Appointments fire Timely’s demand
IT’S what Timely chief executive Ryan Baker describes as a ‘‘tsunami of demand’’.
As of last night, New Zealanders have booked more than 122,000 hair and beauty appointments for the week beginning tomorrow.
Timely produces a cloudbased appointment management for businesses requiring scheduling of their staff and services.
Dunedinbased Mr Baker said the company was very aware there would be ‘‘some pentup demand’’.
Moving to Covid19 Alert Level 2 was good news for the hair and beauty industry and, while there were some logistical challenges, everyone was very focused on staying safe, he said.
Timely’s platform was used by more than 40,000 beauty professionals throughout New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions had driven increased demand for its software.
Seven years ago, when Timely first started, barbers were not interested in the technology, preferring to continue with walkin clients.
Over the past couple of years, many were seeing the benefits of it and that was amplified with the lockdown. In states like Victoria, Australia, it was mandatory to have a client database.
Timely staff have always worked from wherever they wanted, whether that was from home or in the company’s office space.
Asked whether he thought there would be a rise in the number of people working from home postlockdown, Mr Baker said it was ‘‘not for everyone’’.
What had been seen over the past six weeks was not remote working, but quarantine working; people who usually worked remotely had many of the reasons for doing that — such as spending time in the outdoors or working in the community — taken away.
He believed there would be some positives, including giving people more flexibility to blend work and life.