For service businesses that rely on client appointments, whether or not the business has a reliable appointment scheduling system in place can literally make or break its success.
Yet, virtually every service professional understood how managing client booking can be a major challenge. What about that one time a receptionist double-booked two VIP clients on her first day of work? What about those pesky no-shows? What about those times when you missed an appointment just because it didn’t show up in your calendar?
Sound familiar? These issues are just some of the reasons why many service businesses have now adopted online appointment scheduler software to enhance their client booking system.
In this post, we will discuss how an online appointment scheduler solution can save your business more time, improve the efficiency and versatility of the client appointment process, and ultimately, help you get more clients and grow your business.
Without further ado, let us begin right away.
Online Appointment Scheduler: The Concept
In a nutshell, an online appointment scheduler is a software solution (or application), that allows service businesses (spas, hair salons, beauty salons, law firms, dental offices, etc.) to easily enable a cloud-based, online client booking system.
While the features may vary with different solutions, typically the main function of the online appointment scheduler software is the ability to create an interactive calendar. Potential clients can easily view available time slots on the calendar and then book an appointment online.
This online calendar will then automatically sync with the business owner’s (or manager’s) calendar, so the schedule is automatically updated. This function alone will effectively eliminate issues like double bookings instantly.
A reliable online appointment scheduler solution like Bookeo will also allow you to easily customize your calendar as you see fit, integrate the online booking function to your website, and so on.
In short, with an online appointment scheduling software, you allow potential clients to book available time slots 24/7, whenever they want, and from any device they want. On the other hand, the business owner or manager can also easily track and manage booked client appointments from any phone, tablet, or computer.
We’ll further discuss the unique benefits of integrating an online appointment scheduling solution below.
Benefits of An Online Appointment Scheduler
Do you really need an online appointment scheduler? Is it worth the investment and the time required to adapt to a whole new system?
Here are some of the unique advantages you can expect from implementing an online appointment scheduler:
- Streamline the client appointment process
As we know, the traditional client booking process can be stressful.
In a phone-based appointment process, for example, the potential client must first inquire about an available time slot. Quite often the caller is not the actual client (i.e. calling for their child), so they must confirm the desired time slot with the actual client, which can take a few minutes on its own. Then, the receptionist must manually take notes of the client’s information and update the calendar.
As you can see, it’s inefficient and error-prone: what if the receptionist forgot to add the appointment to the calendar? What if the client’s information is recorded incorrectly?
With an online appointment scheduler, we can effectively avoid all these issues.
- Save more time and resources
The amount of administrative work required in a manual client appointment process can be very time-consuming so it will take your and your employee’s valuable time that is otherwise can be invested in performing more crucial tasks that can help your business grow.
With an online appointment scheduler in place, you can automate many of these administrative processes, freeing the team’s valuable time that you can use to execute more pressing tasks and activities.
- Increase your revenue and profitability
Obviously, you’d like your service business to make more money and grow, and an online appointment scheduler can help you improve your business’s revenue because:
- By streamlining the client appointment process and making it more efficient, you’ll be able to book more client appointments per day. More appointments will simply translate to more money
- By allowing clients to book your appointments 24/7 from anywhere, you’ll theoretically be able to get more clients on a regular basis.
- It’s easier for clients to book your service than, for example, in a phone-based reservation. More clients will, again, equal more money.
- Better experience for your clients
Proper implementation of an online appointment scheduler will simply improve your client’s overall experience when interacting with your business. Enabling online reservations will allow your clients to book your services quickly and easily: no phone calls, no double-bookings, no time wasted, and just an optimal way to book your service.
Happier clients will translate to more business, which ultimately translates into more money for your business.
- Reduces no-shows
Reliable online appointment schedulers like Bookeo will offer an easier and more effective way to communicate with clients regarding their appointments. Clients will automatically receive a confirmation for their appointments via email or text, and they’ll get another automated reminder nearing the scheduled date.
A pretty recent study has suggested that receiving reminders can significantly reduce no-shows, and an online appointment scheduler can help you in this aspect.
- Easy to implement
A common misconception is to think that an online appointment scheduler will be too complicated to use, but in fact, an online appointment scheduler solution like Bookeo is much easier to implement than manually taking phone-based appointments.
It’s very easy to integrate Bookeo on your website and sync it with your calendar, even for those who are technology-challenged.
Wrapping Up
Above, we have discussed all you need to know about online appointment scheduler, which will enable you to start taking your client appointments online easily and quickly.
By enabling clients to book your services online, you’ll be able to save more time, reduce your team’s stress, and improve your client’s satisfaction. Ultimately, implementing an online appointment scheduler can help you secure more bookings from more clients and increase your business’s revenue.
