

Rate my app: online appointments done right - psm42
http://bookingly.com

======
frederickcook
Very simple, aesthetically pleasing interface. My only complaint is that I
don't immediately see how this is any better than the alternatives (sending an
email which gets sucked in by Google calendar, Outlook, etc.). Also, I'm asked
to start putting information before I have a chance to find out.

Didn't investors have a saying 10 years ago, YAC (Yet Another Calendar)? What
makes this clearly different?

~~~
swombat
Agreed. It's definitely something people need, but isn't it something people
already have?

~~~
bensummers
Can you point to a really good SaaS system for handling appointments and
billing? (please! I'm looking for one)

Three random use cases:

* Medical and pseudo-medical practices

* Oven cleaning companies and other property maintenance services

* Advice services

Does something like Google Calendar work well for that? You could use it when
you have a diary secretary in the way, but not if you want a self-service
element.

~~~
bkorte
I hope it's not out of line to point out a competitor in a post like this, but
a very good friend of mine has this service:

<http://www.24hrassistant.com>

She primarily sells to hair stylists and those people, but has lots of
different customers that use it in pretty out-of-the-box ways...

~~~
bensummers
Interesting. That's close to what I had in mind, thanks.

------
lpolovets
When the page loads, I see an event under today's date that says "click here
to read me". I then click on the calendar entry and... nothing happens. It
took me a few seconds to figure out that I'm supposed to click on the
description that appears in the left sidebar.

On a related note, the description in the left sidebar is the same as in the
calendar view, except it also has a start time. You could just put the start
time into the calendar view and get rid of the sidebar description altogether,
saving users from a little extra navigation.

~~~
psm42
Thanks for the feedback. I've already got this change planned.

------
bensummers
I wrote a booking app some years ago, and the biggest UI win was to choose the
date and time first, then enter all the details. This matched the workflow of
the customer much better: someone would phone up, and the first thing they
wanted was a time for the appointment. Once they'd got something which worked,
then they were very happy to hand over their details.

Are you planning an API so that other sources can read and write data? (eg
client contact details)

Is the Pro version suitable for use with confidential client lists?

~~~
psm42
Hi there - thanks for taking the time to look and provide some feedback. No
API plans yet. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by a "confidential" client
list - the list of clients for a business using bookingly.com is never made
available to anybody other than that business owner in bookingly. Check out
the free trial of the pro version to have a look.

------
JangoSteve
I built an app last year for a client that included doing booking for dentist
offices. One of the big things in getting people to use a new booking tool for
their business is to allow them to block out times and business hours, before
allowing others to just start creating appointments all willy-nilly.

Also, it's important to allow the business owner to set a minimum clearance
for new appointments. E.g. if a dentist decides that they need at least an
hour-block for a half-hour appointment (prep and cleanup time, etc), then the
calendar shouldn't allow a patient to schedule an appointment in a half-hour
opening.

But overall, I'm also unclear on how this alternative is better than Google
Calendar? Is there a private-label version that could be integrated easily
into my own site? Though, I guess Google Calendar now kinda has that as well.

------
silverpen
Okay, everything was fine and looked nice until I tried to book an
appointment.

It's fair to expect the person making the booking to create an account.

However, to expect the receiving party of the booking request to also sign up
for account is asking for too much and is unlikely to happen.

Also, why do you ask for people's contact details (address, phone, ...). Do
you really need that info?. If anything just put the necessary stuff on the
create an account form and put the rest of the info on a profile page that
people can edit later.

~~~
psm42
Hmm - I obviously need to improve some descriptive text in that email - thanks
for the feedback. People receiving bookings made through it definitely don't
need to create an account. They can just receive the email with the iCalendar
attachment, save it in their calendar app as usual and continue on their merry
way.

------
aik
Looks really nice. The month forward/back buttons seem a bit too small/hidden
though imo. Took a second too long to find them.

------
lee
Really nice looking interface. Would like to see how much the Pro version
costs without having to sign up.

~~~
psm42
Your request is in my Jira.

------
dho
Nice interface, though I'm missing a sign up link.

