

Ask HN: Review my startup, Reservv.com (Appointment Scheduler & Reminder) - singer

Hi, all. I've been working on Reservv for about 6 months now, and just launched it over the weekend. I'd appreciate feedback on the idea, the look of the site, clarity of the site explanation, signup process, etc. The good, the bad, the ugly... I am interested in whatever you have to offer. Thanks for looking!
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karlclement
Hello there,

Overall application idea is great and very useful for any service based
company. Although there are many things that would need to change or be added
to make it that much more appealing.

-First of all, the websites design needs some work. I find it to be plain, unappealing and untrustworthy. With a brighter design, you can attract a lot more users. Maybe try choosing some main accent colors and applying them throughout the application.

-From a Developers point of view, the application runs very smoothly. Solid programming but missing a lot of features.

-I would concentrate on adding Google Cal syncing capabilities. I understand that it has already been mentioned but its too important to pass on. Many service companies use Google Apps to organize their scheduling. This would make things a lot easier for any user. Maybe even integrate with other project management applications such as Basecamp or any other.

-For the booking process, I think you should also ask the most information possible from the client. This will make things easier for the company to contact the user.

-The domain name is simple and easy to remember, but I would try to find a shorter abbreviated version to host the users apps.

-You could also allow the registered users to insert their custom logo for a small one time fee.

-For future consideration, maybe even add an advanced payment ability. Allowing the clients to pay by credit card in advanced and send the payment directly to the company (Paypal, Authorize.net etc.) You can also charge a small percentage of the transaction as commission.

Overall great idea. Keep up the good work! Good luck!

~~~
singer
Thanks for your feedback. I have some questions:

1) Can you give me examples of some sites that have designs that are more
trusting to your eye?

2) Care to go into the list of features that I'm missing?

3) Are you suggesting that calendar information be imported from Google
Calendar or exported to it? Exporting information should be easy. I'm not
really sure what type of information could be imported since the information
stored in Google Calendar is probably too basic.

4) I was thinking of adding a section in the admin that would allow for custom
fields to be added. Add additional fields and give them a custom label.

5) Shorter than Reservv? Could be tough.

6) I'm going to allow the logo to be changed at no cost. It's on my to-do
list.

7) I was thinking of adding the option to prompt customers to enter their
payment information when making an appointment. If the appointment is not
cancelled, the payment would be automatically processed at the time of the
appointment.

~~~
karlclement
Thank you for your questions. Here are my answers:

1)-getharvest.com -mint.com -box.net -dropbox.com -basecamphq.com -xero.com

As you may have noticed, these are all web application using one major color
to make things a little more appealing. They all use pixel perfect attention
to detail. From a first impression perspective, a solid design really counts
for most users.

2)Google Calendar integration, Google Apps addon, Custom branding(which is on
your todo list), online payment processing.

3)I meant exporting the appointments into a Google Calendar. Like you have
mentioned, you can use the API to add the appointments into the calendar.
Maybe even add an alert.

4)Custom fields would be a great idea. Very useful.

5)I agree, but there's no harm in having a look. Try www.domai.nr. It will
abbreviate or remove vowels to make your url shorter. It will also show you
different TLD domains you could use.

6)Great idea. If you want, you can add a small light colored link below the
main box that links back to reservv.com.

7)Even better. That way you won't have to deal with any refunds. Good idea.

If you have any more questions or you would like my opinion, let me know. Good
luck with your application!

Karl

~~~
singer
Thanks for following up. Your feedback is very helpful.

------
drtse4
A few things:

\- Missing checks on phone number and email, i can write everything in those
fields (do it client-side)

\- Does this have a Company admin panel? Something that shows them the list of
appointments and gives the ability to manage them, get the info of the
customer if needed, etc...?

\- This is clearly a MVP, i suggest to put some time/money in the site layout
when the back-end will be complete.

\- I'm not sure the "no monthly fee" is the way to go. Considering that is
rarely used elsewhere it could be a good candidate for some A/B testing.

And btw, it's clear that you are competing with the product of patio11,
interested in seeing how it will go.

~~~
singer
Thanks for your feedback. To answer your questions:

\- The reminder is not optional.

\- Yes, you can do all that you mentioned in the admin.

\- This is a fully working product. If you sign up, you can see the admin
right away. Perhaps I should add a link to a demo admin area.

\- I'm not sure what you're suggesting about the lack of a monthly fee. Can
you explain some more?

\- I don't think this competes with patio11's product. As far as I know,
customers do not use his product to schedule appointments.

~~~
drtse4
1- I mean, it looks like you don't verify that the phone number provided is
really a number and it doesn't check the presence of @ (or use the usual
regexp) in the email field. Also, if it's publicly available on the web, i'll
add some captcha or similar to it.

4- I'd try offering (or A/B testing it for some time) both the pay-per-use and
monthly fee option(limited number of appointments/month) and decide which
works better. Intuitively i agree that the users _should_ prefer the pay per
use option, but sometimes testing proves that our assumptions where wrong. But
i understand that testing this, you'll need to eventually support both
contract type even if you decide to keep only one...

5- Yep my fault, i just remembered the calendar interface and assumed it had
customer facing pages too.

~~~
singer
1 - Good points. There is a setting to require customers to confirm
appointments via email. If not confirmed within 1 hour, the appointment
automatically cancells itself.

------
booduh
Interesting app.

Thoughts:

\- Reduce perceived effort to complete reservation. For example, why can't I
just view a calendar with open days and times? I could click on the time I
want, then get a quick prompt for my name, one contact method, and the
services I'd like.

\- Allow integration with online/offline Calendar apps (Google Calendar,
Outlook, etc). Users should be free to use the calendar they have now, if
they'd like.

Edge case: what will you do to prevent a conflict between services offered and
time available? For example, nail trimmings are only on Mondays from 10-2pm,
ear cleanings are everyday from 4-5pm, and I'd like to schedule both.

~~~
singer
Thanks for the thoughts. Here are some questions for you:

\- How would I know which days and times are open before you tell me which
services you'd like to schedule? It seems this idea would result in more
effort since you might have to go back to the calendar a bunch of times
because the services are not available on the selected date and time.

\- It's not possible to schedule two services in a single appointment if they
are not offered on the same day. I'm sure this will come up at some point. How
would you work around that?

~~~
booduh
It would be great to have everything as one integrated experience. Perhaps you
can have the calendar and services side-by-side (services on the left and
calendar on the right). You can dynamically change available options as the
user makes their selection(s). For example, if a user selects a date and time
for which trimming isn't available, then that option is dimmed (also, tell the
user why).

In lieu of such a setup, simply ask for services first (as you are doing now),
then introduce the calendar.

The scheduling conflict seems like an edge case. Not sure what to tell you.

------
olivolive
This is an interesting idea, and I like your site design.

You have two types of users, the business owner who offers appointments, and
their customer. You've done a nice job showing what the end customer will do
to make an appointment, but you haven't explained what the business owner will
have to do to get set up. The business owner is the one making the decision to
use your service. I would change the How It Works section on the main page to
be from their perspective, and keep the current How It Works to show what
their customers will see.

~~~
sursani
I agree with olivolive. You have a nice layout but the only thing that is
lacking is not clearly showing who the product is for. Maybe have two big tabs
visually that shows how it works for customers and businesses.

~~~
singer
I added some more content on the homepage to show off the main sections of the
admin area.

------
singer
<http://www.Reservv.com>

------
Blankwood
Can u tell us a bit more about the use case you are trying to build for?
thanks!

~~~
singer
\- A company sets up a Reservv site and posts it on their website or business
card.

\- A customer wants to schedule an appointment with the company, so they visit
the link (e.g. <http://www.Reservv.com/Demo>).

\- The customer is presented with a list of services offered by the company.

\- The customer is able to choose a date and time for their appointment from
the available openings. Dates and times can be displayed in the customer's
time zone if the company does business in different time zones.

\- The customer decides how they'd like to be reminded (phone, text or email)
and schedules the appointment.

\- The business owner, employee and/or customer receives an appointment
confirmation via email/text. When the appointment nears, the business owner,
employee and/or customer receives an appointment reminder via
email/text/phone. The customer can cancel the appointment via email/text/phone
when the reminder is delivered.

It's a win-win situation for all parties involved. The business owner saves
time. The employees are notified of new appointments. Customers can schedule
at their own convenience.

~~~
chipocabra
I think its cool. :)

Here's a suggestion though. Seeing as its an appointment making service
basically most companies would like to have this service through their own
sites.

So, it would be rad if you made a javascript plugin that your clients can pop
in their own sites so that their clients can make appointments right from
their own site.

~~~
singer
Or maybe even create an API to pull the services, appointments times, and
schedule the appointment.

~~~
chipocabra
Yeah sure. But something tells me it'll be less technical people who'll use
this service(which is better imho :D) so I'd focus on a simpler plug and play
solution.

But setting up an API wouldn't be too hard so why not.

------
rprasad
I don't intend to be mean, but the first thing I thought of when I visited the
site was: why would a business choose to turn over the branding and
interactions for their scheduling system, i.e., the most important part of
their sales process, to a site with with an improperly spelled domain?

IOW, what is so compelling about Reservv to justify this risk and lack of
control over customer data?

Also, following up on the first question: Will be you following up with
branding features? Will you be allowing customers to download customer data
entered into the Reservv system? If not, why not, and how will you explain
this to businesses?

~~~
singer
The idea was to use a short domain name -- in order to keep the link shorter.
A lot of customers probably would not even notice the domain name if linking
from a company website. I suppose the same could be said about
schedulicity.com, but their name doesn't seem to be affecting their business.

Via the Reservv admin, the company has complete access to their customer data.
Companies cannot download customer data through the admin. That's a good idea,
but wasn't a primary goal for the first release.

The colors, background and text can be customized on the site that the
customer interacts with when scheduling an appointment. The Reservv logo
cannot be replaced. That's on my to-do list though.

