Demand for Online Booking Is Growing: How Can Businesses Keep Their Own Reservation Websites Simple?
Demand for online booking services is rising year after year. According to the Wisers Analytics social listening system, a search for the keyword "online booking" turned up as many as 7,932 related discussions on social platforms in 2020, increasing to 8,418 in 2021, with "appointment registration" and "online consultations" mentioned most often. In response to these market changes, businesses have been building or upgrading reservation systems on their own websites.
Recently, a number of companies have approached 5xRuby with questions about building their own reservation websites. So which industries need one? Besides the medical appointment systems mentioned above, there are cinema ticketing, hotel room booking, restaurant reservations, consultant appointments, corporate meeting room systems and more. Any brand that offers specific services in specific time slots and wants to reduce repetitive manual work and booking management could consider building its own reservation website.
"Some online booking flows involve fairly complicated steps. I'm sure everyone has run into a reservation system that is hard to use. Not only is it difficult for customers, but staff on the inside may still have to handle things manually," says 5xRuby co-founder Mu-Fan Teng. To save on budget, some businesses adopt inexpensive, general-purpose customizable booking modules, only to find after using them that the back end has many limitations and the experience is inconvenient. His advice: any booking service should "simplify the complex" and never make things harder for users.
Want a reservation website? Start by understanding your brand's "unique specifications"
To meet every user's needs, some brands ask for a website that is as close to perfect as possible. In reality, users differ in age and experience, so trying to work out too many booking rules at the start can end up boxing you in. Teng believes the key is to step back and consider the "unique specifications" your brand needs in its booking service. Take a psychiatric clinic as an example: its patients have more varied needs, appointment times are less predictable, and all kinds of booking situations arise. To build an online booking system for it, many parts are difficult to modularize and have to be tailor-made.
"Even when a client comes to us with initial requirements, our team also interviews the frontline nursing staff at the same time and gathers all kinds of information to find the booking system design that best fits the clinic," Teng says. Many companies have high expectations for their products, but the real test comes after launch, when many practical problems arise. For example, with a "rebooking" feature, cancelling an appointment and rebooking with a different doctor affects the schedule of every session. Will a brand's adjustments or new features have knock-on effects across the whole system? This is where a professional web services team is needed to help the business evaluate and decide early on.
Simply paying attention to "details" can save unnecessary costs
"Details" are easy to overlook when building a reservation website. Some websites that offer booking services today still use traditional interfaces, or mix old and new interfaces in a way that looks like features were tacked on later. "When we talk with businesses, we usually ask very detailed questions to avoid the awkward situation of building things only as they come to mind." When choosing a vendor, businesses should check whether the vendor simply builds whatever is requested, or whether it goes further to check the details and safeguard the business's interests. Just by paying attention to "details," many hidden cost risks can be avoided.
Some businesses ask whether adding features later will be a hassle. That depends on whether the business knows its short-, medium- and long-term plans. When a business is clear about its goals at each stage, the vendor can follow the plan and factor "scalability" into features in advance. If the focus is only on the website at hand, without thinking about what comes next, problems are indeed likely. Teng says: "We want the website to succeed even more than our clients do, so at the start of every engagement we always help clients clarify what they want." Before looking for a vendor, businesses may want to think about both their current and future goals for their own reservation website.
Want to build your own reservation website but don't know where to start? Already have one but want to expand its features? Feel free to contact 5xRuby. Co-founder Mu-Fan Teng will personally help your brand with a website health check and provide your first professional consultation free of charge. Please contact Sho, Executive Director of 5xRuby: [email protected]
About the Company
5xRuby is the largest Ruby / Rails system development company in Taiwan, providing system development, technical consulting and corporate training services to clients around the world. We have also long been deeply involved in the tech community, working to advance its growth and help engineers advance their careers. Our corporate value is "Use the tools that make engineers happy to create services the world loves."
5xRuby (五倍紅寶石軟體開發) is not affiliated with any other educational institution of the same name, and our business and operations are entirely independent. We make this statement to avoid confusion. Our company website is: https://5xruby.com/