Each profession has its specificities, its own constraints and therefore its own needs. Online reservation software for a nail technician will be different from online reservation software. Each online reservation system responds to some extent to all the needs of professionals, but there is no software that can perfectly meet the needs of all professionals and for all activities.
The General Purpose
General purpose software may be suitable for you if you are very flexible in your day-to-day management. A doctor does not need to send his promotions by SMS for example, but he will need advanced data encryption features. A beautician needs to indicate rates per session or for a subscription, but not a doctor or a mechanic. Not to mention the fact that the visual identity offered by a general-purpose system will have difficulty attracting your customers and offering an adequate user experience. If you choose a generalist system you will probably have a lot of concessions to make on a daily basis.
If a good reservation software exists for your field of activity, it will generally be better to turn to it than to choose generalist software.
The price of the software
The price of the software is an important element but it should not be the main criterion, especially if you have a large clientele. Indeed, a reservation software will allow you to save time on a daily basis and therefore money, if you have enough customers it will pay off very quickly. For a subscription of around 50 euros per month, it is enough for the software to save you at least an hour of time per month for it to become profitable for you.
On the other hand, choosing a system that is not necessarily the most suitable but less expensive runs the risk of wasting time on a daily basis and therefore ultimately losing money. In case of online calendar booking this is important.
You will also have the choice between payment by subscription (the most frequent) or by commission deducted from each sale made. First, commissions usually make the software more expensive to use than subscriptions, but that’s a calculation you have to make. Secondly, if it is a commission, it means that you sell your services directly via the software, which can be a barrier to making appointments for many potential clients who will prefer to make their appointment by phone. . Thirdly, it is more and more frequent to consume a “No obligation” service, but it is still preferable to check that at any time you are free to change software without difficulty.
Choose software for its reliability
You don’t necessarily think of this sort of thing at first, but to be effective your software must be available. Are there often bugs? Are they treated quickly? Are the unavailability of the reservation system recurring? Is the software reliable? These are all questions that will be difficult to answer because it is obviously not the salespeople who will tell you.