011 at 12:14 pm
There are different types of software that can help with your scheduling. I know some physical therapy software options offer scheduling, so I would assume there is software like that for whatever your business is. If you are starting your own business, it’s probably best to buy the software and organize your online scheduling off the bat. That way everything will run more smoothly.
Maria Payroll said,
January 10, 2011 at 12:21 am
Great post. Thank you for sharing what you have learned. This would be really helpful to a lot of people. Starting a business is a bit difficult. You have to know what your target customers want, so that you would know what to offer them. Good luck on your new business venture.
Massagem Tailandesa said,
January 18, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Great list. I´m gonna try one of them.
Thanks.
Sally Supply said,
January 18, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Congratulations on the business expansion! That is fantastic news and the growth will probably very welcome in the surrounding area. Some supply chain software may come in useful in coordinating and meeting the demand of two separate locations.
Massage Miami said,
March 19, 2011 at 10:15 pm
I like Genbook. It is only $30/month with the ABMP discount. More bookings than I can organize in my iPhone is a problem I’d like to have.
Stephanie said,
April 30, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Between Mindbody and Spabiz, which did you prefer?
Massage Geek said,
April 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Easy: MindBody
Aaron Young said,
October 13, 2011 at 10:14 am
Great post! Thanks for sharing the experience you had with Capterra. To anyone else that needs help finding the right software solution for your business, come check us out. We are a free service and we would love to help you out!!
http://www.capterra.com/software_request
Buttercup spa said,
October 27, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Thanks so much for yalls great posts. Helped me a lot I being thinking which software should I go for . These posts help me greatly. Btw has anybody heard of or tried demandforce? I read in news that it’s one of the beat ad far as for medical and dental work but not sure how is the out come with spas. They are
Also partnered with google so they suppose to cover more basics.
bv said,
November 3, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Thanks for this post. I am a spa owner and have been doing the same due dilligence. Here is what I know – spa booker has some amazing features but we have had severe latency issues that are causing our spa a lot of problems. During peak spa times the site will either freeze up or move like molasses. They kept blaming it on our internet and were not helpful. We spent $100s of dollars upgrading our internet and the problem persists. So we are looking into other options
I had a sales call with MindBody today and I was not impressed. They lack a lot of the features that we love about spa booker (i.e. no auto email confirmations –only reminders, you cant generate links for specific services, you can’t set a send date for gift cards, which is a nightmare for holiday git cards…the list goes on)
So now we have to make a tough choice…