Why I switched from Appointy to BookPin and what I think now
Elliot Scott
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Beauty Academy · Swansea · 1mo ago
I want to be honest about this because I wasted money making the wrong choice first. I started with Treatwell when I opened my barbershop in Cardiff 3 years ago. It looked great on the surface but the client-facing booking page was clunky and I had five people drop off mid-booking every week. Switched to Square Appointments 6 months ago and haven't looked back. Here's what the switch actually involved and what I think matters most when choosing a system.
First thing: don't just look at the price. Look at the booking flow from a client's point of view. I had a client tell me my old booking page made her feel like she was filling in a tax return. That stung but she was right. Square Appointments took me about half a day to set up properly, and within the first week I noticed clients were actually completing their bookings rather than dropping off halfway through.
Second: SMS reminders are non-negotiable. Email reminders get ignored. My no-show rate went from roughly 30% down to almost nothing once I turned on the automated text reminder 48 hours before each appointment. Worth every penny of the monthly cost.
Third: deposits. I introduced a £25 deposit about 6 months after switching and honestly I should have done it from day one. The people who complained were the people who would have wasted my time anyway. My regulars didn't blink.
First thing: don't just look at the price. Look at the booking flow from a client's point of view. I had a client tell me my old booking page made her feel like she was filling in a tax return. That stung but she was right. Square Appointments took me about half a day to set up properly, and within the first week I noticed clients were actually completing their bookings rather than dropping off halfway through.
Second: SMS reminders are non-negotiable. Email reminders get ignored. My no-show rate went from roughly 30% down to almost nothing once I turned on the automated text reminder 48 hours before each appointment. Worth every penny of the monthly cost.
Third: deposits. I introduced a £25 deposit about 6 months after switching and honestly I should have done it from day one. The people who complained were the people who would have wasted my time anyway. My regulars didn't blink.
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The bit about re-engaging lapsed clients is something I hadn't thought of using Treatwell for. Going to set that up today. I've got loads of clients I assumed had just moved on who might just need a gentle nudge.
#1
Completely agree about the Sunday evening admin. I never quantified it until I read a post like this and actually counted. I was spending 6+ hours a week on booking admin. Six hours I could have been doing literally anything else. The system pays for itself in week one if you value your time properly.
#2
I made the same switch and I'd add one thing: tell your clients it's for their benefit, not yours. Frame it as 'you can now book at any time of day without having to wait for me to respond'. That framing works really well and it's also genuinely true.
#3
This is really relatable. I went through almost the exact same process 6 months ago. The biggest thing for me was realising that the clients who pushed back hardest on deposits were the ones who'd let me down before. Once I saw it that way the decision became very easy.
#4
The point about analytics is underrated. I had no idea which of my services was actually the most profitable until SimplyBook.me showed me the data. It completely changed how I structured my pricing and my service menu.
#5