If your business is looking for ways to boost productivity and efficiency when it comes to setting up customer appointments, taking advantage of appointment scheduling software can help. Appointment scheduling software allows customers to book online and companies to easily track appointment data. When doing your research, how can you tell which is the best business scheduling software? This blog covers details on the different types you might find as well as features to look for to best fit your company’s needs. Let’s jump in.
What Software Is Used for Scheduling?
There are several types of appointment scheduling software for business, often categorized by free, low-cost platforms for small- to medium-sized businesses, and enterprise-level solutions. For many companies, the thought of saving money where they can drive them to use free or low-cost options. These types of software may work for individuals or even small- and medium-sized teams, but for a medium- or large-sized business experiencing significant growth, these options won’t work well. In fact, they may cost more due to hidden costs, wasted time and productivity and lost business than choosing the right solution from the start.
Because of the price of free and low-cost appointment scheduling solutions, these options are more limited in features and don’t scale very well. Typically, they only offer limited calendar functionality and support 1:1 meetings and can be prone to double bookings. If you want help with setting up the software, tracking data, or integrating any other platforms you use, you’ll have to look for another solution.
With an enterprise-level solution, you get those additional features from the start. On top of that, you’ll often get a more secure solution, which is important since you collect some personal information from customers through appointment scheduling. In addition to enhanced security, enterprise-level scheduling software is much more scalable than free and low-cost versions. As your business changes and grows, so can your solution. And with that growth, you’ll also need a solution that can compile availability for several team members into one system. Enterprise-level solutions do just that.
Top 12 Appointment Scheduling Software Capabilities
Your appointment scheduling software is only as good as the features and capabilities it has. At Engageware, we offer these 12 that power the most effective appointment scheduling experience across every channel.
- Omnichannel Scheduling: Connect with customers through a service guarantee no matter what channel they’re on or when they find you.
- Smart Resource Matching: The necessary resources are gathered depending on the appointment type scheduled.
- Appointment Routing: The team member who can best help the customer is assigned to every appointment.
- Pooled Resource Management: The availability of each working employee is published in one easy-to-read calendar to maximize the number of appointments you schedule.
- 1-on-1 and Team Meetings: If you want to schedule a team meeting, you can display your personal availability with only the times that everyone else is available.
- Custom Availability: Choose how you want customers to see your team’s availability, whether it’s fully open, rolling (only see dates up to a certain point in time), a set date range, or specific dates and times.
- Configurable Rules: Set up scheduling rules for the appointment scheduling process based on timeframes, appointment limits, and any other business rules.
- Personal Calendar Sync: You can keep track of your team members’ personal calendars through two-way integration that avoids double booking.
- Automated Reminders: Customers will receive reminders about upcoming appointments and are given the opportunity to leave feedback on post-appointment follow-ups.
- Web/Video Conferencing: Create private web conference meetings automatically with each appointment created allowing staff from call centers or remote locations to host virtual meetings by phone or video conference.
- Reporting and Analytics: Learn how to optimize your marketing spend and plan resources based on data collected from online acquisition through post-appointment follow-up.
- CRM Connector: All data related to each appointment and its impact on sales is collected and entered into your customer relationship management (CRM) system.
With these capabilities, you can be sure that your customers stay happy with quick and helpful service and that employees stay happy with easier preparation and organization for appointments.
What Is the Best Software for Scheduling?
The best scheduling software for large and enterprise-sized businesses is Engageware. We believe that appointment scheduling is about more than just scalable and secure calendar functionality, although that is a big part of it. We also think great customer engagement is important. When you use our solution, you can build strong relationships with your customers to foster brand loyalty and drive overall business growth. You do so by giving customers exactly what they need quickly. And our decades of experience make us a reliable business partner.
If you want to learn how Engageware can help you with appointment scheduling, speak to one of our experts. We’d love to hear from you.