Designing and Launching Clover’s Appointment Solution

Optimizing Scheduling for Service Merchants

Overview

After determining that a third-party integration would not sufficiently meet the needs of Clover’s service merchants, we shifted focus to designing and validating an in-house scheduling solution. In this phase, I partnered closely with Product and Design to guide early feature prioritization, concept direction, and merchant validation.

We ran multiple rounds of usability testing on evolving designs, including scheduling workflows, staff management, and client-facing booking experiences. Insights from these sessions helped ensure the MVP aligned with merchant expectations and day-to-day operational realities.

We then piloted the MVP with Clover merchants, gathering real-world usage data and feedback to assess feature adoption, identify usability issues, and inform refinements ahead of a broader launch.

Merchant booking - Web dashboard

Background

Clover’s service merchants often remained on $0 Payments plans due to unmet scheduling needs. In Phase 1, research revealed that a third-party solution (Cojilio) lacked the usability and flexibility merchants needed—leading us to pivot.

Phase 2 focused on designing and piloting an in-house appointment scheduler tailored to service businesses, with the goal of supporting operational needs and driving SaaS adoption.

Research Overview

To support the launch of Clover’s appointment scheduling MVP, we conducted a two-part research initiative:

1. Concept Feedback

In July–August 2024,we conducted two rounds of moderated interviews with 11 personal service merchants across beauty, fitness, education, legal, and medical sub-verticals. Using early design prototypes, we evaluated:

  • Alignment of appointment creation and management flows with merchant workflows

  • Needs around client history, cancellation fees, and checkout processes

  • Device preferences for scheduling and payment tasks

2: Live Pilot

In September–October 2024, we launched a live pilot with 10 Clover service merchants ahead of Limited Availability.

The goal was to assess whether the MVP was ready for General Availability by November.

Concept Feedback Timeline

Pilot Timeline

Pilot Synthesis

Impact

UX research played a critical role in shaping Clover’s appointment scheduling solution, now part of the Services Growth SaaS offering. Usability testing and a live pilot validated the core experience, revealed key setup and usability gaps (e.g., service type confusion, missing bookable hours), and drove prioritization of features like notes, cancellation policies, and mobile-friendly booking.

Findings directly informed both the GA1 launch (Oct 2024) and the GA2 roadmap (Jan 2025), ensuring the product met the real-world needs of service merchants. Learn more at clover.com.

Appointment booking on web mobile and Clover Go app

Findings

—At A Glance

Usability Testing

  • Appointment creation flow felt intuitive and aligned with merchant expectations.

  • Gaps emerged around:

    • Cancellation fee clarity

    • Managing customer info, service notes, and policy flexibility

  • Merchants need support for diverse service models and fee structures.

Pilot Testing

  • Setup confusion:

    • Merchants didn’t realize they needed to switch items to “Service type”.

    • Key fields like service duration were often missed.

  • Website setup unclear:

    • Merchants struggled to choose between storefront options due to similar language and lack of guidance.

    • Some feared extra charges and lacked confidence in their selection.

  • Onboarding gaps:

    • Merchants received little support when switching plans.

    • Navigation changes and setup instructions were easily missed.

  • Bugs uncovered:

    • Missing bookable hours, broken links, persistent error banners, and UI lag.