I've researched a lot of salon software, and Timely was the top-of-the-line software that does it all compared to competitors. It has a friendly interface, offers easy ways to communicate with clients via text and emails, and provides insights and reports, so it indeed does everything you need for booking software. On top of that, it's cloud-based, so say goodbye to only accessing your appointment book through your computer at the salon.
I've tried some of the other online booking services and while there were good, they didn't have all of the features that Zoho Bookings does and since I'm already a Zoho One subscriber, it doesn't cost me anything more. I think virtually any type of business can use Bookings as it's not geared to a specific industry but can be customized for use in any type of industry. I would love to see salons use it as I think it can be truly a way for them to better book clients than using a paper calendar which I see many using. I also think massage therapists would also benefit but using Bookings. If you are a solopreneur or have a sales team, there's no way you can't benefit by using Bookings for your phone appointments, Zoom/Video meetings, or in-person meetings. There is also a resource function which allows you to block out conference rooms and other resources.
It still needs more robust features and customization, like workflows and such. I'm confident they'll continue improving it, but some particular customization settings aren't available, in terms of triggers, content, look and feel, but it is mostly very detailed and particular. If you're ok with adapting to it, it is an excellent tool.
A lot of things are not great as this is a new tool, but they fix it relatively quickly. They don't have a direct phone number, but Zoho support has good service overall
Timely is by far the most user-friendly and fun to use. It's got a great interface, works on iPads, and training is super easy for the team. Other software is clunky and takes too long to set up and train the team to use.
I found the integration with the two above is great if you're a Google Calendar user which we are not. While with Zoho Calendar we can have two way integration with Google Calendar there wasn't a need to do so. With Zoho Bookings which also integrates with Google Calendar we didn't have to worry about that as the integration with our Zoho Calendar was virtually automatic. There was also the cost consideration as the two above have a free version it was limited and didn't have all the bells and whistles we needed. Zoho Bookings provide us with everything from a single sign-on web browser and mobile app
Bragging rights, yes. Always cool to tell how automated your business is.
ROI, no. In our case, it wasn't worth the time spent in integration into the website, system setup, plus subscription fee. However, take into account, that High-Value Professional Services is a wrong industry for this product.
Convenience and confidence that there will be no double booking across G Suite and Timely was tested and were really handy at the times.
No ability to use our own SMTP. If your server has Anti-Spoofing DKIM and etc., setting it up with Timely was a nightmare as support had no idea. So a lot of emails were going to Spam on the client's side.
