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7 Must-have Appointment Scheduling Features For Small Businesses

7 Must-have Appointment Scheduling Features For Small Businesses | Bookafy

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The number of business people who started their small business during the pandemic is at an all-time high. Many small businesses have been proven to be one of the greatest contributors to the global economy. This is why more and more small business owners are looking for ways to scale their company in terms of people, processes or products, and services. 

A website or a tab where customers can book appointments with you round-the-clock is known as an online booking system. You can send automated message reminders to your customers using a good online booking system for small businesses, which will reduce no-shows and boost productivity. Online booking allows clients to reserve your services without needing to call and disrupt your workday. It gives your clients the control and flexibility they want while keeping you in control of your schedule.

One of the ways to improve the customer experience of your small business is to make sure that you have a seamless process in booking an appointment. Aside from the home page, one of the initial touch points of your clients is the booking page or the appointment scheduling tab. Small businesses lose potential clients if the booking process is not clear enough for them to successfully book an appointment. 

Here are some of the benefits of using an appointment scheduling software for small businesses:

Benefits Of Appointment Scheduling Software

Research shows that 67% of patients now want to book their appointments with medical professionals online. This is an important indicator that clients or patients would opt to use an online booking system for small businesses instead of giving them a phone call or sending them a direct message. 

Saves Time And Resources

One of the primary benefits of using the appointment scheduling software for small business is that it can help you save time and get results that you are aiming for. There are other aspects that you need to look after as you run your small business, and using an online booking system for small businesses allows you to focus on those important tasks. 

How you manage the resources of your small business affects the whole condition of your company. Every resource that you save benefits your small business in significant ways, most especially money. There are available scheduling and billing software for small businesses online that allows you to manage your finances effectively. 

Keeps Your Assistants Productive

Small business owners must learn to create a remote culture in their company. It reinforces not only productivity but also flexibility among your staff. The pandemic has shown us that having a physical office or being at the office may not always be productive or helpful for your small business. 

An important detail in running your small business is having a production assistant effectively managing your appointment schedule. The best appointment scheduling app allows you to maximize efficiency of your assistant because they do not have to spend so much time interacting with a potential customer just by booking an appointment. Using an online booking system for small business empowers your assistant to accomplish more daily tasks most effectively. 

Helps Sales Teams Get More Calls Or Bookings

Having an effective sales team is a great boost to your small business. Many factors contribute to a strong sales team, and one of them is giving them the right tools to perform effectively. One of those tools is an online booking system for small businesses. 

Sales teams can use appointment scheduling software for small businesses to get more appointments. They can make an ad that promotes a discovery call and post their bookings page on those ads. 

7 Must-have Appointment Scheduling Features

If you’re looking to implement an appointment scheduling software, then your solution should have these features to streamline your whole booking process.

A Simple Bookings Page

A simple bookings page is one of the most important characteristics of an appointment scheduling software for small businesses. A simple bookings page spares you from customers needing to contact you first and wait for a response, and you do not have to deal with these inquiries manually. A simple bookings page allows your clients to take a step closer from being potential clients to becoming actual clients. 

Integration To Calendars

The best appointment scheduling app has all of the available dates displayed directly for your customers to view and reserve. Without your involvement, a date will automatically be blocked in real-time if there is no more available to stop further reservations. This will minimize frustrations from your clients due to mixing up schedules. 

Another key feature of appointment scheduling software for small businesses is integrating it into your clients’ calendars. They do not have to manually set it on their calendars with the risk of forgetting the details because the online booking system for small businesses will do it for them.

Another important software to integrate with is payroll processing software solutions. This simplifies how you do payroll and boost employee management.

Auto Reminders On Bookings

It takes far too long to send out routine, standard emails like confirmations of reservations, reminders of reservations, cancellations, etc. It is a laborious job that should undoubtedly be automated by an online booking system for small businesses. 

One of the features of an online booking system for small businesses is automatically sending the customer a booking confirmation as soon as the online reservation is made. This assures the customer that the reservation took place. However, the online booking system for small businesses should provide the option for your clients to be notified, not just send email confirmation to your customers.

Appointment Rescheduling Options

If you need to reschedule appointments, using an appointment scheduling software for small business will help you facilitate that effectively. This is important because rescheduling appointments tend to cause you to lose clients, so you would want to see it ahead of time and offer the next available slot in your schedule. 

Group Booking Option

Group reservations are a requirement for managing classes, seminars, numerous sports events, and many other activities and are a part of almost every business. The best small business appointment scheduling software enables you to accept group reservations. If you want your clients to be able to make reservations or appointments for a large number of people at once, group bookings can be useful. Can be used if multiple people want to book a meeting with you. For example, if a manager wants to ask staff to book group review sessions via Zoom call.

As a scheduling and billing software for small business, you can also use this crucial feature of the online booking system for small businesses at the same time to use the payment custom feature so that the total payment for all participants is paid in one payment at the time of checkout. 

A Way To Accept Payments

A secure and convenient online payment method is made available by using the best appointment scheduling for small businesses, which is why business people worldwide use it more frequently. It demonstrates your concern for the safety and privacy of your clients, which builds credibility and trust. 

You can be sure that you will get guaranteed online payments from your clients simultaneously. This is perfect for coaches and counselors, for example, who want to charge clients upfront for a session. 

Mobile Responsiveness

82% of people will book an appointment through a scheduling tool on their mobile devices. The best appointment scheduling app allows you to follow this trend with your clients. The truth is that most people will not wait until they are seated in front of a laptop to book an appointment.

This feature is not just for clients but also for business people as well. Since they frequently need to manage their operations on the go using a smartphone or tablet rather than sitting at a computer all day. This is another compelling reason why small businesses should leverage technology to power the online booking system for small businesses. 

A Small Effort That Goes A Long Way

Using appointment scheduling software for small businesses is one of the simplest ways to improve your small business. When you use an online booking system for small businesses, it increases the chances of getting a client interested in availing your products and services. It also makes it more convenient for them to reach out to you.

Online Scheduling Software

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Using online appointment scheduling software, you can automate booking, reminders, syncing to calendars, fetching video meeting URLs, and much more. Try Bookafy free today!

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"See why +25,000 organizations in 180 countries around the world trust Bookafy for their online appointment booking app!

Feature rich, beautiful and simple. Try it free for 7 days"

Casey Sullivan

Founder