Customers want convenience: a quick process to book an appointment that matches their schedule.

Service providers want bookings, as many as possible. But the busier you get, the harder it is to take time to take calls.

Self-service appointment scheduling software easily enhances customer service. The result? Happier customers and more efficient and effective customer service.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine PAA161000019

Here are some top benefits for personal service providers:

• Expanded hours for scheduling appointments. Most salons are open five days a week; three to four weekdays and one to two weekend days. Clients who call on a closed day to schedule an appointment will need to call back on a day when the business is open. Loyal customers will. New customers may just call another salon. With appointment scheduling software, clients can go online whenever convenient for them, and book their appointments.
• Fewer missed appointments. When clients miss appointments, businesses lose revenue. With scheduling software, the beauty salon can automatically set up appointment reminder emails.
• Greater efficiency = more clients serviced. Some personal services require a set block of time. For example, a massage is usually 60 or 90 minutes. Other services, such as hair coloring, can vary in time based on the client’s requirements, individual practitioner and number of concurrent appointments. With a scheduling software solution in place, the salon owner can get information on average times for appointments by various factors (day, stylist, etc.) and use that information to maximize the number of appointments per day.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine FAN2034838

• A national portrait studio chain offers online appointment scheduling.  Result: more than 20% of their business comes in while they’re closed. (That’s a 25% increase. What would you do to boost business 25%??)
• Sprint uses TimeTrade to let you self-schedule advanced support for your smartphone, 24/7. Imagine: no more queues – no lines, no waiting!
• Sonora Quest lets patients schedule quick appointments for blood tests etc. Result: 22,000 people a month self-schedule. They all get seen within five minutes – and think how much staff time would be needed to schedule those appointments manually.

24/7 online appointment scheduling provides dual benefits.

• Broaden your customer base by being accessible when you’re closed. Fill appointments and increase revenue without hiring additional staff or paying overtime.
• And customers can tackle their to-dos when it’s convenient, not just when the business is open. Great customer service!

Few brick-and-mortar businesses are open round the clock; online retailers are. This “digital divide” in service hours can be a competitive problem, but it’s possible to fight back, closing the deal when 9–5 businesses are closed.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine TT0600456

Here are seven signs that it’s time to get the next generation of appointment schedulers:

1. You’re finding that Outlook is just not cutting it anymore

Some might believe that Outlook (or another personal information manager) can do it all, but unfortunately, it is not specifically designed as an appointment scheduler.  If you find yourself wishing that Outlook could do more with appointments for your team, it’s time to migrate to powerful, dedicated scheduling software.

2. You and your staff are strapped to using it on a single computer

It can be a poor use of resources to have one person function as the go-to for group scheduling, not to mention frustrating if one must wait for that person to do his or her job in order for you to do yours.  Modern appointment software is web or server-based, allowing multiple points of access over a network, which are updated real-time.

3.  You need support but whoever wrote the software is long gone

There are plenty of free appointment schedulers you can download, but if you ever run into a problem don’t expect support, especially if the software is older.  Many of these free programs are available because the company is dead or the programmer has moved on.  If you need support, you need a live company that can provide customer service for help with your software.

4.  You have to page through the calendar for an open appointment time

The days of flipping through paper-based appointment books are supposed to be gone. However, if your scheduler doesn’t allow for a variety of search tools you may be forced relive the experience, paging through obsolete data to find what you are looking for.

5.  You upgrade your operating system and the software won’t work

New operating systems or upgrades are standard in computer use, but they are supposed to make your computer work better, not break it.  Many outdated programs will simply cease working after an upgrade, and if you run into compatibility problems with your scheduler, it’s definitely time to consider online scheduling software that is independent of the operating system used.

6.  You spend lots of time answering basic questions from customers

When making an appointment, customer inquiries are usually welcomed as they reflect genuine interest in your business.  However, you shouldn’t have to spend 10+ minutes explaining the basics of your business over the phone.  If you switch to a web-based appointment scheduler, many FAQ’s can be easily answered while customers make their appointments.

7.  You know nothing about the customer when they walk in the door for their appointment

New customers have often done a little preliminary research before making an appointment with your company. In kind, it can go a long way towards customer retention to have some basic details about your customer in-hand when meeting with them.  If customers are requested to answer a few simple questions online during the appointment scheduling process, you may have the vital information your business needs to create a return customer before they even walk in the door.

David Hill
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image credit: InMagine TT1400064

An estimated 2 million people flew in the U.S. on the day before Thanksgiving.  On this, the busiest travel day of the year, people are reminded of all the hassles, challenges and inefficiency of air travel.

One significant trend in the air travel industry is the adoption of appointment scheduling for internal and regulatory processes.  Both the FAA and Toronto rely on appointment scheduling software.

The FAA offers 24/7 self-service scheduling for new FAA staff to get the credentials required by U.S. Homeland Security.

The Greater Toronto Airport Authority also turned to appointment scheduling software to manage its security credentials process.

These efforts address internal efficiencies, but point to a larger awareness: the air travel industry understands people dislike waiting.

Most airlines already have self-service check-in kiosks that provide better customer service and are more efficient.  It’s only a matter of time before more internal efficiencies like those adopted by the FAA and Greater Toronto Airport Authority begin to alleviate the pains of air travel.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine JUICD035062

But there are other technologies that deliver both improved customer care and operational efficiencies.   Appointment scheduling software is one great example.  Hard ROI numbers aside (and there are plenty of them), appointment scheduling software gives businesses the flexibility to work with customers when most convenient for the customer.

Whether a business’s target client is a stay-at-home mom or a corporate executive, few customers have the time or patience to place calls during office hours, to make or change an appointment.  And few businesses can afford to staff up for appointment scheduling after hours.  Appointment scheduling software, available 24×7, lets customers schedule appointments on their time.  That’s convenience you can’t put a price on.

These benefits extend beyond scheduling an appointment.

• With appointment scheduling software, businesses can schedule any number of customer interactions, including
  • meetings
  • personal services
  • online chats
  • phone calls
  • online meetings, and more.
• They can make sure the same customer representative works with the customer, delivering a more personal approach to customer care.  A single point of contact means the representative can understand the customers’ issues better and develop a rapport with the customer.

Operationally, automation allows analyzing the number of requests/calls per customer (and even per issue), push customer interactions to those that are more operationally efficient (online versus in-person), and overall, take a more sophisticated approach to managing customer interaction.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine PE0063082

An appointment is a reservation for service, both the service performed by the business and the personal attention received from employees.  A satisfied customer needs to feel both aspects of customer care are handled well.

A Beagle Research White Paper, Improving Service Businesses with Appointment Scheduling, illustrates this.  The CRM analyst firm found that “significant numbers of people believe that appointments should start exactly when or very near when they are scheduled — with virtually no waiting at all.”

The lesson here is that customers do not merely schedule an appointment for service, they also make a reservation for priority level care and commitment from the company.  Customers perform a courtesy to the business by scheduling the appointment, and they expect to receive the same level of courtesy extended to them by employees.

Other key findings include:

• More than 30% of people who visit a business expect instant attention.
• Consumers rated walk-in services as impersonal, crowded and rushed — overall a poorer experience.

Combined with personal courtesy, appointment scheduling software can be a doorway to improving customer loyalty.  Listen to customers, and find the right balance.

Lisa Letchworth
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image credit: InMagine TSS0050854

The recent recession has hit the beauty industry hard, although recent signs indicate that the industry as a whole is improving: the Professional Beauty Association said in August that its new Salon/Spa Performance Index rose in the latest quarter.  While things may be looking up, customers are more scrutinizing than ever and stretched thinner for time as they try to juggle all the demands in their lives.

Appointment reminders help customers be prompt, which contributes to their satisfaction with services as well as providing a calmer and more organized environment for everyone.  In addition, it can help reduce the amount of cancellations and no-shows.  A business that reaches out to help customers where they are shows them that you care about more than profits.

David Hill
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/ / CC BY 2.0

Setting appointments with online appointment software allows you to be organized with your time and communicates to others (including your boss) that both your time and the time of others is something that you value.   Aren’t supervisors looking for employees who are focused, organized, efficient, and place a value on the company’s best interest?

Furthermore, using appointment software allows you to set up periodic meetings with co-workers.  This means you can better manage your business relationships, which translates into met deadlines and improved rapport with colleagues.  It also eliminates the over-dependence on email and allows for face-to-face interactions which are rarer, and often more valued, in the digital age.

Finally, using online appointment software won’t involve installing any software on an office computer.  Notifying an employer or the IT department that you will be routinely accessing appointment software online will ensure that you also won’t get blocked by a web filter.  Additionally, it means that you can access the software wherever you go, including your mobile phone.

Downsizing has become so common it shouldn’t come as a surprise that managers are constantly being asked to evaluate their teams to identify the weakest link, and potentially the next to be let go should a RIF become necessary.  While there are no certainties, one thing is sure.  Strengthening your job security with online appointment software has one additional benefit: you’ll be amazed at how much you accomplish.

David Hill
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image credit:  InMagine ISPC018002

One company reporting success in this effort is Bosley, the Beverly Hills-based men’s hair restoration subsidiary of the $850 million Aderans Holding Co..   A Computerworld article reports that Bosley’s IT Director, Mark Davenport says the company’s previous Siebel system had “gaping holes” that created double bookings, angering customers and forcing the company to revert to a semi-manual process.  When Bosley adopted the SaaS tool, TimeTrade, Bosley’s consultants and medical personnel could input their available times at all 19 surgical offices.  Customers were able to view available slots and set appointments convenient to their schedules — and no overlap occurred.  Bosley chose a logical cost reduction tool — something effective, inexpensive, and simple.

Other ways online software saves money:

• Increases operational efficiencies
• Slims down staff overhead
• Reduces staff training expenses
• Offers quick implementation & fast application
• Frees you up from capital spent on computer & office equipment

Before you consider cutting back on necessary enterprise building tools like advertising and good customer service, consider eliminating items that are not required for you to stay in business.  The idea is to cut any unnecessary expenses, not sacrifice efficiency or professionalism.  Using a proven SaaS tool can help.

Pamela Taylor & Lisa Letchworth
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit:  InMagine EV204040