Fitness appointment booking platform

Fitness appointment booking platform

30 Apr · 5 min read

Challenge: Rebuilding a powerful online fitness appointment booking platform

Solution: Polcode extended the AppyBee team with up to 10 specialists to make their online booking platform a relaunch fit for success.

User Group: Personal trainers and athletic entrepreneurs

AppyBee Business Benefits

  • Scaled quickly and met rapid development growth targets after AppyBee received an influx of new signups and customers.
  • Rescued development project by switching agencies to Polcode who redesigned the booking platform and rewrote their codebase.
  • Outsourced project management to Polcode which allowed AppyBee to focus more on building their business and driving better business outcomes.
  • Satisfied appointment-based businesses through integrating powerful online booking features that attract and retain their customers.
  • Improved revenue generation for their customers by reducing no-shows, eliminating rescheduling conflicts and unlocking lead generation tools.

AppyBee is a bespoke online booking platform for personal trainers and athletic entrepreneurs to save 80% of their time spent managing their business. With an ever-growing system of reservations, payments, scheduling, and automated reminders, they reached out to Polcode to overhaul their website, mobile apps and codebase. Polcode extended the AppyBee team with up to 10 specialists to make their online booking platform a relaunch fit for success.

Entrepreneurs who own appointment-based businesses know that online appointment scheduling can be a nightmare. AppyBee helps fitness organisations and personal trainers manage their appointments with an easy-to-use, fully-featured booking platform that allows for:

  1. Making reservations on a fitness brand’s website or the AppyBee mobile app
  2. Managing bookings all in one place
  3. Marketing systems integrated with web and mobile to grow lead generation
  4. Automating confirmation, rescheduling or cancellation emails
  5. Integrated secure payments systems

Restarting a Fitness Journey from Scratch

The AppyBee project started as somewhat of a rescue mission. The previous agency responsible for the project had been unable to deliver a platform that worked at scale, and the old platform couldn’t handle more signups, or deliver customer-centric experiences beyond the basics.

The best online booking solutions are designed to be fundamentally scalable. New features are often added regularly, and each of those features must be integrated seamlessly with one another. Ultimately, the underlying technology and architecture must be robust enough to handle constant adaptations without breaking itself.

In AppyBee’s case, achieving this goal meant running a complete revamp project while keeping costs low. Polcode and AppyBee established 5 key goalposts together:

  1. Rewrite the entire application from scratch using React Native from the previous app which was written in Swift and Java
  2. Redesign the mobile application using the latest in UX/UI design
  3. Redesign and rewrite the AppyBee Widget that works on their clients’ dedicated channels
  4. Redesign the Admin panel using Progressive Web Apps
  5. Refactor backend codebase to enable new functionalities

We moved from another agency to Polcode. They have a good track record and reviews, their sales process was great, and the audit was impressive. There’s no doubt that Polcode saved the project.

- Jan Donmez, AppyBee Founder & CEO

Surrounding Yourself with Fitness-Minded People

Polcode has a detailed audit process that looks at a client’s software ecosystem or any markers that could indicate a ‘legacy’ codebase, bugs or software architecture issues.

After the auditing process, our product development teams created a roadmap for AppyBee. This roadmap was carefully designed to move them swiftly from redesign, all the way to market relaunch. At the height of cooperation, Polcode extended AppyBee’s core technical talent by up to 10 developers and designers. Key members in the project were chosen for their seniority in building booking management systems, or expertise in refactoring codebases. 

Polcode’s project managers also stepped in to ensure that all stakeholders were on the same page, informed about progress, and moving towards the same goal.  

The entire project felt always-under-control. Development now has a visible, structured way of going forward. The project manager is really involved and cares about us.

- Jan Donmez, AppyBee Founder & CEO

Working Out Smarter, Not Harder

Polcode chose the best fit for a backend environment, using PHP and Symfony as the framework. By raising productivity for developers, this setup saves money for AppyBee by cutting down on feature request timelines.

Symfony allowed Polcode to further extend AppyBee’s feature offerings and leverage web services, APIs and microservices. AppyBee was able to offer more nuanced capabilities to their clients, some of which included:

  1. Group training sessions
  2. Scheduling local fitness events
  3. Automatic recurring appointment bookings
  4. Bundling package deals and integrating them with bookings
  5. Employee schedule management
  6. Google and Outlook calendar synchronization with AppyBee features

We continue to be really pleased with our results. The project is really big, and there’s a lot of technology inside. We make progress easily and new features keep coming so the code quality is really satisfying.

- Jan Donmez, AppyBee Founder & CEO

Delivering a Customer-Centric Experience

One of the core features that AppyBee offers is a widget that integrates directly with their subscribers’ websites. Personal trainers or fitness instructors can handle reservations from their own website with the widget powered by AppyBee. This delivered a more customer-centric approach in the following ways:

  1. Seamless Brand Experience - Clientele can book personal training sessions, fitness classes, or athletic events directly on a trainer’s website. There’s no need to visit the AppyBee website, which keeps company identity intact.
  1. Fully Integrated Technology - The widget is easily overlaid on each trainer’s website and is fully integrated with calendar apps, payment systems, the AppyBee booking platform and the customer’s calendars as well.
  2. Loyalty Programs - Before using AppyBee, most trainers took reservations via call or text. With the AppyBee widget, they can automatically recognize returning users, unlocking opportunities for rewards, loyalty points or easy repeat bookings.

A Healthier Business Model

With the help of Polcode, AppyBee is set to become a leading booking management provider for fitness organisations in their market. Their website and mobile apps have been able to provide better key advantages to their clients:

  • Reducing no-shows to appointments and better rescheduling by syncing calendars in real time with all parties involved.
  • Improving the overall productivity and time-savings of themselves and their staff, which in turn provides greater revenue generation.
  • Attracting new clients and retaining existing clients by making scheduling online a user-friendly process.
web & mobile developmentPWAUXUIproduct development

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Polcode

Polcode

30 Apr, 2021

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