April 22, 2024

5 Riveting Reasons To Use Online Scheduling Tools

5 Riveting Reasons To Use Online Scheduling Tools

What's in this post?

Let's first agree on this, a good online appointment scheduling tool can actually play a pivotal role in the success of businesses that predominantly rely on client appointments. It’s super important for such business houses to improve the ease of booking as that leads to more traffic and eventually transforms into higher revenues. Alongside this, the adoption of efficient online reservation software can gear up your business to deliver an alleviated client experience accompanied by significant savings in time and money.

What is an Online Appointment Scheduling Application?

Let’s first derive a clear understanding of online appointment software.

Online scheduling platforms are web-based applications that primarily facilitate your prospective clients to reserve a slot for themselves in your work calendar conveniently. These applications are usually loaded with features that empower your clients and you can skip all the hustle around fixing the meeting and getting it effectively executed.  From assured security, efficient calendar management to automated meeting reminders, online appointment scheduling applications are your savior.

More so because…

Easier Booking procedures > More successful bookings > Happier customers/clients > More Revenue

Reasons to use Online Scheduling Tools

To know more about the grounds of advocacy for online scheduling tools, plunge into the following reasons presented below:

1. Amplified Revenue and Growth

An online scheduling platform acts as a direct channel facilitating the creation, promotion, publishing, and selling of services online. With the advent of technological advancements, customers look for minimum human interaction and are happier at self-service scenarios. With online appointment scheduling tools, they receive the required response and attention, quick, accurate, and to-the-point, which makes it more convenient, time-saving for customers, and amplifies their chances of coming back to you. Also, Appointment scheduling tools reduce chances of errors and miscommunication, which often directly impacts operational efficiency and losses. Finally, these tools usually support the company’s marketing efforts and promote the price packages, combo offers, and discounts on their platform, giving customers a gentle nudge towards making the purchase decision. Reduced operational losses, more customer convenience, reduced workforce costs and amplified customer reach, all of these together can make it easier for your business to climb the revenue growth graph.

Some statistical facts to back this up-

●      Pre-booking appointments lead customers to spend 7 - 8X more than walk-ins (Forrester Consulting)

●      Customers, 110% tend to add items to their carts and end up spending 40% more than planned when a personalised shopping experience (Boston Consulting Group)

●      After a personalised interaction, 64% of customers willingly invest more in service (PwC)

●      Implementing online appointment software 90% of financial institutions observed newly opened accounts and a rise in balances (The Financial Brand)

2. Enhances the quality of customer/client service

A high volume of redundant and repetitive calls for appointments, reappointments, cancellations, queries can often lead to stress and frustration amongst administrative staff. This directly negatively impacts the quality of customer assistance delivered by them. Adopting a proficient online scheduling tool can save your business from having negative customer experiences as they minimise human interaction and empower customers to self-serve their requirements. This ultimately leads to more convenience, less dependence, and higher customer satisfaction. Some scheduling software offer features like integration with virtual calendars that make the entire appointment booking process simple, accurate and prevent no-shows. These tools eliminate the need for back and forth exchange of emails, skip on miscommunications and enable the users to book appointments according to their convenient time slots, so the customer actually feels like the king. It is crucial to make customers feel that they are preferred and that their needs are your priority to gain customer loyalty and crack the hack of exponential growth. Online appointment scheduling tools serve the purpose of scheduling meetings at their choice of time and fixing scheduling remote and in-person meetings to provide exceptional services or resolve unusual issues.

3. 24/7 at Service

This is one of the predominant reasons to switch to online scheduling tools. The 24*7 booking service of the online scheduling software is unarguably the most bankable feature. According to new research, 35% of clients prefer to schedule their appointments during off-business hours, as they do not get the time to do it during their working hours. 40% of online appointment scheduling actually happens beyond the usual 9 to 5 hours. This is a big boon for businesses as they no longer miss out on client bookings due to admin staff’s unavailability. Instead, with these tools, all appointments are duly and neatly lined up irrespective of the time and hour of booking, that too without overlaps or confusions.

4. Sales and Marketing Synergy

Single-click “Book Now” options and links on the business website and social media pages integrated through online scheduling applications enable easy scheduling and motivate clients to execute the call to action. Taking customers from one page to another to complete the scheduling process might feel a little twisted and demotivating leading to incomplete purchases decisions and a corresponding impact on revenue. So, apart from pleasingly presenting your brand on your website, it often works out great when brands provide booking options on the website to proceed with the purchase decision.

Also, online scheduling software guides potential customers to the ultimate booking page when they click on the ads and social media posts and facilitates reserving appointments and taking the deal forward.

So, having a marketing strategy without adopting

an online scheduling application, more so when your business depends on appointments, won't be a wise move.

5. Amplifies brand reach through Multiple Channels

Consumers nowadays tend to constantly switch between channels and devices while browsing through various sites to avail products and services. For example, after visiting an offline storefront, a beauty salon, customers usually check the store’s website and, if interested, book an appointment through the app. Therefore, your business needs to create an omnichannel presence compatible with all devices to stay competitive.

Even for covid vaccinations, people in large numbers have opted for apps like Appointo to book their preferred time slots and get vaccinated. Enabling your consumers to book appointments and process payments online across multiple channels creates a good deal of impact on revenue. People tend to prefer a service that allows them to keep track of their scheduled appointments and provide booking reminders and notifications to ensure the appointment is duly executed. Therefore, making your services available for booking through an online appointment system on their smart devices is undoubtedly a favorable move for your business.

Summing Up

So, adopting a web-based appointment scheduling platform will surely drive higher revenue opportunities for your business, accompanied by savings in employee cost, reduced operational losses in turn for nominal implementation and maintenance costs. Besides ensuring omnichannel visibility, in today’s world, online scheduling of appointments has become the best strategy for businesses to connect with their prospects and cater personalized and unique services to them. Therefore, it's high time to put a full stop to scheduling appointments manually. Check out Appointo, one of the top scheduling and appointment management software used by small business owners, remote workers, tech recruiters to attain their business goals. To be ahead of your competitors, adopt the new normal approach of appointment management, use online scheduling tools and ace the market.

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