Learn the secrets of Apple’s retailing success at this informative webinar with customer experience expert Mike Wittenstein. Apple’s foray into retail has broken new ground, shattered traditional metrics and has changed the face of the retail industry forever. If you are involved in retail, or any customer-facing business, this webinar will take you behind the scenes of Apple Stores and teach you the strategies and techniques Apple uses to delight their customers.

About the Speaker

For two decades, Mike Wittenstein, has helped business leaders around the world differentiate their brands by dramatically improving their customer experience. He has helped retailers like Party City, Kinko’s, Best Buy, Alternative Apparel and SOHO Office, to elevate their customer experience, while making it a lot more engaging – and even fun – for all involved. He has given clients like Apple, IBM, McDonald’s, and iPay Technologies a looking glass view into how their company is perceived by everyday customers.

Before PowerInbox, people interacted with emails by hitting reply or forward, or by clicking on URLs to open a webpage, thus leading users away from the email. “All this back-and-forth drains productivity and effectiveness,” says Matt Thazhmon, PowerInbox CEO, in a statement that reemphasizes a point we make at TimeTrade every single day.

We know that “back-and-forth” is one of the least productive things a business professional can engage in, so we thought that creating a PowerInbox “PowerApp” for TimeTrade was a perfect fit.

Take a look at some of the screenshots below for an idea of what TimeTrade’s app for PowerInbox can do for you or your contacts. To take advantage of this capability, your contacts will need to have PowerInbox installed. It’s easy to install (literally two clicks) and you can include it in the scheduling invitations you send to your contacts (example below). That way, not only are you offering them a fast, easy way to schedule time with you, but you’re also giving them a way to be more productive themselves.

See below for an example of an email you might send inviting one of your contacts to schedule time with you. Nothing new except the added call to install PowerInbox. You’ll see, when more of your contacts use PowerInbox, your click through rates increase and more people will book time with you.

When a contact who has PowerInbox installed receives the email, they will be able to interact with TimeTrade right inside the email, without ever having to open a new webpage.

We’ve found a great new tool called Yesware that helps you create and categorize your email templates and track their performance all through Gmail.

We love that the template creation is extremely easy (just compose an email and save it as a template) but what really floats our boat here at TimeTrade is Yesware’s direct integration to Gmail and popular CRM systems such as Salesforce, Highrise, Sugar, PipeJump, etc. We know the power of integration and how the purpose of using tools like this is to make life easier and to streamline processes, so when we come across solutions like Yesware that fit the bill, we are quick to find ways to use them with TimeTrade.

If you don’t already have a TimeTrade account,
click here to get started.

See a screenshot below of some of the analytic capabilities you can now get with Gmail using Yesware:

You get insights into how your customers and prospects are reacting to your message through the analytics that are viewable right from within Gmail.

Take all this cool functionality and couple it with TimeTrade and you’ve turned your Gmail account into a sales prospecting arsenal.

Check out our video below on how to get set up using TimeTrade and Yesware in no time.

Now, TimeTrade is part of your mobile toolbox for productivity, increasing sales and keeping your customers happy.

The TimeTrade Mobile iPhone app is now available in the Apple iTunes App Store (US and Canada) and it’s free to download. If you are currently a TimeTrade Professional or Workgroup Edition customer, all you have to do is log in and start scheduling, but if you are new to TimeTrade, you can sign up for a free trial here.

Here are some of the features you get with TimeTrade Mobile:

• Invite contacts to “Click to Schedule” right from your iPhone
• Use the in-app calendar to choose times to make available for meetings
• Use the “Follow-Up List” to instantly contact those who haven’t responded to your invites
• See a detailed overview of your activity from the app dashboard

Here’s a brief overview of how to use TimeTrade Mobile for the iPhone. Click here for more detailed instructions on using the app and to access our support knowledge base.

	The Dashboard Quickly and easily set and follow all of your scheduling activity. From the dashboard, you can send invitations to schedule meetings and appointments, monitor your recent activity, and see how many invitations haven’t been responded to.
In-App Calendar Control You can access any of your existing TimeTrade Activities or, choose multiple days and times to offer for meetings or appointments using a quick meeting. The easy-to-use interface will display the existing appointments so you don’t have to worry about double-booking. Tap the times you want to offer and they will automatically be included in your TimeTrade meeting invitation.
	Fast, Easy Email Invitations You create your email invitations, access your contacts and choose your availability right in the app. You never have to navigate away to another email application or calendar and each email sent is tracked so you know who has confirmed a meeting and who hasn’t.
Keep track of contacts who haven’t confirmed appointments yet The Follow-Up List lets you monitor who hasn’t clicked to schedule with you. Just tap the name on the list and you’ll be brought to the contact information screen where you can email or call to send a gentle reminder that they are just a click away from picking a time for your meeting!

A great way to accomplish this is to embed TimeTrade on your website using an iframe. It’s quick and easy to to do if you have access to the HTML of your website (if you don’t, your web developer will have no problem setting this up for you). Just follow the steps below.

1. Create a page where the TimeTrade booking screen will appear when a visitor clicks your “Click-to-Schedule” button or hyperlink. (ex. www.yourwebsite.com/schedule)
2. Find your TimeTrade Activity URL (You’ll find the Activity URL by clicking on an activity in the left column of your “Home” tab) and copy it to your clipboard.
   
3. Add the snippet of code below to the webpage you created from Step 1. and replace ONLY the XXXXX with the extension from your own Activity URL from Step 2 (NOTE: the TimeTrade booking screen requires a width of 750px and a height of 525px).

<iframe width="750" height="600" src="https://my.timedriver.com/XXXXX?sh=1" frameborder="0">

Don’t Confuse Your Prospects and Customers
If you ask a customer or prospect to click a link, it’s important to make sure you’re specific and clear with your intent. Explain what they can expect to experience and where it is they’ll be headed if they do decide to click.  Including a welcome message and/or your company logo in your scheduling process lets your customers and prospects know they’re still in the right place once they’ve clicked your link and to proceed to book an appointment. Reduce the unknown and you’ll reduce hesitation or confusion.

Earn Their Trust
Fresh relationships are also fragile ones, and when you’re prospecting, you probably have a lot of fresh relationships. It’s important to build trust with those you interact with and show them that you’re a professional.

People can be wary of links in emails and if you use TimeTrade, you probably send hyperlinks pretty regularly. So once someone clicks, you can counteract any inherent “friction” or “stress” by letting them know they’re still interacting with you, and not some other vendor or third party. Including your branding and a welcome message as part of the TimeTrade scheduling process is a good way to retain, and even build trust with your customers or prospects. You’re showing them that you are a professional using technology to make both of your lives easier.

Watch the video below to learn how to add your company logo to customer-facing TimeTrade pages.

If you are a TimeTrade Professional user, you will need to add the Branding Option from your “My Subscription” screen under the “Admin” dropdown menu.

No More Games, Let’s Just Talk: How TimeTrade Doubled My Productivity

This is not an advertisement for TimeTrade.  Nobody put me up to this, nor am I being held at fake finger-in-coat-pocket gunpoint by some over-eccentric staff member demanding a testimonial for ransom (not to suggest that anyone at TimeTrade would ever do such a thing, but I want my point to be made clear.)  This is not a marketing ploy, but rather an honest reflection of the ways in which appointment scheduling software has impacted my performance as a sales development professional. I’m sure there are other products out there similar to TimeTrade that work great.

Having said that, TimeTrade works wonders for me. I began using the product in October of last year, and my productivity has doubled ever since. By “productivity has doubled”, what I mean is that the number of opportunities that I create per day is twice as high with the software as it was before I started using it.  Why is that? With TimeTrade I can spend more time talking to prospects, and less time playing games.

Games I no longer have to waste my time playing thanks to TimeTrade:

“Calendar Invite Battleship”.

Ever try setting an appointment between two busy people via email, and end up sitting there sending and declining time proposals back-and-forth, hoping to blindly hit one of the few open time slots in each other’s schedules like some game of calendar invite battleship?

“The 7^th at 2:00?”

“…miss! The 10^th at 4:00?”

“miss! the…”

If so, you know that (unlike the real battleship) this is not a fun game to play, and it’s a waste of time on both ends. But, much like the real battleship however, it’s far easier and over much quicker when you can see the other person’s board. In a way, that’s what TimeTrade does—it shows you my board. With a TimeTrade link embedded in my email signature, one click brings you to my calendar to see exactly which appointment times I have or don’t have available, and (with your own calendar handy) another click reserves a time that works well for both parties. Easy, convenient, time-efficient (click, click “the 3^rd at 9:00?” “hit!”)

Phone-Tag & Cat-and-Mouse.

Before I had TimeTrade, I used to feel like I was always trying to chase people down on their phone. I also felt like when I actually would catch people, it wasn’t at a great time. Wasting time on the chasing and waiting game is bad enough, but the last thing in the world I want to do is in anyway bother or seem intrusive to prospects. But, if you pick the time you want to speak, then I’m not catching you off guard or at a bad time.  In fact, I’m doing the opposite—fulfilling your request to have a conversation on your terms. Now, not only do I not have to chase you around or feel like a bother, but when you schedule an appointment with me, I know that you’re genuinely interested in our product and what I have to say.  In that regard, you might even say that TimeTrade adds an extra layer of lead qualification to a certain respect.

I am also opposed to using a “hard-sell” approach, because I simply don’t like being pushy or pressuring folks (not to criticize those who do, it just doesn’t work for me personally).  Instead, I try to be as polite and personable as possible, while still being informative of the benefits of our product. I don’t sell, I help prospects buy. TimeTrade caters to this preference because by attaching my calendar link in email blasts and posting it on our website, the prospects come to me, and all I have to do is be friendly and tell them what they want to know.  And many times these appointments are with those I wouldn’t have ever called. Again, that means no more wasting time (ours and theirs) calling people who aren’t interested. And, all the time I used to spend chasing can now be used for something more productive, like researching and preparing for upcoming appointments, which are never hard to set with a calendar that fills itself.

My tagline for TimeTrade: More conversations. More quality conversations. No more playing games.

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Often, by the time the prospect has an actual conversation with someone in your company, days have gone by and the prospect has quite possibly lost interest.

Watch this video to see how using a TimeTrade “Click to Schedule” link as a call-to-action in your email marketing campaigns, can help you be sure interested prospects don’t have to wait. Instead, they just choose a time for an appointment and book it while they are still interested and you are still top-of-mind.

If you use TimeTrade’s Workgroup Edition and have the Appointment Router, click to see the configuration guide. To set up the Appointment Router to ensure that customers and prospects set meetings with the right representative within your company, you simply create your assignment rules and use the automated code generator to embed TimeTrade in your landing pages. When someone fills out a form to instantly confirm an appointment, they’re shown the calendar of the rep you want them to be talking to.  They’re also captured as a lead if you’ve set up integration with Marketo, Eloqua or Salesforce.com.

Click here or more information on the Appointment Router for TimeTrade Workgroup Edition.

Here are a few ways Salesforce integration with online appointment scheduling can help you get more meetings, keep track of those meetings, and stay connected with your prospects and customers.

Offer Appointments to anyone outside your company with
an “Offer Appointment” Button

Click the image above to learn more about offering appointments from Salesforce

The ability to offer appointments to those outside of your company, and let them see times you’ve selected to make available is not a luxury you have if you’re using Outlook or Google Calendar alone to schedule appointments. By using an online appointment scheduling system to publish your availability to your prospects or customers, you let them confirm meetings with you without ever having to go through the tedious back-and-forth emails and phone calls. This saves you time and frustration, and let’s you spend those saved hours selling.

Track your booked sales meetings as Activities in Salesforce.com

When you use TimeTrade’s Salesforce integration, meetings that get booked show up as open activities under the lead or contact who booked the appointment and automatically appear on your calendar. This eliminates the manual process of creating the activity and ensures you and your manager are accurately tracking your sales activity.

Include a schedule link in your Salesforce email templates

If you include a link to your online appointment scheduling calendar in all of your communications, including those from Salesforce.com, you’ll quickly find that your links start doing your work for you. As you communicate, your contacts will see your “Click to Schedule” link and you’ll see a noticeable increase in your sales meetings, meeting attendance, and ultimately in closed business.

For more information on Salesforce Integration with TimeTrade’s Workgroup Edition, visit our Salesforce Integration page or find us on the Salesforce Appexchange.

But what about your existing calendar? It’s a lot of work to manually take inventory of your schedule and plug in times you want to make available, especially because as appointments flow in, you have to manually monitor your calendar and remove those time slots so no one double-books. It’s nearly impossible to stay on top of it all and you’re bound to double-book something somewhere.

If you’re using TimeTrade online appointment scheduling, you can set up your account to connect directly to your Google Calendar. TimeTrade works 24/7 to automatically update your schedule as meetings roll in and will only offer up times that are open on your calendar. This basically lets you “set and forget” TimeTrade and be sure that meetings will only show up on your calendar when and where you want them to. You’ll be more efficient and more productive.

For a quick step-by-step explanation of how to connect your  TimeTrade Professional or Workgroup Edition account with your Google Calendar, visit our FAQ or click the image below.

Click the image to learn how to connect TimeTrade to your Google Calendar