Book4Time online booking
Book4Time has been the premiere software for managing small to large hotel/casino spas. The online booking module has been a huge success, with spas seeing a large portion of their revenue come through this avenue.
The problem
At first, online booking was offered for desktop only. With the growing need for a mobile accessible website, a secondary booking site (mobile only) was developed and offered. This required spas to configure both separately, and for the development teams to maintain both, including developing features twice. The addition of a third activity booking for gyms, and a fourth site for selling gift cards, the offering was robust, but scattered.
However, with outdated frameworks, broken user experiences, and an outdated designs, an overhaul was a must. Thus, a new platform was created that would combine the four offerings into one manageable, maintainable, and responsive site.
The new and improved, all-in-one solution
With client and user feedback, a guided experience was created that removed the friction when looking for, and selecting, available times for booking. The new design was user-centric, making the actions of the end user as intuitive as possible. Data suggested that the majority of users booked appointments through their phone, which led the design to be optimized for mobile, while still providing the same experience on tablet and desktop devices.
The initial concept
After gathering information from the various departments (Client Success, Sales, Support, Onboarding) and speaking to various clients about friction points and feature requests, an initial concept was created. This initial concept was presented to key stakeholders, the rest of the company, and more clients. Being refined after every step, phase one of the concept was completed. Features were broken down into small stories, that involved their own level of detail and research. These stories were prioritized, and a product roadmap (subjected to change) was created, and development beginning.
The launch
Version 1.0 launched in August 2020, with frequent releases happening every few weeks. Future releases will include retail products, booking classes/activities (with seat selection) and purchasing gift cards and certificates. Since our MVP does not include all the features of our current offerings, both versions will be available. When the new solution reaches feature parity with the current, spas will be encouraged to switch, allowing us to sunset the old platforms.
Sneak peak at retail products
With the Coronavirus pandemic, spas were forced to close and deal with a massive loss of revenue. This put a bigger need on incorporating retail products as another avenue for revenue. Retail products are currently available to sell in-store, but not online. This required a shift in our product roadmap to now include retail sooner rather than later. Below are concept designs of our retail product integration within our new online booking module.
