After 80 million web-based transactions, Schedulicity goes native

Bozeman, Montana may be an unlikely setting for an online appointment scheduling tool that has raised almost $8 million in funding, to date. The town, which often appears in those “Top ten places to live” lists you’ll read in Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN Money, and Fodor’s Travel, is known more for its scenic views, its role in Star Trek, and for reaching temperatures of minus 30 in the winter.

Bozeman is also where you’ll discover the headquarters of Schedulicity.

Schedulicity’s purpose is to provide a platform that enables transactions between small, service-based businesses and their clients. Its online appointment scheduling system and marketplace for discovering and booking local services has assisted millions of consumers in more than 3,400 cities across the U.S. and Canada, with over 80 million appointments being created through the platform.

But the platform itself is web-based, and we live in a world where the consumer now has a smartphone within three feet of them, 24 hours a day.

Today, Schedulicity has announced a mobile version of its marketplace, with the launch of its app. The app, which covers over 50 industries, allows consumers to find and book local services, such as haircuts, piano lessons, or martial arts classes.

With the platform already optimized for mobile web, why make the move to a native app?

“We’ve always had a mobile presence, but the businesses and consumers on our platform now expect a native app where they can book a multitude of services from one place,” Jerry Nettuno, Founder and CEO at Schedulicity, told me. “We did not need data or research to make this decision. It was based on the feedback of hundreds of current Schedulicity users.”

And this isn’t Schedulicity’s first time at the app rodeo, either. Schedulicity Business is an existing mobile app that allows the local businesses featured on the platform to see their appointments, manage contacts, and sync with their Schedulicity account.

So how has Schedulicity managed to scale, and how does Nettuno see that changing as consumers move from its web-based service to a native app?

“When a business starts using Schedulicity, they typically notify all of their clients with the click of a button,” Nettuno said. “Once those clients begin scheduling online with that business, a certain percentage realize they could use this tool for their own business. The cycle then perpetuates itself. The new app truly honors the relationship between service professionals and their clients by creating a seamless, 24/7 scheduling experience. We believe this experience will create an overall ‘pull’ effect on other local service professionals.”

In other words, it all begins with customer experience — a subject I talked about at length with Brian Boroff at Asana, and Jon Ferrara at Nimble, in a recent VB Live webinar.

So what is next for Schedulicity?

“Our current concentration is on providing massive amounts of value for both businesses and consumers who use the Schedulicity platform,” Nettuno said. “As people begin to realize how many different types of services, classes, and workshops they can book on Schedulicity within their community, we feel we’re another step closer to bringing a fragmented market into a single location.”

Schedulicity’s app is available from today on iOS.