Bookfresh vs. Setster for Online Appointments
Update 5/8/2017
Since writing this post back in 2010, many appointment booking software has surfaced. I have settled on using YouCanBook.me. It works with iCloud, Microsoft and Google Calendars. That is enough for me!
Update: 4/3/2014 It has come to my attention that consumers are having more problems with Bookfresh support. One person told me they cannot get in touch with them by phone at all. So I am not endorsing Bookfresh and have not for several years. This is an older post comparing (at the time) two good programs. If you are using Google Calendar, I highly recommend you use and try: www.youcanbook.me (they have the best service and can customize it to fit your needs). Setster is still a great product as well. Do you remember the days before cell phones? Contractors and business owners had pagers and Daytimers. I remember my dad telling me that when he worked in the field painting for a homeowner, he’d have to ask the homeowner if he could use their phone to make a call or drive to the nearest pay phone. Life was simple. Asking to use someone’s phone was not an inconvenience. It was normal. The days of pagers, pay phones, daytimers and people waiting 24+ hours for a response are over! Now consumers want quick and fast response. If they send an email, they get impatient if they do not hear back from a contractor within 2 hours or less. Some consumers don’t even like talking on the phone. They would prefer scheduling their appointments online at their convenience. Well, to keep up with technology and this fast pace lifestyle, Bookfresh and Setster have made it a little easier for business owners to allow prospects and customers to schedule appointments online. Bookfresh and Setster are online scheduling and appointment booking software. A visitor can now go on to a contractor’s website, click on the “Contact Us” or “Book Now” button, select a service, view available time slots and schedule an appointment. Both of these companies have made online scheduling a breeze.
Update: 4/3/2014 It has come to my attention that consumers are having more problems with Bookfresh support. One person told me they cannot get in touch with them by phone at all. So I am not endorsing Bookfresh and have not for several years. This is an older post comparing (at the time) two good programs. If you are using Google Calendar, I highly recommend you use and try: www.youcanbook.me (they have the best service and can customize it to fit your needs). Setster is still a great product as well. Do you remember the days before cell phones? Contractors and business owners had pagers and Daytimers. I remember my dad telling me that when he worked in the field painting for a homeowner, he’d have to ask the homeowner if he could use their phone to make a call or drive to the nearest pay phone. Life was simple. Asking to use someone’s phone was not an inconvenience. It was normal. The days of pagers, pay phones, daytimers and people waiting 24+ hours for a response are over! Now consumers want quick and fast response. If they send an email, they get impatient if they do not hear back from a contractor within 2 hours or less. Some consumers don’t even like talking on the phone. They would prefer scheduling their appointments online at their convenience. Well, to keep up with technology and this fast pace lifestyle, Bookfresh and Setster have made it a little easier for business owners to allow prospects and customers to schedule appointments online. Bookfresh and Setster are online scheduling and appointment booking software. A visitor can now go on to a contractor’s website, click on the “Contact Us” or “Book Now” button, select a service, view available time slots and schedule an appointment. Both of these companies have made online scheduling a breeze. Which one do I like best? It is hard to say. I like them both. Bookfresh seems to have done a better job marketing themselves and has more testimonials from places like the New York Times and USA Today. Setster, is a younger company yet is slowly becoming a threat to compete neck to neck with Bookfresh. Pros of Bookfresh
- Mobile friendly: browser-based website to view and accept appointments
- Attractive and Easy to Use.
- Available on your Business Facebook Page and Email Campaigns
- Has a “mini site” for your company. This could replace your company contact page completely. It is easy to use and search-engine friendly
- Integrates pretty well with Outlook and Google Calendars
Cons of Bookfresh
- Customer support, in my opinion does not exist. Enough said.
- For contractors, there is no function to schedule specific areas of town. In other words, if you want to schedule appointments in the same zip code or area, there is no way to do this. Bookfresh makes scheduling easy for the consumer only.
- Bookfresh takes a consumer away from a contractor’s website. This is not good from a marketing perspective. It should be a pop up menu with the contractors brand and identity. When a consumer clicks on the Book Now button, Bookfresh takes over.
- Easy to for your customers to use on desktop or mobile devices.
- Customer Services. Each time I’ve had an issue, they’ve respond by email well…and even picked up the phone and called me to make sure I was happy.
- Pricing is good. Comparable with Bookfresh, YouCanBook.me and others
- Branding of Setster is limited. A Consumer stays on a contractor’s website when booking an appointment.
- You can have a developer customize Setster anyway you’d like!
- Easy to install buttons for email marketing, website and sending business emails.
- Works very well with Google Calendar.
- Invoice and Accept Payments online (Integrates with Quickbooks, Freshbooks and PayPal)
About David Chism
David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.
