In recent years, there has been a rise in customers using online booking software to book appointments and prepay for services. Booking software is efficient, and convenient, helps increase revenue, improves customer satisfaction, and helps you save time. It has helped owners save time by not having to schedule appointments on behalf of clients. Additionally, it helps businesses avoid double bookings by not allowing customers to book appointments in time slots that are already filled. Lastly, customers prefer online booking and even seek out businesses that offer scheduling software that allows them to prepay for your services. 

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It's easy to see that online booking software has numerous advantages! Check out different scheduling software to see which is right for you. 

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Client Management:

Vagaro and Square both provide centralized client information with client cards on file and allow you to maintain client profiles and histories on their databases. Both also provide automatic notifications and reminders of client appointments and activities. Vagaro’s customer management features include tagging so you can add keywords to customer profiles to identify them and designate them to specific profiles, patient charts that are essential to assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients, and verified customer management. Also, starting at $10 a month you can purchase Vagaro Drive to securely store photos and files relating to your clients for future reference. On the other hand, Square allows you to personally message clients about upcoming appointments, import existing clients, and keep track of transaction history.

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Brand Management:

Brand management on Square allows you to create a customizable shoppable website that allows customers to shop online. Additionally, customers can book appointments with you directly from your custom-branded website. Yet, Vagaro offers email marketing with 1,000 free custom emails to send each month. Additionally, for an additional $10 a month, Vagaro Marketplace will feature you so you get noticed by new local clients. Also, Vagaro offers a branded app, for an additional $200 a month to amplify your brand using a custom app that clients can book from. 

Appointments:

Booking appointments online is made easy with Square and Vagaro. Vagaro offers streamlined booking and can be integrated with Google, Instagram, Facebook, and more. Additionally, Vagaro has a Check-In App ($10/mo) as a self-service platform allowing clients to check in for classes, book future appointments, and purchase memberships. Vagaro’s calendar offers customizable features that allow you to manage time off, holidays, lunch breaks, and special meetings while maximizing customer service. Vagaro’s appointment-schedule app allows you to see the details of appointments or classes with their dates, durations, type of services, and the employees providing the services. On the other hand, Square gives you the option to sync your appointments with your Google Calendar. Also, customers can book directly from your website by adding the booking widget, compatible with sites powered by Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, and more. Square also lets clients book multiple services with different service providers on your booking site, and streamline checkout with a single transaction and automatic tip splitting.

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Business Management:

When it comes to business management, Vagaro offers a vast range of premium features to help with business management. For $10 a month, you can create custom forms, surveys, and waivers that you can send to customers or require at the time of booking. You can also send customers digital form links, keep track of electronic signatures, and select templates to build forms that fit your business needs. For $10 a month, you can expand your sales with an online store where clients can purchase, 24/7, directly from the Facebook account, Vagaro website, and online. For $10 a month, you can use Vagaro’s website builder to design a custom booking page for your business. On the other hand, Square offers staff management, multi-location stock management, sales reports, Instagram integration, and ring-up barcodes using your iPad camera or barcode scanner, and employees can have their accounts that they can personally manage.

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Payment Processing:

Square has a streamlined checkout process keeping clients’ cards on file and setting cancellation policies with auto-charges. Square Appointments POS system allows you to easily take payments with a processing fee between 2.5-3.5%. Square accepts Cash App pay and allows customers to pay in installments with Afterpay. On the other hand, Vagaro’s payment processing includes a free credit card reader and will help your business process payments with a processing fee of 2.2%. Both software provides the option for contactless payments, and prepayments and will auto-charge no-shows.

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Marketing Tools:

You can send custom email marketing campaigns to engage with your customers with Square Marketing. Square Loyalty is a loyalty program that gives customers the incentive to return to your business. Plastic gift cards and eGift cards with your custom branding are available to make shopping easier using Square. Yet, Vagaro offers a variety of marketing tools including a free marketplace so you can list unlimited daily deals and bookings. On Vagaro, you can create your Custom Booking Page that allows you to choose templates and easily add your own branded images and content. Through Vagaro’s Daily Deals, you can promote discounts. Vagaro allows you to offer perks and loyalty programs that can increase your online bookings and ensure clients' return. Additionally, you can add up to 3 images in Vagaro’s Portfolio to showcase your services and promote your business to attract new online customers. For $20 a month, Vagaro will help you set up text campaigns. This Text Marketing Feature allows you to send one-time text marketing campaigns to customers. You can also send Automated Messages, including recurring birthdays, lost customers, before the visit, and follow-up or thank you marketing campaign

Target Market:

Vagaro is for small businesses and sole proprietors including barbershops, chiropractors, dance studios, martial arts, medical spas, physical therapy, salons and spas, yoga/pilates studios, and many more.

Square is for hair and beauty salons, barbershops, personal training, spas and nail salons, tutoring and music lessons, health and wellness, home repair and cleaning, and professional services.

Pricing:

At Vagaro, the profits are all yours. They take $0 for your online booking & all revenue you make from the Vagaro Marketplace. You keep all the money you make from any online booking and there are no fees for new customers acquired. Vagaro's pricing is simply based on the number of users at your business that will be using Vagaro for their booking and what premium features are required for your business including text marking, branded app, website builder, creating forms/surveys, and more. Additionally, there are no long-term contracts so you aren’t locked in forever. Finally, there are no contract fees, cancellation fees, setup fees, signup fees, or PCI compliance fees. Here's an outline of Vagaro’s pricing structure: 1 user: $25/mo, 2 users: $35/mo, 3 users: $45/mo, 4 users: $55/mo, 5 users: $65/mo, 6 users: $75/mo, 7+ users: $85/mo.

Square offers a free plan with basic features to run your business and stay ahead of schedule at a single location. Square Plus offers more advanced features for growing teams starting at $29 per month per location. Square’s complete plan is $69 per month per location and offers a complete plan for all your booking and staff management needs.

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Regardless of which platform you choose, you’ll still need your phone calls answered and Lovage is the best choice! Lovage works with both Square and Vagaro.