I talked to 20 service businesses. Most had the same problem with Linktree.
I originally thought I was building a better link-in-bio tool.
I was wrong.
Over the past few months, I spoke with salon owners, consultants, agencies, and other service businesses to understand how they acquire customers online.
I expected feature requests.
Instead, I kept hearing variations of the same complaint:
"Customers message us on WhatsApp asking if we're available."
At first, this didn't sound like a software problem.
But after enough conversations, I realized something interesting:
Most service businesses aren't struggling with discovery. They're struggling with coordination.
The accidental tech stack of a service business
A typical workflow looked something like this:
- Instagram for discovery
- Linktree for links
- WhatsApp for inquiries
- Calendly for appointments
- Google Sheets for managing schedules
Individually, every tool worked.
Together, they created friction.
And friction quietly kills conversions.
A customer clicks your Instagram profile.
They open your Linktree.
They choose a service.
Then they message on WhatsApp.
Then someone manually checks availability.
Then another person confirms the appointment.
By that point, you've already lost some customers.
Not because they weren't interested.
Because booking became work.
The bigger problem wasn't booking.
It was teams.
Imagine a salon.
A customer doesn't just want a haircut.
They want their hairstylist.
Another customer wants nail art from a specific artist.
A clinic patient wants to see a doctor they've visited before.
Most booking systems assume appointments are interchangeable.
Real businesses don't work that way.
People don't book businesses. They book professionals they trust.
That sentence completely changed how I think about service businesses.
Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.
Why WhatsApp still wins
This was another surprising insight.
Many businesses already have websites.
Some even have booking tools.
Yet customers still end up on WhatsApp.
Why?
Because WhatsApp preserves context.
Customers can ask:
- Is Sarah available tomorrow?
- Which professional would you recommend?
- How long does this service take?
- What's the price difference?
Software often removes the conversation.
But it doesn't always replace the trust that conversation created.
That made me realize something:
The goal isn't to remove human interaction.
The goal is to remove unnecessary coordination.
That's what led me to build RadiusHQ.
I didn't want to build another Linktree.
And I didn't want to build another booking tool.
I wanted to build something that matched how service businesses actually operate.
A customer should be able to:
- Discover services
- Choose a professional
- View availability
- Book instantly
Meanwhile, the business should be able to:
- Manage teams
- Assign services to professionals
- Automatically route appointments
No spreadsheets.
No manual assignment.
No "Please message us on WhatsApp."
Just a smoother experience for both customers and businesses.
One example
Imagine a salon with:
- 3 hairstylists
- 2 nail artists
- 15 services
A customer selects:
Haircut → Sarah → Friday 4 PM
Done.
Another customer selects:
Sarah → Nail Art → Saturday 11 AM
Done.
The appointment is automatically assigned to the right professional.
No back-and-forth.
No confusion.
No manual work.
What building this taught me
The biggest lesson wasn't technical.
It was this:
Small businesses rarely ask for more features. They ask for fewer problems.
They don't care what framework you use.
They don't care whether your app uses AI.
They care about one thing:
"Can this help me serve customers with less effort?"
As builders, we often optimize for features.
Customers optimize for outcomes.
Those are not always the same thing.
What's next?
I'm still early.
I'm probably wrong about many things.
That's why RadiusHQ is currently free to use while I learn from real businesses.
If you run a service business—or build tools for them—I'd genuinely love your feedback.
What am I missing?
What is the most frustrating part of your booking workflow today?
Try it here:
Reach me on X:
Or LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wizsuby/
Building in public has taught me one thing:
The fastest way to find product-market fit is to let real users tell you where you're wrong.
One thing I learned while talking to service businesses:
Customers don't always book services.
Often, they book people they trust.
A salon customer may choose their hairstylist first and only then pick the service and time slot.
That's why RadiusHQ supports both flows:
Service → Time → Book
Professional → Service → Time → Book
Curious how other founders think about this. Do your customers book services or people?