Business & Tech

5 Questions for St. Charles Business Owner Steve Mastio

The FittleBug scheduling software helps business and customers set appointments without the worry of catching someone during normal business hours.

Steve Mastio operates , a carpet cleaning business that serves the Fox Valley area. The St. Charles resident has branched from the cleaning biz and developed something that he believes helps those other in the service industries. It’s called FittleBug, a name his son came up with when he was 9 years old. FittleBug software, a product of BusinessBridge Inc., empowers customers to schedule for a particular service offered by a local business and know exactly how long it will take.

St. Charles Patch talked with Mastio about his work, his new software and why St. Charles itself works for him.

Are you from St. Charles? What do you like about this business community here?

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“One of the reasons I settled on St. Charles is because of the people. There’s a class to it, the Fox Valley,” Mastio said. He moved to St. Charles 25 years ago.

What was the inspiration to develop this scheduling tool?

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Mastio spent two years studying what other companies had developed for on-line scheduling.

“What I determined was that it wasn’t on-line scheduling. It was on-line questionnaires … It was a form. It could be generated by anybody,” Mastio said.

The Yellow Pages or even website directories help people find a dentist or HVAC technician. They don’t necessarily help a customer get access to the business.

“People are flocking in droves to the Internet for local services,” Mastio said. “They have a need and they want to get the need resolved now."

What type of business would best benefit from this?

“Any business that services the home or the people in the home …” Mastio said.

He used the example of a Harley-Davidson dealership as an example. The dealership knows how long it might to take to, say, give a motorcycle a tune up or perform some other kind of regular maintenance. The customer doesn't even need to call during normal business hours to set a time to come in.

If I’m running a small shop, or it’s just me running my own ship, how does this help?

Mastio said his software frees business owners from having to worry about scheduling by allowing the customer to do it for them. Customers respond because it gives them a sense of being able to control their own scheduling and know exactly how long something will take.

“The first time you do something like that that is empowering … you will use it again and again,” Mastio said.

How does this fit in with the larger trend toward using the Internet for business?

In a word: convenience.

“We allow you to have a relationship on your time with us,” Mastio said.


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