A little help looking at OpenYourDiary.com beta site

[OpenYourDiary]

Hi,

I've just launched the beta version of my new online appointment booking service for small businesses and I'd really apprciate your time to take a look over the site and make suggestions as to how it could be improved both in terms of usability and making the service attractive to small business owners.

General
Is this site completed or under construction?

The public site is a beta of the v1.0 release so should be complete for the core functionality but has a number of areas yet to be implemented (the directory of providers for example is just rough layout and we are currently writing the help pages).

Optimisation
Do you have incoming links?

At the moment, only a few links from blogs etc talking about the development of the site.

What keywords are you targeting?

Open to suggestions here, how do you pick your keywords. If you were looking for such a service, what would your search term be? I've tried a few to bring up the competition but I'd like to get second opinions.

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?

Very much so, I just have a beta version at the moment with the core functionality.

Marketing


Who is your target audience? Think about:
Gender, Nationality, Age Range, Income/Education level, Likes/Dislikes


The potential market is very diverse with small businesses ranging from mobile discos to dog groomers, hairdressers to the local b&b. In essence I'm looking at small and micro businesses with just one or two employees who take appointments.

The main USP is the offering of an online booking service that is easy to set up and very cheap to run. It will complement their existing website, provide some big business tools (customer database, email and SMS marketing) but not require any upfront purchase of hardware/software or monthly subscription. They only pay (a few pence) when they have work coming in.


Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you?

Our main competitive advantage is low cost and low risk. We cost nothing to try out, there are no long term contracts and the business only has to pay when they have paying work. Our competitors either sell software you need to run on a server or charge a monthly fee.

How important is usability?

Very, which is my main concern about the site. I want to know if you find it easy to set up and use the site mainly as a business/service provider but also as a consumer.

What is the purpose of the site? (inform, sell, online community, support B&M business, contact info only, etc)

To sell and then provide an online booking service to small / micro businesses.

Design
Do you want design suggestions?

Most certainly. For example should I drop the google map / search and make the home page of the site more focused on selling the service to businesses rather than providing a search function to consumers? Any suggestions on layout and content of the directory of providers would also be very welcome.

The site can be found at www OpenYourDiary com

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for having a look at the site. If your comments are of a general nature please post them here so we can all benefit but if you find a bug / issue / something really embarrassing then could you please use the feedback form on the site to let me know.

rgds/alex elderfield
OpenYourDiary.com

[fisicx]

I'm rather confused. From your description I thought you were offering and online booking system and I expected to see instructions on how to integrate the diary into an existing site.

From what I see it appears I first need to find a suitable provider from your directory and then make a booking. I can't see how this will help either the business owner or the visitor. Suppose I run a hair dressing salon and have a successful site, I can already integrate a booking system on the site for free so where is the incentive to use your service especially since you don't actually tell me how much it is going to cost.

I personally don't like the interface, the visual flow is disjointed bucause of this web2 type layout but that's just me (it would put me off using the site).

The main problem is trying to work out how using your service would benefit me.

[OpenYourDiary]

Fisicx,

Thank you very much, your reply speaks volumes about what I need to do with the site. At the moment we are trying to serve two masters, telling businesses about the booking service and then trying to help advertise those services by providing a directory of providers.

I think we may need to focus this site on selling to the providers then provide the directory under either a sub section or another domain.

I'll move the map/search etc but do you think we should just concentrate on selling the service, a list of benefits and a sign up call to action or should I look at adding some form of animation showing the site functionality?

Once again, thank you.

Alex

[fisicx]

Alex,

What service are you actually offering? There are already a good number of online booking systems that you can integrate into existing sites so why do they need you.

What can you offer to Joe the plumber who already has a website and just wants to allow people to book an appointment?

Forget all about the directory, it's just wasted effort. Consider proividing a booking system that can be integrated into existing sites. Make sure as well that it can be styled.

[OpenYourDiary]

So on the home page I plan to keep the content above the main navigation (logo, descriptive text, sign up button and picture) but then reduce the options on the main nav.

I'll move the search and google map to a sub section then use this space to add in some additional descriptive text (see below), some images of the templates / workflow (some form of very short animated movie/slide show) then bring up the featured provider and the case studies to make them more visible.

Should I use the feature list from the example businesses or should I look at some briefer marketing text.How about this for the text [with some images to illustrate the service] in place of the search / map:

====

Wouldn't you love to have an appointment booking system that allows your clients to book their own appointments online? [Is this too cheesy?]

- Take bookings 24/7
- Eliminate missed appointments
- Save time and money [should I keep this short or say no set up or monthly fees?]
- Automatically send email and SMS reminders
- Keep a record of your customers [need a better way to say we do this automatically. "Automatic customer history & contacts"? Not sure I want automatically twice.]

Take our risk free trial now [link to a short version of the sign up page]

====

Any suggestions?

Alex

[fisicx]

You are missing the point. They don't need you, they can get a booking system built into their website for free.

For example: http://www.vclcomponents.com/s/0__/booking_application

If I'm trying to book an MOT then I want to do it on the garage's website not go off somewhere else.

[OpenYourDiary]

fisicx,

Well yes, but the idea of my service is that they can add the booking service to their website (just a pop-up) with little / no technical knowledge (they just need to add a link and we provide a button/link builder to make this even easier). We then provide SMS and email reminders at a very low cost. We then provide them additional tools and systems.

From previous comments I've obviously got work to do in highlighting the benefits of the service (specifically this core benefit of no software and low cost).

Don't get me wrong if my tone sounds off, your feedback is helping, thank you.

Alex

[fisicx]

Ah right,

You see I didn't know about the pop-up (and I did have a good look). But why a pop up? Why not offer two versions: the pop up (ready to be blocked) and one that can be integrated into the site.

And even if you do have a popup, can I style it? If iv'e got a nice yellow and purple site with red writing, I don't want your gray popup I want yellow and purple.

And if the customer has to add your button/link to their site then surely they will be able to cut and paste a chunk of code.

Don't get me wrong, I thinks It's a great proiduct, you just need to meet the needs of your potential customers rather than how you want them to use your service.

And I really would forget all about the directory, that's just a loss leader. What you could do though is approach the current directories and offer to integrate the booking system into their sites, that might be very lucrative.

[OpenYourDiary]

Hi fisicx,

Still working on the integration but take a look at the new (trial) home page. Not as pretty as the original at the moment but it is designed to both show off our services and allow me to quickly change the promotional text (the text next to the tag cloud) to allow for offers etc.

I know I'm using a lot of your time here but your thoughts on a) this design and b) how to improve it, would be appreciated.

rgds/alex

[fisicx]

Much better. But since the main focus is the website integration aspect, people landing on your site are already looking for an online booking system - you don't need to tell them about the benefits of such a system.

Instead of the blurb in the LH box, why not include screenshots of a typical page with differing styles and layout.

The tagcloud on the right it pointless, I thought they were links - this sort of thing annoys people and you will definately lose the interest of prospective clients.

You are still going to struggle against the FREE online booking systems as you don't offer anything extra that they can't get already.

I went to the free trial page expecting to be able to download the app/file but all I see is a huge sign up form. This is going to make people leave.

I went to one of the company's are tried to bbok an appointment but needed to sign up to do so. This needs fixing ASAP. I should be able to simply add my contact details and crerate an appointment.

Whilst I have no doubt as to your programming skills, the usability and accessibility of the site is very lacking. There are a whiole range of other issues I noticed that need to be addressed before you go live but these are secondary to the main thrust of the site which is to promote the diary.