August Newsletter – Recap so far, Refresh the staff, Renew our mission

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It’s been a busy year so far, and we aren’t done yet. However, both July and August have been slow months. Mainly because business always slows down then and that’s when most of our staff want to take their holidays. It’s a nice little synchronicity.

So let’s have a recap of the developments so far this Spring and Summer and get ready for the busy schedule ahead of us.

Spring – April, May & June

April gave us a lovely Easter, but we also brought the medical testing custom feature to the SimplyBook.me suite. While initially developed for the increased COVID-19 testing worldwide, the medical testing feature has applications for all medical tests. 

May saw us bring a couple of minor tweaks to existing features. Including multiple-choice fields in the intake forms feature and label printing from the SimplyBook.me admin app. The biggest news for May was introducing the Custom email Templates for personalised communications with your clients. 

June saw the release of our newest acquisition, Harmonizely, and the plans to rebrand to SimplyMeet.me. Since then, several of our developers have been assigned to develop that platform to the same standards as the SimplyBook.me system. We also made some significant updates to the POS system and the membership feature.

Summer July & August

July might have been the beginning of our Summer slow down, but we still had plenty going on. No new releases came out in July, but we had plenty of feature enhancements that had been requested by many of our users. We can’t always release something new when we have client requests for improvement awaiting our attention. 

SEO enhancements for SimplyBook.me websites with title and meta tags, cloning custom email templates, and a customised banner for the client app download for your clients. One of our most eagerly awaited updates was an enhancement to the Google Calendar Sync that enables Google Meet scheduling online through your booking system.  

So now for what’s new in August.

August saw us release our first new admin interface improvements. It is not the last improvement we will make to the admin interface. However, this first one will make navigation around the interface and dashboard more intuitive. As we continue enhancing the interface UX, we’ll keep you informed and make sure you know where everything is. 

What’s Up For September?

So while the Summer has been slow, September sees us gearing up for a renewed approach to the SimplyBook.me platform and some fantastic developments.

Waiting for the Waiting List

Before we go any further, I’ll not keep you waiting for news on the waiting list. It is super close to release!

After talking to the QA testers, the Waiting List feature is in another round of critical bug fixing and is due back in testing by the end of this week (fingers crossed). If all goes well in this round of bug fixing, we are set for release in mid-September. 

Security for September

September has special significance to us at SimplyBook.me, it’s our security awareness and updates month. Every year we ensure that our security processes and procedures are up to date, that everyone knows how to keep their sensitive data safe – theirs and yours.

Moreover, it is also when we overhaul security measures within the SimplyBook.me system, about User Access Levels, restrictions and warnings.

Company Trip

This month there will be a company trip where we all get together to talk about the company’s path, make suggestions, discuss clients’ requests and add new features to the development roadmap.  It’s our chance to review and renew the company mission.

Don’t worry; there will be plenty of work going on. Moreover, there will still be support available on Live Chat to help you out. 

Stay tuned for more information and some insight into the SimplyBook.me teams.

In Case You Missed It…

If you’ve been away for a while, you might have missed a few things from this month’s blog, so here’s what you might have missed.

Our guest posters this month have been varied with an exciting mix of subject expertise. Hardik Shah shared some crucial information about API security and OAuth, while Hazel Raoult shared her advice for boosting online appointment bookings. 

We’ve also had some fascinating insight into leveraging social media as a customer service tool from Xiaoyun TU at Brightpearl. And we can’t forget seven crucial SEO tips from an industry expert, Aaron Haynes.

And we have some helpful advice for how to use the different aspects of the SimplyBook.me system to help you manage your business. Including integrating the booking system with your existing website, how to ensure your clients show up, and a video tutorial on how to add Facebook Messenger to your booking website – useful stuff!

We hope you have had a restful and invigorating Summer (or winter if you’re in the southern hemisphere), and we hope our team members are coming back from their holidays refreshed and ready to start anew.

Just for fun, here are some of their holiday snaps from Bella Italia and Stunning Santorini in August.