Service companies often waste significant amounts of time and resources managing appointments. Taking bookings is an essential business task. And although the time required to schedule a single appointment is minimal, over weeks and months employees can easily spend hours on the phone dealing with customers.
Fortunately, there’s a better way. Virtually all businesses can benefit from modern apps and tools designed to streamline appointment booking processes. Once these systems are in place, employees will likely save dozens of hours every month, leading to efficiency gains for your business.
In this post, we’re going to look at seven practical, inexpensive ways you can dramatically improve your appointment system and cut down on wasted resources
1. Launch an Online Booking Portal
One of the quickest and easiest ways to free up employee time that would usually be spent on the phone taking bookings is by launching an online appointments portal. To book a slot, clients simply need to go to your website, pick the service they want, and select a time that suits their schedule.
You can even let customers make their own online accounts, thus enabling them to log in and check, reschedule, or even cancel their appointment.
The good news is that setting up an online booking portal doesn’t require any in-depth technical knowledge. A variety of online platforms enable you to inexpensively set up a system without any development skills.
2. Let Customers Pay After Booking Online
For most small businesses, taking bookings is only half the battle. There’s also the issue of payments, which requires employees to process bank card details or accept cash on the date of the appointment.
If you offer an online booking portal, you should give customers the option to pay online after they’ve booked their appointment. In some cases, it might even be feasible to make online payments mandatory, and the time you save by avoiding manual payments may outweigh the cost of any lost customers.
If you don’t like the idea of integrating your booking portal with multiple payment processors, appointment booking via PayPal is likely the best way to go. Getting set up is usually simple as most appointment scheduling platforms have built-in payment functionality and integrate with a range of third-party apps.
3. Make It Easy for Customers to Cancel
Cancellations are the bane of any small business, especially when they’re made at short notice. Cutting down on cancelled appointments will always positively impact revenue, so it’s in every company’s interest to find ways to prevent customers from dropping out.
One way of doing this that might seem counterintuitive is by making it easier for clients to cancel or reschedule. By removing the hassle from the process, you’re increasing the likelihood that customers will provide you with more notice. You can then offer the slot to other people, perhaps for a discount.
Offering rescheduling and cancellation options online is one way to cut down on late cancellations. Another is by sending SMS reminders and allowing recipients to send a reply to cancel.
You may also want to consider disincentivizing cancellations at short notice by asking for a non-refundable deposit or requiring payment in full after a certain point.
4. Offer Automated Phone Options
Some customers will want to book appointments via a phone call irrespective of how easy your online scheduling portal is to use. It’s also tricky for somebody to schedule appointments online if they’re on-the-go or don’t have access to the internet.
To avoid wasting large amounts of time processing bookings in person, you should offer automated phone scheduling, where customers can book an appointment using their touchpad, and even make payments, without any input from you.
Much like online booking portals, phone scheduling and customer service apps for businesses are inexpensive and easy to implement. And implementation doesn’t require any specialized knowledge on your part.
5. Automate Notifications and Reminders
If there’s one thing that’s worse than cancellations, it’s straight-up no shows. Forgetful customers represent a huge chunk of lost revenue to most small companies. This makes it imperative for businesses to send reminders in the run-up to appointments.
Automated reminders in the form of emails, social media reminders, SMS messages, and push notifications, are easy and inexpensive to set up. As a feature, client notifications are included in most booking apps and can dramatically cut down on missed appointments.
6. Sync Your Online Booking System With Employee Calendars
By syncing your online booking system with both your personal and your employees’ calendars, you’ll cut down on the time needed to update and organize appointments. Whenever a client books a slot, your calendar will update and you’ll receive a notification on your computer or mobile device. This simple tip will save time for everybody in your business.
7. Don’t Forget About Customer Onboarding
After implementing new online booking systems, many companies forget to onboard their clients. It doesn’t matter if you have the most intuitive, well-designed online portal in the world. If customers don’t know it exists, or if they don’t know how to use it, very little is going to change.
Simple things go a long way when it comes to onboarding. You should contact all current customers via email and let them know about your new system, preferably with links to guidance and video tutorials. Also, offer to walk clients through the booking process via phone if they’re still unsure.
Conclusion
Streamlining your appointment system is one of the most straightforward ways you can make your business more efficient. Online booking platforms are inexpensive and easy to use, and clients will value the freedom to make and reschedule appointments at their leisure.
You and your employees will have more time, cancellations will fall, and you’ll receive payments more quickly. What’s not to like?