"Many platforms promise simplicity but aren't as easy to use as Bookee."
- Damien, CEO Booster Transform
Back in 2014, we introduced a very special workout called Lagree Fitness in Zurich through Booster Transform.
We started with one location. The growth was steady. We expanded to two more locations after that. We are planning to add the fourth location by next year.
We used Mindbody. The biggest challenge that we faced was the management of our waitlist.
We offer small-group classes and we offer a lot of them. Currently, we have almost 800 classes per month.
The issue that we were running into with Mindbody was that it did not automatically add waitlisted people when the spots were cleared. When a spot was open, we had to manually call the waitlisted people and add them to the class. This waitlist management system did not work for us given the volume of our classes.
Another issue was that clients could purchase multiple waitlist spots with just one credit. So, even if a client has one credit, he can go and register for 10 classes. In this case, he will have access to one paid class and nine unpaid classes. In such situations, we had to go to the clients and tell them to either pay for the other nine classes or cancel them. This wasn't the best conversation to have.
Finally, Mindbody was too technical and difficult to use.
Our business was really impacted due to these inefficiencies. We had so many classes running simultaneously and most of the time, we did not find the time to inform the waitlisted clients. We had empty slots in the classes and it affected our occupancy. Not to mention, we lost a lot of time as well.
After using Mindbody for 3 years, and running into several problems, we asked them to improve the product but we were one among thousands. We got no concrete response.
We chose Vint. Their product lacked features and maturity. After waiting for a while, we started looking for another supplier.
We made a list of 20 suppliers which included Bookee. In the process of evaluation, we got in touch with Bookee. We spent almost a year discussing the platform and the things we need. We ended up developing a very good relationship with the Bookee team.
To date, we appreciate the ability to discuss our problems and contribute to the development of the platform.
First was the ability to integrate the booking platform and the website.
It was a very simple and unified experience. Also, the design is beautiful. Many platforms promise this simplicity but aren't as easy to use as Bookee.
The second was the payment system.
Many booking platforms impose payment providers. With the platform, you have to accept their payment providers also and accept their terms and conditions. Let’s say I change my software and with it comes a payment provider that charges 1% extra, we will have to charge more from our clients which they will not be happy about. Bookee gave us the freedom to integrate our payments with the provider of our choice.
We are an extremely consumer-centric business. For us, user experience is very important.
Our client base is basically working people and busy moms. They tend to cancel classes very often based on their schedules. Our late cancellation policy is applicable until 3 hours prior to the class as opposed to 12 hours which is the industry standard. Sometimes, it so happens that our consumers don't read about the policy and are unaware, in those cases we offer a waiver for the first late cancellation. We call it a joker. All of this is extremely easy to set up on Bookee. We have automated the late cancellation policy and the joker and we are really happy with the functionality.
Account creation and booking process in Bookee is much easier as compared to other platforms. Mindbody made this process very complicated. There were too many questions in the form and it redirected to some other platform from the website.
With Bookee, it is very simple. The design of the website and app is clean, neat, and intuitive. It looks professional. This is important since we have a lot of clients and the booking experience affects our business.
We ran a very successful referral program. Since our clients are our best advocates, we set up a referral program and ended up adding almost $51k. For every referral, we offered one free month. It was easy on Bookee and ended up being a very profitable program.
Bookee has also played a major role in increasing the number of bookings. Since the booking process is simple, we saw a 44k yearly growth in bookings.
