For service businesses, how they can continuously improve the number of client appointments is often the biggest challenge.
At the same time, improvements in appointment/booking rates are very important, and as we know, will directly affect your business’s revenue.
There are various different strategies and tactics you can use to improve client appointments: heavier advertising, influencer marketing, SEO, and other tactics. However, all of these marketing tactics would only matter if you already have a functional and reliable appointments software solution in place.
Attracting clients is already difficult, and you wouldn’t want them to bounce from your website just because booking your service is too difficult with your hard-to-use booking solution, or because the forms are simply impossible to fill on a mobile device.
This is why choosing the right appointments software is a must, and in this guide, we will discuss the different ways your business can grow with the right appointments software.
Let us begin.
A Streamlined Booking Experience
Before the digital era, booking appointments could be such a major time-wasting activity.
In a phone-based reservation, for example, the client must first make a call and inquire about available time slots before making a reservation. Mind you, sometimes the client is not the one making the decision and must inform their children or family members about the available time slots before they can make a choice, which can involve back-and-forth calls.
On the other side, the service provider must ask the client’s information over the phone (which can involve lengthy spelling sessions) and manually take down the information. Before the appointment, the service provider typically must make another phone call to ensure they don’t miss their appointment.
As you can see, not only the process can be a major hassle, it is also prone to miscommunication and human error. Double booking and missed appointments are two classic cases in this manual booking experience, for example when a service provider accidentally booked two clients for the same time slot.
With appointment software in place, the process will be much easier and accurate. The software will display the available time slots on the screen, and the client can simply book the desired time slot with a few clicks. Appointment booking software will also provide the ability to automatically add appointments to your chosen calendar/scheduling app (as well as the clients’) so you can effectively avoid no-shows and double bookings.
24/7 Cost-effective Scheduling
If you take your bookings manually, then it’s virtually impossible to allow a 24/7 booking unless you hire enough manpower, which can be extremely expensive.
With an appointments software solution, you can effectively take bookings at all hours, for example when a client suddenly remembers to book your service in the middle of the night. 40% of online bookings nowadays actually happen after hours, and many potential clients nowadays would prefer scheduling appointments outside their business hours.
Meaning, if you don’t allow 24/7 reservation, you’ll potentially miss out on potential clients looking to book your service outside work hours, and they’ll simply move on to your competitors.
SEO and Local SEO Benefits
Nowadays, Google and the other search engines are the primary way people learn about local businesses. Ensuring your website and your Google Maps listing are visible to your target audience is very important, or else potential clients won’t be able to find your service.
If you are a spa business in Ontario, for example, you’d want to make sure your website and listing are on top of the search results when potential clients search for “spa near me” or “spa in ontario” keywords, and nowadays Google shows results from Google Maps for these types of queries.
With Bookeo you can easily add your Bookeo booking page to your Google My Business (and Google Maps) listing, and all the information you provide about your business can also appear on traditional Google Search. This can help people to directly book your service from your Google Maps listing, making the whole process quicker and easier for clients since they won’t have to leave the Google Maps listing.
Save More Time And Money
Time efficiency is a major issue for many service-based businesses, especially if you run the business as a one-man show or in a small team.
Having an appointments software solution to help you can significantly help you get more hours back every day. You’ll reduce or even completely eliminate the need for back-and-forth phone calls and the effort and time to manually jot down a client’s information.
The appointments software platform would enable both you and your clients to make the reservation online in real-time, and so you’ll also have more time and energy to grow your business instead.
Not to mention, you’ll use less paper in the process, and so it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
Better Client Experience
The appointments software tool will obviously help clients who prefer to book their appointments online, including those who’d like to use their mobile devices and/or make the reservation after-hours.
However, solutions like Bookeo can also send automatic reminders and follow-ups, giving your clients an easier time to remember their appointment. Clients can book their appointments at their own pace and time, and the software solution will end up providing them with a better overall experience.
Not to mention, this will also help you reduce the number of no-shows, so you’ll effectively bring in more business.
Closing Thoughts
In this digital age, online scheduling with the help of appointments software is simply a necessity, and is no longer the luxury feature that is only available on giant tech-savvy businesses.
If you still receive bookings the manual way, it’s definitely time to move on. An affordable and easy-to-use solution like Bookeo can help your business grow with its various features to help you manage and organize your appointments, improve your positive reputation, and provide better customer experience.
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