One recent example is the City of Boston.  In a leap towards efficiency, citizen empowerment, and harnessing technology for better customer service, Boston has launched an iPhone application for municipal complaints.

With Boston’s Citizen Connect, iPhones turn into self-service reporting tools. Bostonians can send in photos of potholes, dark street lights and other municipal issues. The benefits are numerous, including  better efficiency in reporting issues. And with iPhone’s GPS function, the city gets an exact location of the issue. That’s a smart use of automation.

Boston’s iPhone app is a great example of adding online self-service to existing phone hotline options.  Even if you’re unprepared to collaborate with a giant like Apple, studies have shown that other online self-service options can increase yields and higher service revenue by as much as 20 to 40 percent.  You do the math.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine RDS104113

However,  such software is also being used in other markets on an increasing scale.  Here’s a look at five vertical markets that are rapidly adopting appointment scheduling, and why appointment scheduling software makes sense for them:

• Federal, state and local government agencies rely on appointment scheduling software to gain better control over scheduling processes and to improve resource utilization throughout operations and programs.
• Higher education institutions reduce administrative costs and provide better service to students.
• With appointment scheduling software, Human Resources departments can better manage the high volume of applicants in today’s highly competitive job market.
• Large retail organizations with many retail locations, broad service offerings, complex business rules and high transaction volumes are realizing higher revenues, better customer service and more effective marketing.
• Financial Services firms smooth demand and promote efficient utilization of resources with appointment scheduling software.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image credit: InMagine INGSELFS0352

According to polls on Yelp, Yahoo! Answers and other Web sites, there are some common places where the wait is considered abysmal.

If they haven’t already done so, organizations on this list should make some changes – if they care:

• Amusement Parks
• Airports, airlines
• ER, doctors offices, medical clinics
• Government Agencies: DMV, post office, border crossings, customs and immigration (see the Ellis Island photo above)
• Banks

Consumers have plenty of choices: travel to a different amusement park, change banks, perhaps choose a different airport or airline.  In the case of medical providers, customers can vote with their feet by simply switching doctors, hospitals and clinics. For government agencies you may not have a choice.  If they don’t offer online services or appointments, bring some entertainment (book, magazine, 3G-enabled mobile device, video game) while you wait … and wait … and wait!

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image credit: NYPL Digital Gallery on Flickr

It’s a project of unprecedented magnitude, and while government authorities are working their tails off to get everyone vaccinated, they seem to be overlooking a proven opportunity to improve reach: offering appointments can reduce wait times, which helps compliance. (“Compliance” is healthcare’s word for whether patients actually do what providers recommend.)

Citing a CDC advisor who calls it “potentially the largest mass-vaccination program in human history,” the Washington Post said Saturday

To prepare, more than 2,800 local health departments have begun recruiting pediatricians, obstetricians, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and even dentists, along with a small army of volunteers from churches and other groups. They are devising strategies to reach children, teenagers, pregnant women and young and middle-aged adults in inner cities, suburban enclaves and the countryside.

Last night ABC News ran this two minute clip. (You’ll have to sit through a commercial first.) At about 0:36 remaining, Ryan Owens says “Many children will go to their pediatrician. Others will have to go to the health department and line up, just like these people are.”

He turns and points to a lengthy queue.

This is ridiculous: it discourages people from getting shots.

Of course we’re biased; we believe in the convenience and effectiveness of Web self-service appointments, and we sell the stuff. But seriously: this is a public health issue. People are less likely to do something when there’s a long wait.

Conversely, when the time factor is under control, compliance increases. Evidence:

• In May we reported on a talk at the Pediatric Academy Societies’ annual meeting saying Appointment scheduling issues keep children from getting vaccinated.
• At last April’s “Health 2.0 meets Ix” conference in Boston, Kaiser-Permanente VP of PR Holly Potter (@HTPotter) reported that Kaiser has found (with its millions of Web users) that when patients can pick an appointment time online, at their convenience, they’re 40% less likely to no-show.

This isn’t rocket science: You know yourself, when there’s a long line for something you’re less likely to do it. It’s just that healthcare hasn’t quite woken up to the opportunity. (Kaiser has, most haven’t.)

We hope private providers and public health officials alike will give us a buzz. Spread the word.

Related resources:

• Blog post: Medical journal article shows reminders help patients stick to the plan
  
• Our healthcare solutions page
  
• Case study: Sonora Quest labs TimeTrade smooths patient traffic and guarantees service within five minutes of scheduled appointment time
  
• Case study: Berkeley HeartLab Centralized scheduling helps provide cardiac patients with top-notch care
  
• Case study: Family Health Care Clinic Family Health Care Clinic delivers better care, 25% more visits, $2.5 million more revenue

FOSE, the Federal Office Systems Exposition, is a massive annual event. In keeping with the times, they’re expanding their outreach: for the first time they’re offering Virtual FOSE: a virtual reality trade show, this Wednesday, August 12. It’s free – beats the heck out of the usual request for travel budget, eh? Register here.

Here’s what TimeTrade’s booth looks like:

Our overhead marquee scrolls, touting our self-service appointment scheduling and customer service. The “flat screen” below the marquee is our traditional display of our blue-ribbon government customers and integrator partners.

Visitors to Virtual FOSE can “walk in” to booths, see a display of staff who are there (online) for live chat, browse the “literature” ((documents and links) from the literature stand, and put it in their “briefcase” for future reference as they travel from booth to booth.

This is the kind of thing we love: efficiency and convenience, especially in government related areas. Hope to see you there! Again, click here to register free.

A recent issue of Barron’s trumpeted “Buy now!” and said some high-end summer homes are 30% below peak. This caught my eye, because a year earlier (before the collapse) I’d heard someone on the radio finally talking sense. And he predicted that housing prices would hit a new equilibrium: 30% below the peak.

When I first heard that my ears perked up (I’ll say why in a moment), though I didn’t realize who the speaker was: Martin Feldstein, architect of Reagan’s tax cut. (I’m not known for quoting Reagan advisors.) He also said prices might overshoot on the way down (to 40% below peak), before coming back up to the new equilibrium.

It was refreshing to hear an observer who didn’t seem to have his head stuck up his abstractions. I’d moved to Boston in the summer of ‘06, and my old house in the midwest sat and sat for months without even any showings, as idiots pumped out sunny prognosications about how better times were right around the corner. I’m all for the power of positive thinking, but when you’re steering something the size of the US economy, I also think it’s prudent to have a clear windshield. And these guys didn’t.

For instance, one day a Wall Street Journal analyst puzzled that “Job creation is strong, but we’re not seeing the corresponding inflation that we’d expect.” Well, anyone who read Kevin Phillips’ The Economy is Worse Than You Know (April 2008) knows that our definitions of economic statistics have changed dramatically, so the old rules don’t apply anymore. (Yes, gasp, I’m quoting a Nixon advisor and a Reagan advisor in the same post.)

For instance, when Wal-Mart uses three part-time workers (no benefits) to replace one full-time retail job (with benefits), the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts it as job growth, when it’s really job dissection. Because apparently BLS only counts W-4’s. When three W-4’s replace one W-4, they call it job creation. (Don’t believe me? Call your Senator. I did.)  This is like keeping the same game plan in football even though the rules have changed for what constitutes a forward pass. (I discussed Phillips’ excellent article in March on one of my personal blogs.)

Imagine that in your own company, a steady sales volume got broken up into many smaller orders, and someone tried to convince you that sales were strong because you received more POs. That’s pretty much what Phillips reports.

Yet month after month, year after year, the economic observers on air and in print said nothing about this. I presume they didn’t know, but in any case their advice was scarily ignorant.  So when I finally heard Feldstein speaking sense – that housing prices would still be dropping for a while – I thought “Here’s someone who’s connected to my reality.” Because when I’d liquidated that midwest house, it sold for less than I owed on it (I paid $18,000 to get rid of it), even as the sunshine dispensers were saying things were looking up.

Feldstein’s prediction was reinforced by news coverage last summer saying that to liquidate foreclosed houses, banks were selling them at 40% off peak. Aha: the bottom, where Feldstein said people would be confident enough to buy.

So when I saw Barron’s saying that some (non-foreclosed) properties are now selling at 30% off peak, I thought maybe we’re getting there: we’re at the point where real value has outlasted the smoke and mirrors of bogus stats. When values stop dropping, people will start to feel that it’s safe to go back in the water. The other shoe will have dropped, and we can get back to business.

So hold on, people. Stick to your values and take care of your customers.

DMDC, the Defense Manpower Data Center, handles issuing security credentials for the Department of Homeland Security. “People show up at the enrollment centers at different times on different days,” explains Rick Pratt, identification management specialist at Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the prime contractor supporting the Defense Department’s (DoD’s) card issuing process. “The centers would be empty some days, and some days they would be packed.” DMDC has about 900 sites with more than 2,000 workstations issuing common access cards (CACs.) Issuing the identification takes about 15 minutes if there are no delays, but applicants sometimes reported waiting five hours due to long lines.

Wouldn’t that just frustrate you? And if it were a store, wouldn’t it affect your loyalty?

Well, they installed a TimeTrade appointment scheduling system, and now that doesn’t happen. People who need credentials go online and make an appointment 24/7. They check their calendar at their leisure, see what slots are available, and pick one. No more wondering how long they’ll be away from the office, no more walking in and going “Oh crap” when they see the lines.

Does it work? DMDC did what everyone should do: they asked their “customers.” In a large-scale online survey, 95% of respondents said they’d recommend self-service appointment scheduling to others. Reasons included ease of use, efficient use of their time, and elimination of unpredictable in-person wait times.

In other words, 95% of people surveyed like it when rudeness is replaced with good customer service. We doubt we’ll win a Nobel for that discovery, but you do have to ask: Why doesn’t everyone do it?