On-line client-provider scheduling software

Thanks to mashable.com, I found the following applications in this space: Clickbook: Robyn, Scheduly, Appointy, SuperSaaS and BookingPad. So six to choose from (there are a few others catering to what seem to be different/more specialized resource scheduling problems).

Not that I actually need this software for the moment, but i’ve long awaited the day when I could book professional services online and see when people are free without having to phone them. It’s not only that I don’t like to phone. There’s frequently no-one on the other end of the phone, or my request disrupts them, or I’m in a holding queue for half an hour, or they don’t have the slot I want and then I have to negotiate my way out of the situation, call someone else….

Apparently, it’s also possible to book seats at concerts, tables at restaurants, and places in group events using this kind of software (though for the concerts, there are already ticketing apps that have this functionality).

So there’s definitely a market demand.

As far as I know, the first generation required a client on the service provider side, but now it seems that most if not all of these applications have migrated to a remote hosting model (in normal language, you access them over internet through any browser).

It would be nice to get hold of a comparative analysis, but since I haven’t found one, here are some comments of my own, with any luck social media monitoring software will get my comments to some interested parties who will then complete the picture

So far I only looked quickly at Clickbook, and this from the customer standpoint. This application was the first I came across, and has the additional nice feature of being free

Apart from useability considerations, the following obvious features occur to me:

1. Web integration: how seamless is it? What about support for popular CMS packages like Drupal and Joopla? (About which I am also so far fairly ignorant, but it’s on my to-do list)

2. What about CRM integration? These apps are gathering, and could potentially also exploit, valuable information on customers. How easy is it to feed this information into CRM systems, for analysis and for email marketing, for instance?

3. Clickbook appears to provide an iCal feed to the service provider, but what about sending meeting requests automatically to users too, so they don’t have to enter them manually in their agendas? That should work for Outlook, Google Calendar, whatever Apple users have, and so on.

4. What would be really attractive would be credit card reservations. Does any app support this? How difficult is it to build in?

5. Clickbook doesn’t support reservations to activities that can admit multiple or unlimited participants, at least not in an elegant manner. What applications do permit this?

6. In the event a service provider is unavailable after booking (eg through illness or emergency), how easy is it to inform clients automatically? Is it possible to propose to reschedule appointments?

Perhaps there are also some other features I should care about and which differentiate these apps from each other. I’d really like to know, as rolling out such apps seems to me to have quite some potential.

I’m also wondering about the business models of these applications, including whether they have any chance of becoming killer B2C portals for service provision beyond individual providers, at least in particular sectors and geographies. So far we seem to be a long way from that. However, I must say that if one of these apps gained market dominance I’d be very tempted to use it to look for service providers, rather than other channels. It’s extremely convenient. So a good business model could definitely be built around that.

Looking forward to some interesting feedback!