Booker POS Review: Your Salon’s Perfect Partner

Booker in a Nutshell

Booker was established in 2007 by Peter Ellis and Daniel Lizio-Katzen as part of SpaBooker, a spa booking service that eventually became Booker in 2012. MindBody purchased the POS software in 2018, claiming it would add 10,000 spas and salons to their market and allow wellness businesses to spend more time with clients and less on administration. The software's main features include booking, selling, attracting, managing, and retaining customers. It is a business management solution with tools for every aspect of running a beauty business, from online booking to email marketing and tip allocation. Lastly, The company adheres to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) to protect your data.

Booker POS System Features & Services

The POS system has several features spanning the different areas of running a successful business. Below are some of the things that you can expect from this tool.

Payment processing: Their system ensures transactions are handled efficiently and securely via multiple payment methods. Customers can pay through cash, credit or debit cards, gift certificates, and loyalty points at their convenience. You can also turn your tablet or mobile device into a payment terminal and provide online receipts.

Virtual terminal: Their cloud-based system lets you access the POS from almost any device, including tablets and phones, through the web. It is compatible with various operating systems like Windows and Mac, making it convenient to run your business on the go.

Product inventory management: This feature allows salons and spas to track their stock levels for the day or on-sale products and automate reordering. This also helps monitor expired products to avoid running out of necessities and reduce other stock-related issues.

Online booking: Potential and existing customers can view your services and available time slots to make an appointment without having to call or visit the store. They can also schedule multiple services in case your customer wants to maximize their visit.

Customer notifications: The POS system allows businesses to send text and email notifications, keeping clients updated on your services, discounts, or special offers. This feature can also remind customers of their upcoming appointments.

Employee management: The platform helps manage staff by incorporating various functionalities like time-clocking, schedule management, shift reminders, and attendance checks. This enables payroll processing and helps with managing active staff data when needed.

Schedule and client management: The system lets you view your calendar, appointments, and available slots. This allows you to plan accordingly and focus on serving your customers without manually managing the schedule.

Built-in CRM: The customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities help track your customer's appointment history from the first to the last visit. You can also view total sales, consumer activity, and more.
Facebook booking: The software allows you to embed your business schedule into your Facebook page, allowing customers to make appointments from the social media platform.

Analytics and reporting: You can access insightful analytics and reports regarding various areas of your business and make data-driven decisions. For instance, the reports inform you of the most in-demand services and popular booking hours.

Multi-store capabilities: The software allows you to manage schedules and bookings from multiple locations, ensuring convenience for franchises or businesses with multiple stores.

Loyalty programs: You can reward your frequent customers with loyalty points, which they can redeem later for free services or discounts.

Mobile app: In addition to cloud access, the POS is accessible through a mobile app that is available to businesses and their customers. The app allows owners to manage their salons from anywhere and lets customers book appointments via smartphone.

Marketing network: With this POS system, you can promote your business using various built-in features without leaving the platform. These features include email campaigns, client reviews and referrals, and a business intelligence dashboard. The program also integrates with Yellow Pages, Yahoo, and other platforms to further support marketing efforts.

Pricing & Plans

Booker by MindBody offers transparent pricing with a monthly subscription model. Each plan details the features you can access, making it easier to understand what you are signing up for and what you might miss out on. However, every subscription plan includes staff management, client services, POS software, inventory tracking, live customer support, one-on-one setup, online booking, gift card management, mobile business apps, and educational resources.

Beyond those standard services and functionalities, here's an overview of the four available monthly subscription plans.

• Starter: Priced at $139 per month, this basic plan provides just the essential tools for running your business. These features include managing a limited number of staff profiles, sending a maximum of 3,000 text notifications, and online booking
• Accelerate: The next pricing plan removes the restrictions of the Starter plan, allowing you to manage unlimited active staff profiles and send unlimited 2-way text notifications. In addition to those capabilities, this plan offers smart contact lists to reach the right target audience, email marketing campaigns with customizable templates, and customer loyalty programs. The cost for all these tools is $289 per month
• Ultimate: The Ultimate plan covers all the features available in the Accelerate plan and more at $469 per month. The add-ons in this package include email and text marketing automation, prompting clients to post reviews and incentivizing referrals
• Ultimate Plus: For $599 per month, this is the most expensive and comprehensive plan for the Booker software. It allows access to all the tools available in the Ultimate plan, plus capturing bookings with a branded AI assistant and real-time business dashboards. The AI assistant helps with booking and rescheduling appointments as well as responding to clients' questions

Advantages & Disadvantages

Just like any other POS system, Booker has pros and cons that you should consider carefully to decide if it's worth your time and money.

Advantages

Transparent pricing: The company provides transparent pricing detailing the cost of monthly subscriptions and the tools accessible with each option. This way, you can tell which subscription plans are suitable for your business.

Mobile app: This POS provider offers a mobile app for Android and iOS devices, making it easy to run the business remotely. Your business is also listed in the Mindbody consumer app, which helps with marketing to a larger clientele looking for beauty services.

Industry-specific features: Since Booker software's main clients are businesses in the spa and salon sector, they provide tailored features such as online booking. Other industry-specific tools include tip allocation and appointment reminders.

Demo availability: You can access a demo upon request to help businesses and professionals test out the software's features and capabilities before signing a contract.

User-friendly interface: The platform is generally intuitive, with straightforward navigation menus. Learning how to use it or training an employee will take little time.

Data migration support: MindBody helps to move your data from your previous POS system to theirs. This makes it possible to switch from your old provider without worrying about lost data.

Disadvantages

No free trial: While there's a demo account to get a feel for the product, there's no free trial that lets you use the product for a specific period. A trial can tell you much more than a demo as you get a feel for the software's flow.

Lengthy contracts for beginners: Committing a minimum of 12 months to a new platform without a trial period can be restrictive. This becomes a glaring problem, especially if you don't find the system suitable for your business after trying it out for some time.

Insufficient customer support: Considering that the beauty industry sees heightened activity during weekends, the limited support window from 10 PM to 7 PM leaves a significant portion of these peak hours without live customer assistance. This gap in support availability during critical traffic times can prove to be highly inconvenient for many businesses within the industry.

User Reviews

Booker software has achieved above-average scores and ratings on various online review sites. Their performance reflects their commitment to customer satisfaction with an impressive 4.1 out of 5 rating on Capterra and a solid 7.8 out of 10 on Trustradius.

However, opinions regarding their services take a turn on other platforms. They receive a 3.2 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot with a relatively low volume of customer reviews. Additionally, their lack of BBB accreditation, combined with a significant number of complaints, has resulted in a rating of C-.

Positive feedback

Most customers express their satisfaction with the overall business management software, which integrates scheduling, marketing, and reporting. They mention that they have everything they need to run their beauty businesses in one place. Most appreciate the user-friendly interface, responsive customer support, ease of use, step-by-step training videos, client appointments, and reminders.
Other features that customers seem to love are calendar views, time clocks, sales tracking, tip allocation, email marketing, and embedded Facebook page links. Some also praise the integration team for helping them set up the software for a tight schedule, easy customer navigation to view services, and a details tab in online booking that allows adding notes for each client.

Critical feedback

While some clients mentioned that customer support was responsive and helpful, others experienced the opposite. Some expressed dissatisfaction with the cancellation process, highlighting that they were locked into long contracts that were a hassle to cancel. Additionally, there were instances where accounts were frozen when attempting to initiate cancellation, adding further frustration.

Others have voiced concerns about the challenges they face when trying to rectify inaccuracies in their service, product history, and financial transactions. A few also mention experiencing ongoing payment glitches, encountering difficulty with group bookings due to the inability to select multiple services at once, enduring long wait times for chat support with unresolved issues, and finding weekend customer service lacking.

Booker's support team has responded to some customer complaints on various sites. They expressed regrets for the downtime issues on specific days, failure to meet some customers' expectations concerning live agent support, and more. The company also thanked the reviewers for bringing the problems to their attention and provided contact information in case the customers wanted to follow up on the issues.

Customer Support & Services

Booker POS customer support team is available via email ([email protected]) and live chat. You can also find other helpful resources for answers to common questions on the company's website, blog, FAQ section, and webinars. Customer support operates during specific hours: Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 9 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 7 PM EST.

Conclusion

Booker POS system offers a feature-rich cloud-hosted platform designed for the wellness industry. With features like embedded tutorials, dashboard reporting, seamless online booking, website integration, data migration for new users, a mobile app, and payment processing, Booker provides well-rounded tools for running a business. The monthly subscription plans are straightforward and dictate the features their customers can access. Booker's strengths lie in customer acquisition and integrated marketing capabilities compared to other salon management software. Regrettably, these key features are restricted in the lower-priced plan, causing the platform to score slightly lower in price-to-feature comparisons.

Despite receiving praise, Booker also receives their fair share of complaints. Some users express disappointment with the support team, prolonged wait times for chat support, and the long cancellation process. Additionally, others encounter glitches with the payment system and find it challenging to rectify transaction errors.

Whether Booker software fits your spa or salon hinges on your business objectives and preferences. If you want to explore more POS systems, check out our list of the top POS providers to discover your options. Once you've narrowed down your top picks, use our comparison tool to help make your final decision. Lastly, explore our blog for valuable information on managing and growing your business.

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