Booking made easy, for exponential scale
8-12 months (multiple mvps)
CEO, Scheduling, Accounting, Engineering
Growing pains
Over the years, as the business and employees grew, so did the number of tools and silos across the team, leading to a need for improved operational efficiency.Through early research and discovery, the team identified areas in the process of high manual input, bottlenecks, and repetitive tasks.
The redesign of our booking platform not only improved the user experience of appointment scheduling for clients and vendors, but also increased internal efficiency across the organization.
Streamlining workflow redundancies
In our effort to improve efficiency, we focused on reducing waste and leveraging automation. Through team journey mapping and department interviews, we identified several areas where manual duplication of effort was causing avoidable redundancies. To address this, we prioritized two key features: incident documentation and integration with Quickbooks, a bookkeeping software. These improvements helped optimize our workflows and reduce errors.
Information integrity
Previously, important customer incidents were discussed internally and forwarded for conflict resolution, leading to a backlog of notes and many face-to-face conversations. To streamline this process, we implemented the "Remarks" feature to allow for easy documentation of incidents and included nuanced filter options such as "Job Cancellation" or "Internal Error."
This feature was crucial as the number of appointments grew by 99%, almost double the number from just two years prior. By using this feature, we were able to preserve the integrity of information and avoid duplication of effort, imrpove visibility of incidents across the team, and provide faster customer resolution.
Reducing human error
By integrating Quickbooks into our booking platform, the Accounting team could now export invoice details with just one click, instead of manually typing the information into two separate software tools. As a result, we achieved significant efficiency gains, with speed of invoice creation increased by 46% per appointment.
To develop this feature, we conducted detailed workflow mapping, created a custom API, and incorporated team feedback throughout multiple cycles. By streamlining this process, we were able to reduce the risk of costly errors and increase productivity for the team.
Minimizing costly back-and-forth
With the creation of the customer-facing portal, customers could submit new requests, cancellations, and receive real-time status updates. These benefits gave customers reassurance, and freed the scheduling team from having to provide time consuming updates.
As part of its rollout, customer onboarding, documentation, and ongoing support were carefully considered and provided for clients. Reoccuring customer check-ins ensured needs were being met, and allowed us to continously iterate and improve the MVP.
Aligning workflows into one ecosystem
The process of this project was not always linear, but the value it had was incredibly impactful. The workflows of each team were complex, and often connected by many other previous decisions. A working understanding of these workflows, respect for legacy decisions and tools, and constant collaboration with the team all contributed to the success of the tool.
With the addition of the new features, Excel was able to increase its revenue by 63% without a significant increase in headcount. The new features optimized operations, reduced human effort and errors, and provided increased visibility of appointments to both clients and internal team members. As a result, the Excel team is now on a path towards continued and sustainable business growth.
