online booking
Blvd is great from the admin side, but it's customer facing side is TERRIBLE. I need ya'll to prioritize fixing this.
I switched to BLVD a year ago after a decade with booker. I made the switch because I needed some of the features that boulevard offers that booker didn't. BUT IT HAS COST ME SO MUCH IN BUSINESS. I get complaints and confusion from customers about the online booking every day. The BIG issue is not being able to see all the available times in one view. Instead, people have to select a time and get assigned to a therapist and then go through the special boulevard hell of clearing their cart of that appointment if they want to see if a different therapist is available. There is no way for them to just have a calendar view to see all of the available staff and times and then select which they want. I seriously have watched my business that I've grown for 13 years steadily decline since switching to boulevard because of the difficulty and frustration clients have with online booking. Every time someone else has made suggestions about this, I have voted critical on them, and they are all waitlisted. This has to be a TOP priority. Blvd is an amazing product for my business, except that this hugely important thing, ease of client booking, is a total disaster. Please take a look at this and create a calendar view where customers can see all available times and therapists and then make their selections. If you're not sure what I mean, go through booking an appointment on booker and you'll see what we need. I understand that it may be a big change to undertake, but someone in the company has to prioritize it. Please. It is so freaking important.
Asenath Avinash
shared this idea
Hey Asenath, thank you for all your feedback! We've noticed that you've left comments across several ideas, many of which relate to booking. We're doing a lot of research on the next iteration of self-booking right now, so our product team will be reaching out soon to schedule a call with you to gather more feedback.
On average, our default scheduling settings drive significant efficiency and increase business' service sales 30% in the first year using Boulevard. That said, we're also aware that the factory settings don't work for every business, and might not be the best fit for your business. With the latest Precision Scheduling refresh at the end of March, we now have more options for configuring self-booking, like adjusting the number of available times we offer to clients. A member of our support team will be reaching out to work with you on how best to adjust your settings for your preferences.
Best,
The Boulevard Product Team
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August Canant
commented
Agreed, i have so many clients calling because they said they have to many things in their cart and are unable to delete it. Please make the menu a little less confusion
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Alex DeVita
commented
This post makes me very nervous....we are switching from AePro with online booking capabilities one of the main driving factors, our salesperson made it look so easy in the demos. If we go through the huge ordeal of switching and run into usability issues with online booking, I will be furious.
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Kendra Lay
commented
I'm a new Blvd user coming from Jane. I'm honestly nervous about this because the online booking experience does seem a bit hard/not intuitive. We are switching from Jane because Blvd has features we wanted/needed...but I'm nervous about the client-facing booking experience and if it will cause us to lose business.
Some issues I see:
It's hard to figure out how to remove the selected appointment if you want to change it.
You should be able to see the pictures of the providers more easily. Some people may forget their provider's name but would remember their face. The pictures are tiny!
You should be able to start with broader categories and then "drill down" to smaller categories and appointment types. For those of us with multidisciplinary clinics with many different types of service categories, this would be a helpful way to organize appointments and make the lists less overwhelming for clients.
You should be able to customize which things show up in "Individual Appointments" and "Group Appointments" For instance, for something like couples massage I do not want to show up in individual appointments...but I can't customize that.
These are just some of the issues I'm seeing after a short time with Blvd. I hope that they will prove to be non-issues as we switch over, but I'm nervous!
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Sophie Guattari
commented
Agreed with the idea and all these comments, a client just told me " the system assigned me to someone", others say I could not cancel my appt, so they call us. We also have clients who say they gave up booking online because they cannot go back, or clear their choice etc... There are a LOT of negative comments on the online booking. We end up having to either text or call some new clients to confirm their stylist choice or if they do not request anyone in particular.
Additionnally, it would be great if they could name who refrred them to us.
Thanks -
Beret Loncar
commented
This review is extreme. The online booking flow is frustrating though. You should just be able to look at a day and see what is available with whom. It is rare for customers to shop by practitioner.
This is specific to a growth issue, ie. it is hardest for new customers and new customers are the most expensive customers. If we make it hard for new people...we stop growing. -
Ben Stevens
commented
We, too end up with confusion about online booking. People select a provider without realizing "First available" is an option, then they are locked out from seeing many potential appointments. I think it should default to First Available, and then have the option to choose a specific person.
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Asenath Avinash
commented
3 hours after submitting this idea I received this email from a new customer:
"Hello,I was given a giftcard for your spa and am excited to book my first massage. I tried to book through your website, but it forced me to select a specific massage therapist and then click through individual days trying to find an open spot. I was not able to find any that work with my schedule. Do you have any available slots either after 6 PM on a weekday or anytime on a weekend for a 50 minute deep tissue massage with a female massage therapist?
Thank you,
Rebekah"This is what I'm talking about. If she didn't have a gift card with us she would have given up and moved on. It's a non-stop issue. Until you can get us a calendar view can you at least make the "select a therapist" section say "select a therapist or see first available" or something to make the "first available" option more obvious to people? The way it looks now, its easy to miss that option and think you have to slect a therapist which is a complete guessing game for someone just trying to book an appointment that fits their schedule.
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Kahaila Hampton
commented
Making online booking more user friendly. A client wrote "Great features on Online Booking but it seems very hard to use especially when trying to remove existing selection and change type of therapy. It does not seem to let user "clear all" and redo selection" This is a major complaint. Is there a way to be ale to clear out selection easier without being stuck with same therapist?