Well folks, we've nearly made it. Right now we are entering the homestretch of what has been a most peculiar, stressful, roller-coaster of a year.
Many would say that this year turned the world upside down. Unfortunately, there was a tremendous amount of loss. From loss of employment, loss of security to loss of health and loss of time with extended family and friends. The most tragic is all the senseless losses of many lives worldwide due to the terrible COVID pandemic. If you were impacted by these events we are sending you warmth and love from the the BLAB headquarters.
Luckily, there were were a few bright spots along the way and Book Like a Boss is proud to have come out the other side of this year upgraded, improved and with many more happy Bosses using the platform every day. With almost 40,000 subscribers from dozens of countries Book Like a Boss has been consistently helping solopreneurs, small businesses and more larger companies and organizations do businesses more productively. With Book Like a Boss our Bosses have been able to save time, energy and frustration. They can take have more bookings placed and become more financially successful.
As 2020 draws to a close, and the new year approaches with its promise of change , we'd like to take a look back and some of the great BLAB moments from the past year.
10) Customization is Key
Over the past year we have added the ability for custom favicons, a wider variety of text and font colors, Skins option to change the look of your BLAB page, custom redirect link text plus many more customization options.
9) Limits and Looking Busy
Our Bosses are busy! We know that and they know that. It is important to have limits on availability to ensure that the work being done is high caliber and Bosses are not stretching themselves too thin. This year we introduced a couple of features which help with that. The Look Busy feature allows Bosses to select a percentage of time which will appear unavailable to clients. This is also helpful when starting out - nobody wants to appear completely wide open. On the clients' side it will appear that you have bookings placed and that your services are sought after. Daily limits on availability was also introduced. We believe that a Boss should have the option to decide how many bookings of one type of service that they would like to make available per day. If your work is very emotionally draining ( we see you social workers and life coaches) or involves lots of travel and physicality (hi there photographers and event planners!) you may want to close bookings for the day after one or two bookings are placed. This is different then limiting hours of availability in that your hours will remain listed but once the booking comes through, no others can be placed.
8) Unlimited Custom Landing Pages
Early in 2020 we launched a huge new feature, our biggest one in over two years. With unlimited custom landing page capabilities Bosses can create multiple custom landing pages for each of their services or brands. Each page is customizable and can either be under general calendar settings or under its own specific settings. This was a huge one for Bosses . Each page can have its own cover image, color themes and fonts. Bosses are also able to customize the emails sent our regarding that service ( confirmation, reminder etc.) and have Testimonials and FAQ's unique to that service.
7) Roadmap Access
This year we allowed Boss access to our roadmap. Our roadmap gives Bosses a clearer picture of what we have going on, what's on our to-do list and what has been recently released. The roadmap is also the place to go to submit feature requests and users can up-vote features that they would like to see on the BLAB platform. This transparency is important to us- we want our Bosses to know that we listen to their needs and are constantly striving to make the user experience better for our Bosses.
6) Multiple Ways to Connect
This year we strengthened our integration with Zoom ,staying up to date with their new password specifications. We also added a new way for Bosses to connect with their clients by adding a Google Meet integration. Having multiple options is another way we improved the user experience. We want to make things as smooth as can be for all our users and in turn have them able to offer multiple ways for their clients to connect with them.
5) Text Pages for the Ages
For Bosses who like to have their clients read and sign off on Terms & Conditions, contract agreements, privacy policies or other information at the time of booking, BLAB's text page option is an easy way to set that up. This feature, which we added in Fall of 2020, allows for Bosses to create text pages with all your site's colors and customizations. The text page option helps Bosses run their businesses more professionally and efficiently.
4) Booking Form Fun
Book Like a Boss is all about saving you time and energy so that you can do the more important stuff like provide your services and make money! This year we made it possible for users to pre-populate the checkout form with name, email, and cellphone of a customer by using three available query parameters called blab_name, blab_email, and blab_cellphone. If you have returning customers they and you (if you are booking on their behalf) will save time in the booking process. In addition to that we streamlined the phone number request field to work with our Reminders, so Bosses don't need to request phone numbers twice. Bosses can also have their clients upload files directly to their booking forms which can be particularly helpful for professions such as professional coaches, consultants, social media managers and more.
3) Events and Recurring Events
We were thrilled to introduce this feature several months ago. Bosses can set up an event or recurring events (such as seminars, classes, trainings), sell tickets for the events and even have a countdown clock on their page leading up the event. This feature works for both in person events and is ideal for online and digital events - a must-have in today's Events can be linked to YouTube live feeds, Zoom meeting rooms and other platforms. This was a biggie for BLAB and the feedback has been fantastic.
2) Multiple Duration Options
In the past when Bosses want to offer clients various durations for their services they needed to set up and list services that were essentially the same but with varying durations and prices. Not ideal and not how we wanted to leave it. Thankfully our team made it possible for Bosses to list a service and include multiple durations for that service. Not too shabby, wouldn't you say? It is easy to do and included within the settings for each product and service.
1) Staying Busy and Looking Forward
We hope that the new calendar year will bring health and tranquility the world over. On a personal level we are really excited that we'll soon be rolling out a new revamped site and an immensely exciting game-changer element for businesses and companies. We look forward to helping more Bosses, take more bookings, run their businesses more efficiently and productively. Happy end of 2020 Bosses- we'll see you on the other side!
