IME people will do things like book online and then call because they don't trust the booking app. And that's the people that will bother to fill out the form rather than just ring up anyway.
If you're relying on an online system too it has to be absolutely solid - which means expense. Or at least more expense than a wall-calendar or a paper diary [book].
It's hard to have an over-view of, say, the next couple of months work with an online system - a big wall-calendar makes things easier to visualise. Of course you could have a massive touch-screen computer ...
If you're running a salon, with multiple barbers then I can see it being cost-effective to try and have customers self-schedule but it seems for a single barber that they'd have to be very up-market to make it worth while.
Would you go to a worse barber so you can schedule online instead of by phone? Would you pay more, how much, to be able to schedule online?
Personally if I use a barber's it's a simple drop-in service.
[Any suggestions for an appointments booking system to check out?]
> It's hard to have an over-view of, say, the next couple of months work with an online system - a big wall-calendar makes things easier to visualis
I don't doubt that you're right, but it should be much easier with a computer:
- It can "think" for itself. For example you could ask it for all available 1 hour slots on a Tuesday or Friday in the next two months, that are also after 3' O clock, and.. and..
- Regarding overview, you should be able to zoom in and out. Think google maps vs. normal maps.
Better yet, upload your google calendar an let it suggest a few appropriate time. Click the one you want. Done.
Edit: does that last one exist? Would be a cool thing to make.. (but then again, does anyone actually want that? :)
WRT overview I was thinking from the proprietor's perspective.
The "upload your calendar" might work well but people won't want to give up their data so I'm thinking a client side component could transmute all a person's calendar entries to remove the details then upload and do a match with the store.
Glancing across is always going to work better than zooming IMO.
If you're relying on an online system too it has to be absolutely solid - which means expense. Or at least more expense than a wall-calendar or a paper diary [book].
It's hard to have an over-view of, say, the next couple of months work with an online system - a big wall-calendar makes things easier to visualise. Of course you could have a massive touch-screen computer ...
If you're running a salon, with multiple barbers then I can see it being cost-effective to try and have customers self-schedule but it seems for a single barber that they'd have to be very up-market to make it worth while.
Would you go to a worse barber so you can schedule online instead of by phone? Would you pay more, how much, to be able to schedule online?
Personally if I use a barber's it's a simple drop-in service.
[Any suggestions for an appointments booking system to check out?]