Appointment scheduling at the enterprise level takes a special kind of meeting scheduling tool, one that will support your business in the most efficient and lucrative ways possible. Meetings and appointments are the lifeblood of a business, and if they aren’t handled with the right tools and methods, you could face missed opportunities, lost revenue, and possibly even a tarnished brand reputation.
Luckily for business owners, high-quality solutions exist that make meeting and appointment scheduling a breeze. Let’s take a look.
What Is the Best Way to Schedule a Meeting?
The best way to schedule a meeting is by using an online appointment scheduling platform. Without one, figuring out how to coordinate and schedule a meeting can quickly lead to lost productivity and revenue. We’ve all been a part of that email thread—the one that takes numerous back-and-forth emails to decide on a time to meet, and then more to figure out where to meet, what to bring, and who should attend.
Now imagine having to do that for every meeting and appointment your business handles on a daily basis. Think of all the valuable time wasted. The only way to get that time back, for your staff and customers, is by using a high-quality scheduling tool.
What Is the Best Tool for Scheduling?
The best tool to use for scheduling meetings is one that can scale along with your business. While you can easily find a free meeting scheduling tool, these kinds of platforms are not suitable for enterprises and businesses with multiple locations and departments. So, when you’re researching the various options out there, here are some questions to ask.
1. Does it have smart matching and routing?
Matching your customers’ needs with your employees’ skills can get messy—especially when you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of people on both sides. To provide a memorable, personalized experience, you need intelligent appointment scheduling with smart matching abilities, like those offered by Engageware. Engageware’s AI-driven system automates matching prospects and customers with the right people and resources to answer their questions and educate them about a product or service. You can also set various appointment types, workflows, locations, configurations, and business rules to ensure you consistently meet the needs of customers across the enterprise.
2. Does it offer self-service appointment booking?
Intuitive 24/7 self-scheduling has become a basic requirement for modern businesses. Offering a prospect or customer the opportunity to book at the peak of their interest will ultimately lead to more appointments scheduled (and, therefore, more revenue). You’ll also want to make sure the platform offers real-time availability for your internal resources handling these meetings. This prevents double-booking or rescheduling due to conflicts, which is frustrating for customers and staff.
3. Which channels does it support?
Your website isn’t the only place for prospects and customers to interact with your brand, so it shouldn’t be the only place you offer appointment booking. By providing omnichannel scheduling options via mobile devices, call centers, search engines, emails, social media, customer-facing apps, and more, you make it easy for people to book high-value meetings across their preferred channels.
4. Will it automatically send meeting reminders?
No-shows are frustrating, as they prevent a business from using its human resources as efficiently as possible. Studies show that scheduling conflicts, forgetting an appointment, and miscommunications are the top causes of no-shows. To solve all these issues, you need a meeting scheduler that sends out reminders with key appointment information and an option to reschedule. This will keep your business and appointments top of mind for your prospects and customers. Engageware clients, for example, experience a high show rate of 90% with Engageware’s customizable, automated email and text reminders.
5. Does it include reporting and analytics?
Appointment scheduling can be a surprising source of extremely valuable data. A high-quality scheduling platform should be able to reveal these various insights, including:
- Total appointments scheduled
- Most popular meeting locations
- Walk-ins versus pre-scheduled appointments
- Top channels for scheduling
Engageware presents all of this and more in an adaptable dashboard format, with numerous reporting options, data filters, configurations, and drill-down interactions. You can see exactly where to focus marketing spend, improve service quality, and track key performance indicators.
What Is the Best Meeting Scheduler?
Engageware is one of the top meeting and appointment scheduling solutions on the market. We’ve been in the customer engagement business since 1999, and we use that expertise to enable organizations like yours to grow faster, be more efficient, and create stronger customer relationships.
Appointment scheduling by Engageware helps businesses consistently deliver a superior customer experience by:
- Streamlining the appointment-setting process
- Removing traditional scheduling barriers and inefficiencies
- Allowing “anywhere, anytime” omnichannel engagement from mobile devices, voice, text, web or your customer-facing app
- Preparing customers—and employees—in advance of the appointment
- Properly allocating resources to ensure qualified employees with the right skills are in the right place and time to meet customer needs
Learn how Engageware’s appointment scheduling has helped hundreds of financial institutions rethink their growth and customer loyalty strategies. See Engageware in action here with our 3-minute demo, and you’ll soon understand why we’re a top choice for scheduling meetings and appointments.