Booker Reviews

Excellent for booking appointments for guests. Easy to pull up upcoming and past bookings with names and dates.

This is a wonderful program that hasn't failed us yet. We have our employees using this program with no issues at all.

Tracking orders has never been this easy thanks to the mobile application. The interface is very high quality. It is a user friendly application.

Integrating with more tools may be much better for users, but still very useful.

Admin backend is solid and reliable.
Lots of options to customize. Too many at times since finding just the right setting can take 15-20 minutes or require a phone call to customer service.

Customer front end is weak and confusing. Booker does not allow certain booking options (CF2) to be used in iFrames. This forces you to send customers to a 3rd party website (not yours) to make appointments. Fixes and feature requests come slowly if at all.
If you are interested in using Booker be sure you know what you are getting into before you commit. It is very difficult to get 100, 500, or thousands of customers to move to a new appointment system if you later decide Booker is not what you expected. Get used to what Booker looks like now and be okay with that for the long haul. Don't plan on being able to add a feature of even getting Booker to fix bugs. Booker will show you a long list of "fixes" and revision numbers of updated software. I have never known any of these updates to address a bug of concern we had with the SaaS. Customer requests are ignored and bugs are described as features. Yes, they really are! For example, in some places staff names are sorted by first name and in other places they are sorted by last name. This does make it feel like you are using different software products and will infuriate you at times.
Different interfaces all work differently. In other words, they all feel like different products. We use the admin interface, the Booker iOS app, the Booker customer app, CF1, and Facebook app. That seems like lots of great options until you realize how disjointed and different they all are. You are not merely learning one software package, you really have to learn them all.

I loved the big calendar view because it made our jobs that much easier. You didn't have to go digging for information.

Some of the features I didn't even know we had were hidden and sometimes it would freeze up or give issues during payment but customer support was always quick to resolve.

It is user friendly, very detailed and easy to use, accessibility 24 hours, and very much inexpensive. I would recommend that you give it a try today.

Creating packages and reports could be alot less hassling.. work needed as it relates to credit card processes.

It has a lot of useful features, sadly very few of them work as expected.
- membership processing
- gift certificates
- embedded special codes for marketing
- pixels for marketing
- cancellation policy implementation
- customer service availability
- appointment scheduling
- sales reporting
- freezing memberships
- mail campaigns and marketing

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING with this software requires a work around.
-I have lost members because the software randomly double and triple charges them each month and doesn't represent it in the recent orders tab so it looks as if it hasn't
- freezing members is great, but then booker charges them for ALL the months they have been frozen
- you cannot put special deals on for the holidays on gift certificates = no holiday gift certificate promos
- special codes for marketing do not auto populate for orders and cannot be found from within the order
- pixels for marketing from their marketing tools do not work
- cancellation policy is great but if the person does not have a cc on file then you cannot close the order which makes it impossible to close the drawer at the end of the night
- groups often book under the same name , booker requires you to CANCEl that appt rather than just changing the name - ridiculous
-sales reporting is not customizable, past membership reporting cannot be done. it only shows current numbers regardless of the date you enter. kind of hard to measure growth
-members may freeze their monthly billing, no benefits are accrued but when you take the freeze off it autocharges all previous unpaid months
- customer service is available - but they are often unknowledgeable and can only submit requests to development and they take months even years before they fix your problem.
- the marketing tab does not load on my booker if im running from chrome.

Has good features for booking, retail
inventory and gift certificate sales and accounting.

Very expensive, glitches, constant price increases. Would gladly pay if
The reporting side warranted the price.

I liked the ease of integrating new specials or services we were offering. It was generally easy to navigate and was also integrated with our website which was convenient and allowed guests to easily book online.

At the time I was using Booker, I experienced many times where the program would freeze out would have really slow load times which made it difficult during high volume times at the spa.

I like that it keeps me on track with scheduling of my clients.

I couldn't find any complaints about the software at all.

I love how easy it is to allow people to set up online booking without my intervention.

The reminders are great, when they work. Sometimes I don't always get notifications about an appointment.

Lots of features

Not intuituve or flexible enough for day to day operations.
Too many restrictions on in house system administrators.
System performance is not good at all.

Integration of scheduling, merchant services, marketing, reporting. Everything I need in one place to run the business. I don't have to import or export information to run reports or go through multiple programs to send out reminder texts, ring up a client to check out, and check hours worked by employees.

There are a few things that the system just doesn't do intelligently where I have to override certain scheduling rules (Example: if an appointment was scheduled in room 2 with one girl, and i want to change it to another girl, it will not automatically switch it to room one. It will just say it isn't available.) So I have to go through round-about ways to override it to get it done, but those are just nit-picking.

Easy to navigate and use. Easy to teach new employees how to book appointments - keeps inventory accurate, and payroll is easy access.

The worst part about Booker is usually you get an experienced person to help although when you really need it you have someone helping doing what you can do , read off their online support. So frustrating!
The worst part about this software is that person- such as STAFF should not be able to look at persons full history or personal information . The quick check in box at the top of appointments that is available to everyone allows all access. Just simply type in a name and here you have it . History, address, pros and cons about client likes and dislikes for everyone to see. NO privacy with this app . Therapist can look up past appointments - and its not their clients . There is no privacy with Booker -anyone can see everything no matter what settings you restrict. Cant wait to change this system to something more owner/ (HIPPA complaint- would be nice) friendly, so employees do not have access to private information. Anyone looking to prevent client information access , watch out for this app. Also continues to use other cc on various accounts, blaming it on whatever internet service you use, funny everyone says the same we all use something different- how can it be us- the business. We continuously have to call customers and apologize . Read other reviews same complaints.

Salesmen are very attentive, attempt to find questions to any answers and are quick to return calls. Software is very clean and easy to use as long as you stay within their realm of "basics".

Unfortunately, if you have any type of development background this software will not allow you to utilize it unless you upgrade to the API. Prior to purchase we were told we would have Full Access to all features and everything was 100% customize-able. However, there are areas of customization you still need to have a "Super User" (call in to tech support + talk to a manager) to change. Example: Accepting cash in office.

The second issue I had is their merchant processing. They don't have syncing with Amazon Pay (primary issue we were told could be done with this software), PayPal or Square. You are charged additionally to use their merchant processing (and with companies my accounting had never heard of/didn't want to use). Again, while promised we would be able to find a work around, eventually it was found even with upgrading to a higher tier with API access, there was an extremely slim chance that different integration methods was possible.

Third: The price. Please understand if you desire to let one company manage everything then this software is helpful. However, if you don't then per month charge is rather high when other simple services are free or offer nearly every feature Booker does for 1/5th the price. So, do your research and speak with both Sales force and Tech support before making a decision.

I needed A cloud based software. I was on a desktop

Demo is great but the live version is full of glitches resulting in inaccurate reports, incorrect pay stubs for employees, incorrect year end financials for the business. Wrong service and product history for clients that can never be corrected. Financial transactions that regularly crash.

It did give you a tracking method for services & products sold. It generated a monthly sales tax report

Booker charged us a "marketing" fee for months on end. Apparently the marketing product was not what we were sold - that is the ability to generate marketing campaigns to a specific demographics. Instead, it was an "automatic discount" offered to patients that motivated them to wait for follow up services so that they got them for a deeply discounted fee. Booker took credit for selling these services due to their discount program. In the end all they did was to sell price not quality. Quality should be what spa services are all about! If price is the final objection then it should be in the hands of the provider to decide what discount is appropriate. In order to sell more than one unit of Botox, we had to pick from an assortment of quantities of Botox to equal todays purchase. The software is not user friendly and the predefined reports are weak at best. It was not a management tool! Worse it did a horrible job of taking the place of our former hosted spa services software. When it came time to leave, they stole our data, gave us a few excel files and redacted them after a few months. I would neither recommend the product nor would I EVER purchase from this vendor again.

The "all in one nature" of the platform but also the ability to have an online store that links to our actual inventory and pricing levels in real time. The confirmation email for appointments are a great asset to in terms of revenue loss prevention and saves time for our staff, not to mention our clients love the convenience. The pre-authorization of credit cards is a great function again for loss prevention.

1, There have been times recently were the downtime or stability (slowness) of the platform has not been acceptable.
2, The ip lock function only works with v4 ip addresses (most ISP's are now using v6's rendering the function useless unless you pay extra for static IP's.

None.

The entire system.

- Ease of use
- Mobile application
- Partnership with Frederick
- Easy to book online
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Easy access to customer service (with real people!)

There are certain limitations to the software that I don't quite endorse, and would love to have more accessibility to customize the features inherent in the system. For instance, we would love to be able to format, on our own, the infrastructure of the Administrator, Reservationist, and Staff roles to allow for certain levels of access to information. Although we have found a way to "Macguyver" the system, we'd love for there to be a more direct system for integrating digital SOAP notes, as well as intake form and profile management by the client when they log in to book an appointment. There have been other, very slight issues, which have caused some annoyance to our clients - such as the automatic CC authorization process when opening orders, or when clients are unable to cancel upcoming appointments online at their convenience (so long as it does not violate our 24-hour policy).

Online Booking.
Flexibility with using Rooms vs. Employees.
Reporting.
Ability to manage all aspects of clients and employee data.

There's a lack of Sales Funnel Integration with Frederick i.e. There is so much data that is in Booker/Frederick, that should allow us to create customized sales funnels in order to remarket and market to our existing clients.

Frederick is limited into the emails sent, and there should be more control/flexiblity given to the owner.

Currently, i'm using Clickfunnels and other email software to close that loop to create email sales funnels as well as other sales funnels from paid traffic sources.

Digital Marketing is the future of all businesses and a crucial component of that is Sales funnels from organic traffic and paid traffic from FB ads, Youtube Ads, Instagram Ads to enter into Sales Funnels. The power to remarket and retarget those clients from Booker/Frederick Data can really scale each business and should be in the hands of the business owner/marketer.

We have been doing that manually using Clickfunnels and Other Email Software providers.

I love the loyalty points for my clients to be able to earn, I love being able to precharge and charge for no-shows as well as charge premiums for certain days of the week. And all of this happens while I focus on doing hair. I do not have to sit around and do anything but set it up. They give you a training call and help you with the features and setup. I learned it quickly but if I have a question I can simply call and speak with someone promptly.
I did have it once before and cancelled because of the price, then I came back because I found they were going to integrate with the clover mini as I already had one but it still hasn't worked out for that. I'm really waiting for that feature. Its just all around inclusive just somewhat costly.

Wish add-ons were visible to clients and can be set individually to desired service. Also client facing terminal is needed. Hate having to manual input charges outside of the system. I have to have 2 different merchant processors because of the issue with the clover. App works horribly for taking appointments over the phone. Deposits cannot be charged so I have to go into the browser version from my tablet.

Reminders and organization of multiple therapists

Issues with notifications, payments and codes

Easy to use
Online Booking integration easy with website ( but that's common for all softwares now )

Overall Unstable software
Support doesn't RESOLVE anything
Crashes and completely shuts down for hours at random times ( leaving no access to any customer information )

Booker makes it easy to book clients, review accurate data, see clients shared to a membership, easily manage gift cards and online certs, easily view status changes of a membership, provide great auditing capabilities...

The customer support is extremely lacking. We also couldn’t get all the reports we needed and had to use a custom developed Stage 1 reporting system that was insanely slow. Our franchise switched systems to a MUCH inferior system due to the poor customer service. The Booker company doesn’t seem interested to work to improve the system based on the client needs. It’s got a great core but there were several bugs that would go on for years and the typical response would be a time consuming workaround, rather than addressing this issue and providing timelines.