Vagaro

Pluspunten

Inexpensive, easy to set up, basic appt booking and packages available

Minpunten

Pkg use is not based on value, rather on total paid divided by # used
Monthly subscription is not user friendly, 6 month subscription should ONLY renew every 6 months vs each month which confuses customer

Emails should NOT be sent for every change to calendaring as sometimes rebooking, re re booking is needed and even though during rebooking I can select NOT to send to customer, Vagaro sends ANYWAY based on customer being signed up to ever receive email/text/sms. To compensate, the work around is customer are NEVER set up to receive emails or text or SMS and all confirmations are done manually via NON AUTOMATED text

Package totals cannot be modified after purchase. Ex: Owner policy is late cancel (48 hr notice required) or no show is full charge to customer. If client cancels same day and another client wants that appt time, both have to be booked on the same day at the same time in order to reduce package by 1 for no show client and charge package (or credit card) for client that really came and used that time slot. Although the user interface is titled modify # of remaining in package, the change DOES NOT change number remaining it changes total of package and thus all appts are repriced by the software, confusing both the accountant and the customer

No reporting or "view" of client visits and charges from client account
Owner has to go to a separate function called reports, run transaction report (memorize when the client was at the shop..eg last 6 months) AND the repo

Pluspunten

Cost affordable
All the features that are available
Easy to use
Clients love the reminders that they can get

Minpunten

I haven't found anything yet. Using the marketing tools can be challenging for a new comer, but for the most part I don't have anything to complain about.

Pluspunten

This booking system makes my business so much easier to run as a soloprenuer . It is so much more than just a booking system , it is my website and POS as well. I love how it sends out multiple reminders to clients (3) I believe . My clients love it as well for the ease of use and the reminders. I get compliments on this and how the website looks as well. I love that Vagaro listens to its clients requests and adds new features from time to time . There is also a chat feature for help and on the phone assistance as well. I love the fact that I can sell gift certificates, and cc cards as well . Today I got an email that now if we wish we can have clients pre pay for services. The customer service is just wonderful. I revcently changed the template on my website to something that reflects my business image now . I love how it is easy peasy to do so , without assistance. Many of my clients like the option to book online themselves. I love how to make reports for my accountant is easy as well . Another benefit is email marketing. If you want to know more sign up for the free trial .

Minpunten

I wish they had an answering service. Maybe one day . They do have a place where you can put a clients formula which is great . But if a client gets multiple services it would be nice if there were multiple type cards for them for , facials , lashes , hair , etc . I wish they also had online forms for clients to fill out and sign . But these are not really cons just potential features that haven't been created yet

Pluspunten

One vary cool thing about Vagaro is when you sign up as a single business owner or someone with a whole team, the encouraging words "You got this!" Made me smile. I knew this system would be a good fit if it could encourage me along the way to growing my business! What other company does that? The price seems vary reasonable and I love how my clients will get text reminders automatically after booking an appointment with me. Its so important these days as we can get so busy and forget an important appointment. Vagaro Pro seems to be vary user friendly and will be painless to train others to use. I have only been using Vagaro for a few weeks now for the free trial and I love the ease of navigation this program offers. I have used other computer systems and for the price I feel I will be getting quality for the investment. I have called tech support twice now and each time I have called with a question it seems as though the tech support team member was truly happy to help me. I also love how they offer classes weekly. This will be a great way to help me to continue to learn and train my staff. I have been in transition moving my business and location. The option to transfer all my client data from a spread sheet or my cell pone has been so helpful and a time saver. I feared I was going to have to enter each client one by one, but the import option made it so easy and only took a few minutes to do. I will be telling other business owners about this booking system. Its great!

Minpunten

One thing if find frustrating with most electronics is that the options change with different devices. The same is true with booking stytems. I was able to down load the Vagaro app for my cell phone, but not my desk top. It would be nice not to have to log on each time on my desk top, and just rather click an icon and my books open for me like it does on my cell phone. I would also like the open to test trial the Vagaro credit card services, but that is not included in the trial. One things I found challenging is customizing my service menu. Vagaro has so many services already input in the statement I have had to go through and delete many services I do not offer as well and filtering through the descriptions of each service I do want to keep. It would make it more simple to keep the service menu empty so the business owner can customize without having to delete and edit prices for services they want. Though, may be helpful to someone brand new to the industry. I also do not care for my clients to have access to online booking. I would rather be in charge when a guest needs a reservation so we give proper timing for each individual service. The only valuable thing for online booking would be for more guest control. I do not want to that up or maybe the idea is just too new for me. Also, you don't know is booking. Everything is so electronic these days. I would rather talk to a real person about my reservation then just book online, thinking costumer service communication.

Pluspunten

The online booking feature is a MUST with our clients, they absolutely love it. Also, the fact that you can have your website attached, a beautiful website at that. The ease of entering in all of our services into the service menu, our prices, and individual time intervals per service and per provider. But, the BEST thing about vagaro, is the ease of paper work. We do our daily tally and weekly tally sheets, and vagaro makes that absolutely a breeze. I am part owner, salon manager, and reception and I do all of the employees paperwork and money handling, and vagaro is absolutely amazing and makes the process so much easier than other software I've used over the years. The transaction list, to be able to go through all checkouts for the day, to be able to refund, charges, cash, and checks all separated into categories. It's just amazing. The checkout through vagaro is nice as well, you can put in the tip amount, check, cash, or charge, without using their merchant services, which is a benefit because you have an actual layout of each customer, each transaction, whereas on the credit card machine, which is completely separate, you can only see customer, and how much paid, including tip. Since, we opened this salon, we have only had vagaro, and we will continue to only have vagaro. It's the best salon and spa software that is available. No matter the size of salon, or services offered. This system works for everyone. Also, the text message updates they send out when theyre down.

Minpunten

There are really only a few things that I like the least about Vagaro. One would be, the system issues, especially with the credit card processing. When we first opened we were using vagaro as our merchant as well for our credit cards, and we had nothing but issues. Even now, I get the texts whenever there is a software malfunction, and it seems most of the malfunction is with credit card processing. So, we ended up having to buy an actual credit card machine and go with a different merchant provider, and now all of that is resolved. The next thing I like the least is, you can't separate your business at all. We have both tanning and a hair/nail salon. So, our tanning hours are slightly different from our hair/nail hours, and there is no way on vagaro, or our website, to separate and add additional hours. The last thing I like the least, is that Vagaro really only allows you to add services, there's no where for us to list our prices for tanning on our website, unless we take a picture of the menu and post it in our pictures, which would be out of place.