Why Posh22 Came Back from Boulevard

Generally, the holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year at Posh22 Salon and Spa in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. But in 2020, something was off—bookings were down but to frustrated customers it looked like there was no availability. The culprit? Boulevard salon software. 

Greener on the other side 

The problem started earlier in September when Posh22 owner Jessica Stamer decided to move the salon's business management software from Booker by Mindbody to Boulevard. Stamer had seen Boulevard's marketing comparing itself to Booker software and thought it might be a better option for her salon. After meeting with sales representatives, she decided to move and formally left Booker software on September 14. 

"Boulevard's presentation was really good, and their marketing style is good," Stamer explained. "And I always say a salesperson who can make you think that it's all glory with no cracks is pretty good." 

But what Stamer was sold was not what she got. 

Broken promises 

There were numerous problems with Posh22's move to Boulevard, and they didn't take long to appear. The salon paid for an add-on service to attach intake forms, which turned out to just be emailing forms to Boulevard to have them connected to client profiles. But after sending a form to Boulevard, they replied to Stamer with instructions on how to do it herself. 

"What I expect from a company that I am paying is for you to do it," Stamer said. "That rubbed me the wrong way." 

But that was far from the only problem—Stamer noticed that her appointment book was emptier than even pandemic-era normal, and her regular customers were starting to call into the salon asking for appointments. She looked at her schedule within Boulevard and was dismayed to find that she only had one available appointment—for 7:30 at night. 

When she contacted Boulevard, the response was less than expected, and Stamer decided the problems were more than her team could manage. "We have a lot of employees, and for customers, it wasn't smooth. It was difficult to navigate," Stamer explained. "Which when you're looking at a pandemic going on, you need to have every spot filled that you can." 

Back to Booker by Mindbody 

These failures by Boulevard were enough to push Stamer and her team to move back to Booker by Mindbody. “I want email marketing back. I want appointment reminders for all my clients back,” Stamer said. “It's like going home to your couch. It’s comfortable and comforting.” 

Plus, making the switch back fixed another problem plaguing Posh22—the mysterious reduction in booked appointments and time spent responding to social media comments about the poor booking experience. 

"And I just felt like all I was hearing was 'your online booking this, your online booking that,' and I was like, I can't do this. Like, there are so many things going on right now that I can't handle hearing anybody else complain." 

Since making the switch back, things have been going smoothly for Stamer and Posh22—making Booker by Mindbody a comfortable match built for the future, no matter what it looks like.