Introducing our New Online Booking Experience

Those of you who have been students of The Chopping Block for a while now know we've used the same online registration system for many years. I've been working here for almost 17 years, and we used this software even when I started! Of course, we've made enhancements and improvements over the years to fit the needs of our growing business, but it's time to welcome a new era to our customer experience. 

Today, we launched our new online booking software, powered by Occasion. We believe this experience will be much better for you and our business. It's fast, easy and best of all, it's mobile-friendly so you have a seamless experience booking cooking classes from your mobile devices. 

As with all software launches, there will be a transition period as we tweak the features to better fit our needs, as well as yours. Since we publish our class calendars a month in advance, there will be a brief period where we'll actually be using both software systems. So, if you are signing up for a cooking class in April, you'll see nothing has changed. But if you are signing up for a class in May or beyond, you'll be routed to the new mobile-friendly system. You'll notice there's definitely major differences in the visual appeal of the calendar.

Here's our April calendar in the old system:

Here's our May calendar in the new system:

Pretty big difference, don't you think? Each class now has an image of one of the dishes featured in that class menu. Warning: mouth-watering will commence upon viewing our calendar now!

You'll also notice a big change when you click through to view the details of a particular class. Here's what you currently see in the old system:

And here's what you'll see in the new system:

It's more visually appealing, easier to read and mobile-responsive, which means the view will adjust to fit whatever device you are viewing on, whether that's your phone, your tablet or your desktop. You can choose how you view the calendar: in a traditional calendar format (shown above, best for desktop) or in an agenda view you scroll through (shown below, best for mobile).

Here are just some of the other highlights of the new system:

• You will no longer need an account login/password. Everything will be tied to your email address, so for booking May classes, you will no longer need an account to book online. No more forgetting those pesky passwords!
• Starting with May classes, we are moving to a pre-payment system which means you will pay for your class at the time of registration instead of on the day of the class. This switch will make class check-in a breeze, which means you'll get cooking, eating and drinking even faster! 
• If you are paying with a credit card, the process is seamless, and you can book online in just a few clicks.
• If you are paying with a gift card, you will now need to call us to make your reservation. This situation is temporary until we are able to integrate our gift card system into the new online booking system. Our friendly and helpful staff is ready to get you signed up for your class as soon as you give us a call, and it will take just a few minutes. We appreciate your patience! 
• You'll now be able to filter classes by categories such as Vegetarian, Healthy, Baking/Pastry, Wine/Cocktail, etc. so you can choose classes based on your interests. You can also still search by keyword. 
• The new system allows for much more robust reporting features which means better data on what classes you love, or those you don't. This will allow us to build our calendars and create classes with more information from our customers. 
• We are launching a new referral rewards program which gives you credit toward classes when you refer your friends to take classes with you. A cooking class is always more fun with friends!
• There's a bunch of other cool features, such as auto-generated feedback emails and integration with Facebook and Google events, so stay tuned as we roll them out over the next month or so. 

We are excited about the update to Occasion, and we hope you will be, too! If you have questions or experience any trouble with the new experience, please reach out to us as soon as possible so we can help you navigate the new software. You can always reach us via email at info@thechoppingblock.com, through Facebook messenger and by calling our specific locations at:

• Merchandise Mart: 312-644-6360
• Lincoln Square: 773-472-6700

We hope you find this new system easier to use and of course, we want to hear your feedback. Try it out and let us know what you think in the comments!