Yeah, we’ve heard the hype, too. GlossGenius claims to offer software that is “built for every beauty & wellness business to go further and faster.” But under its glossy veneer, GlossGenius’s software does not offer all the features that Vagaro does. Time is money, and Vagaro maximizes both for you with streamlined, user-friendly features that enable you to perform the most common (and important) daily functions with fewer clicks or steps, across any device. This efficiency adds up, especially for repetitive tasks, leading to considerable time savings for you overall. That's money in the bank. So, let’s look under the glossy hood of this so-called “Genius” software at 5 efficiency killers that potentially cost you time, money, clients and growth.
1. Limited Desktop Functionality
Mobile functionality, whether we’re talking about your business’s website or your booking system, is incredibly important, which is why Vagaro and GlossGenius have apps that let you run their respective software on your phone. But imagine if you could only use your cell phone to run your entire business. Sounds like the trappings of a Twilight Zone episode for independent professionals and solopreneurs, doesn’t it? Well, GlossGenius makes it your daily reality, having you carry out most things from your smallest screen. That includes things like checking clients out and building an entire website. This lack of efficiency gets old, fast.
Your desktop setup should act as a central command center for your business. GlossGenius’s software limits how much their users can carry out from desktop to practically nothing. For instance, you cannot:
- Check clients in & out
- Pull business data or reports
- Design your website (who wants to attempt this from a mobile device?)
- Allow employees to clock in/out
- Monitor or add inventory
- Create email & text marketing campaigns
- Create & send out forms
The truth is, while having the “world in the palm of your hand” sounds great, limiting users to mainly their phones isn’t the most feasible or user-friendly route to make customers take. That’s why Vagaro offers full mobile & desktop functionality, on any device. Setting unnecessary limitations won't work for businesses with a front desk and full point of sale (POS) system, or for enterprise businesses with a larger staff who may need a hub to clock in & out of quickly. This “minimalism” minimizes what you can accomplish, creates time waste and increases potential for errors & unnecessary headache.
2. No Desktop Checkout
We touched on this one briefly above. When Vagaro says you can check out “on any device” we mean any device, and that’s for good reason. GlossGenius, on the other hand, only enables you perform contactless checkouts through a mobile device using their card reader. It seems minimalistic and easy to manage, but Vagaro offers the same capabilities with the addition of device flexibility.
That’s because limiting how you can receive payment has several implications. The most obvious is that your clients may prefer another way to pay. A desktop point of sale (POS) system provides payment flexibility for everyone.
As a bonus, a desktop point-of-sale system, particularly Vagaro’s, is dual-screen, providing customers with a clear breakdown of their services & product charges. It also acts as a custom, branded billboard of sorts on which you can market Daily Deals and other specials to clients as they check out. Essentially, you can master the art of upselling and save time in the process by letting the hardware do most of the work for you.
3. (Not So) Advanced Search Functionality
Sometimes, the simplest features impact your business the most every day, and it’s easy to take them for granted. Think about appointment availability. Imagine that a client needs you to suddenly reschedule them, book a new appointment several weeks out for them, or really needs you to sneak them in for a service before leaving on vacation next week. If you needed more than a couple seconds to find an available appointment slot for this client, then you’ve wasted your time, and Vagaro won’t ever make you do that.
Vagaro is designed to enable business owners and service providers to search for appointment availability quickly in-house—as opposed to GlossGenius, which forces you to scroll through each week manually to spot the next available appointment. If you have a small number of clients and limited hours of availability, this is merely an annoyance. If you’re like most Vagaro users—working hard, growing their client bases, being bosses with, well, BOSS goals—this quickly becomes a hindrance. Having Vagaro's simple appointment search functionality on your digital calendar is a simple yet powerful tool that saves time by removing unnecessary steps.
4. Immovable Appointments
Let's stick with the subject of the small, yet essential functions of what is undoubtedly your most used tool: your calendar. How often do you have to alter appointments during a busy day? This can mean adjusting their length or changing the date & time. How many steps were there, and how long did it take? If the answer to those questions were “I just tap, adjust it or move an appointment however I need,” and “a few seconds,” then great—you’re probably using Vagaro. If not, you might be using GlossGenius.
(It all really starts to add up, doesn’t it?)
GlossGenius’s appointment interface makes you manually edit appointments—yet another extra step you don’t need. With Vagaro, moving or changing appointments is intuitive and simple on both desktop and mobile (literally a matter of drag-and-drop). That’s software that works the way it should, without extra steps or unnecessary workarounds. If our scheduling calendar weren’t this user-friendly and streamlined, we’d say it was half-baked. We don’t do half-baked.
5. (Still) Waiting on That Automatic Waitlist
One fundamental difference between Vagaro and GlossGenius is our respective pricing structures. Vagaro’s standard pricing plan begins at $30 per month for a single user—to which certain premium features, such as Custom Forms, can be added separately, as needed. But Vagaro has built a wide range of key features into our base plan, one of which is glaringly absent from GlossGenius’s:
The Client Waitlist: An automated client waitlist is a powerful tool that’ll maximize your daily productivity by giving clients an extra way to get booked when your schedule is full. It means less work—for you, the customer, and the back end of your business. Vagaro lets you choose the filters you prefer for waitlist alerts, including “First in Line,” “Instant Book,” “Money Maker,” and the “You Pick” option, or you can choose to manually send waitlist alerts to specific customers.
Vagaro doesn’t view features that stabilize your schedule, save you time and protect your revenue as premium; we view them as essential. In fact, we don’t know of many businesses who would disagree with this point of view, and that’s why we equip them with the features they want from the beginning. We can’t say the same for our competitors. Don’t get lost in the Gloss—get Vagaro and save yourself so much time.
Time is money. Other booking & management software charges more for less, but Vagaro strives to give you the most value for your money, so that you can get the most out of every minute—without repetitive tasks and inefficient workarounds getting in the way. Take your time back and start running a more streamlined business. Sign up for your 30-day FREE trial and experience what working smarter is all about!