All posts by Jason Barnes

How Your Appointment-Based Business Can Stay Competitive This Year

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Appointment-Based Business

There are numerous ongoing challenges entrepreneurs face when starting and running an appointment-based business. One of them is learning how to position yourself against the many competitors in your industry. Where there’s one business in a particular space, there are many others vying for the same customers.

There’s no perfect business formula that guarantees you’ll be the best appointment-based business on the block. However, the list of competitive methods you can use to boost your business is extensive. These are just a few effective ways you can make your own company stay relevant this year:

Provide a Simple Online Portal System

The easier it is for customers to make appointments, the more bookings you’ll fill. A complicated appointment scheduling process is not a system that will keep you competitive.

Take a look at your current online portal. Start by analyzing the layout of your website. You want everything to be straightforward and easy to find. The simpler your navigation, the better. Use clear, clickable action buttons that guide users through the booking process and enhance the user experience.

The overall design of your online portal is also important. Use colors that can easily be associated with your brand without being oppressive or hard on the eyes. You can also fill blank spaces with images or other designs to make your online portal more attractive.

Offer Incentives

With so many businesses in the hunt, it can be a challenge at times to differentiate yourself from the competition. You should always prioritize improving your services over anything else. You should also consider providing some complimentary features to put your business over the top. Offering incentives is one way your business can set itself apart.

Incentives are especially effective at bringing in new customers. Prospective customers might be lured to your business over the competition due to an ongoing promotion. If you run a hair salon, for example, you might offer a free styling product with every haircut. A service station could do a free tire rotation with every oil change. Once you get new clients through the door using incentives, you can wow them with your services to convince them to return.

Speaking of customer retention, you can implement an incentive program for that, too. Frequent visitors can accrue points for free services or other rewards. A referral program can get you new customers and simultaneously reward your existing customer base.

Offer Online Payment Options

Many customers today prefer to make payments online rather than in person. Making a payment online takes much less time than scanning a card at the front desk or counting out the cash in one’s wallet. This leads to shorter appointment times for customers, who will always appreciate the efficiency.

Online payments also mean you get your money faster. Sending customers bills after an appointment will result in lag time before you receive payment. Worse still, such bills require your staff to print them out and mail them, costing time and money. With online payments, you can receive your fee as an appointment is being booked, even before the customer arrives at your place of business.

To make your online payment options competitive, don’t include processing fees for people who choose to pay online. These sorts of fees can easily turn customers away. Also look for ways to include all of your customer’s preferred online payment options, such as accepting multiple types of credit cards or even top payment apps such as Paypal or Venmo.

Provide COVID Updates

There are still lots of consumers out there who are worried about the different strains of COVID-19. Be respectful of these customer concerns and look for ways to make your business accommodating to them while still operating at full capacity.

A simple way you can assist these customers and keep your appointment-based business competitive in 2022 is to provide COVID updates for your area. You can include these updates on your business website or using your brand’s social media pages. This will let customers know what measures you’re taking to limit the spread of the virus, such as requiring masks or limiting appointment bookings as cases rise.

Don’t just stop at COVID news. Use your business influence to provide updates on other noteworthy community events. For example, you can use your website and social media pages to advertise local events such as fundraisers, food drives, and more. Getting involved in the community allows you to draw closer to your local customers and create an emotional bond that competing businesses will envy.

The most important thing to remember for your appointment-based business is that in order to stay competitive, you cannot settle. If you start to coast, you leave room for one of your competitors to catch up to you. Continue to set goals for yourself and your business throughout 2022 and be willing to try new things. You will always find yourself in the pack of the best appointment-based businesses around.

Image Credit: George Milton; Pexels; Thanks!

4 Methods to Improve Client Retention

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Methods to Improve Client Retention

There are two great battles being waged by businesses every single day: the fight to get new customers and the fight to get them to stay. Customer acquisition and client retention are a never-ending cycle for companies, one that requires a lot of time and effort to manage.

While it’s important for a business to always be looking for new customers, once a good clientele is established, retention is debatably a higher priority. Not only is it less expensive than acquisition, but having loyal customers will ensure that you’re continuously pulling in revenue to keep your company running smoothly.

Once you recognize the need to pay more attention to boosting customer retention, it’s time to take action. Here are a few ways you can make a more concentrated effort to keep your clientele around for the long haul:

1. Reminders When They Schedule

When a person books an appointment with your business, it’s their responsibility to remember the date and time they’ve selected and uphold their commitment. However, that doesn’t mean you should sit back and hope that every customer fulfills their end of the deal. A person’s plans might change, or details may simply be forgotten while navigating a busy schedule.

Providing your customers with appointment reminders adds extra security to each booking. This will make sure patrons get through the door on their first visit and ensure they can enjoy a high-quality experience that leads them to book future appointments with your business.

Appointment reminders can be provided in a variety of ways. You could write up appointment cards at the front desk, give a call the day before, or send texts, emails, or even app notifications. Customers should be able to choose how they receive their reminders, ensuring that they’re helpful and effective rather than pointless or irritating.

2. Periodic Complimentary Services

When you periodically reward your faithful customers, you’re more likely to see new ones stick around in the hope of getting those same deals. Incentives have long been a powerful tool for client retention. That’s why rewards programs that use recurring visits to accrue redeemable points are so commonplace today. If you reward loyalty, you’ll see it more often.

You don’t have to put together an entire rewards program to improve your customer retention. Get started by including one complimentary service that any repeat customer can take advantage of. For example, many car dealerships offer free oil changes to any person who purchases a new car from their lot. The sale of a new car is worth a lot more than a few oil changes, and this deal will keep the customer coming back, opening the door for more potential sales.

Some of the complimentary services you provide can be permanent. For instance, providing in-house Wi-Fi for guests is a relatively small gesture, but it will add to the overall appointment experience and promote retention at the same time.

3. Check In When It’s Been Awhile

If you haven’t seen a customer for an extended period of time, reach out to them. Let them know that they’re more than just a successfully closed sale. You want to be of service to them for a long time, not just take their money for one transaction and send them on their way.

When checking in with customers, be sure to make your interactions as personal as possible. Consumers can easily tell whether or not a company is being sincere. They will notice when a message is crafted from a template as opposed to one that is customized just for them. Send them an email that references past visits, or give them a call to check in and offer your services. This, in turn, can help your business improve its client retention.

4. Ask for Feedback

Sometimes in order to improve retention, you have to make a few adjustments. Instead of making changes blindly and hoping they work, ask your clientele for their honest feedback. Soliciting feedback from customers who only visited once is especially valuable because they can often share a specific reason they did not return.

The easiest way to receive feedback is through survey responses. After a customer has completed their appointment, send a thank-you email with a link to your survey. Ask specific questions about their experience and be sure to provide an opportunity for them to speak their mind on issues you might have overlooked.

Perhaps you are struggling to get feedback from your customers. Or, you just want to reward those who complete your survey. If either of these are the case, attach a little incentive. This should be something general, like a coupon code for Amazon, for example. This way, it also appeals to customers who only visited your business once and aren’t likely to return; At least not until changes are made.

Image Credit: Life of Pix; Pexels; Thanks!

4 Ways to Send Appointment Reminders Without Annoying Customers

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Ways to Send Appointment Reminders Without Annoying Customers

A robust reminder system is an essential part of running an appointment-based business. Reminders help cut down on no-shows as well as promote on-time arrivals. When customers are present and punctual, you’re able to run a much smoother and more successful operation.

As vital as appointment reminders are, it’s important to keep in mind that not all customers are as gung ho about them as you might be. You need to be able to send effective reminders without annoying your customers. Even with the best intentions, your reminder messages can drive customers away.

Fret not, for there are ways to send appointment reminders that work without annoying your customer base. Here are a few tips to help you achieve just that:

1. Give Them an Appointment Card on Their Way Out

You should always give customers some kind of reminder about their upcoming appointment well in advance. Something as simple as an appointment card is an easy way to confirm future appointments and leave customers with a constant reminder.

An appointment card is a visual nudge to your customer that they have an upcoming appointment. This can be kept in a wallet, phone case, or even on the fridge. Your clients will have the opportunity to see that reminder every single day up until the day of their next appointment.

Appointment cards are most useful for reminding customers about return appointments. If a customer books their appointment online or over the phone, it won’t be feasible to mail them a card as a reminder. Instead, offer an appointment card as customers are leaving from an appointment and booking their next return visit.

2. Allow Them to Opt In for Automatic Reminders

If you don’t want to waste a bunch of cardstock by handing out dozens of appointment cards every day, go the digital route. Even if you do like physical appointment cards, allowing customers to opt in for automatic digital reminders is a great idea. This allows your patrons to get notified on their preferred device, wherever they are, without any extra effort on their part.

There are more options you should extend beyond just the ability to turn automated reminders on and off. Make sure you also give customers the choice to receive their appointment reminders via email, text, or even through an automated voice message. Getting reminders exactly how they want them is the best way to avoid annoying your customers.

Make it just as easy to opt out of appointment reminders as it is to opt in. Difficulties with adjusting reminder settings can be as infuriating as reminder spam can be.

3. Send Reminders at the Right Time

The best time to send a reminder is a day or two in advance of the appointment date. Sending a reminder a week in advance might seem like a good idea, but customers can easily forget about an appointment over the course of seven days. This bonus reminder then becomes more of a nuisance than a helpful notification.

Of course, you can allow customers to request more appointment reminders according to their preference, but sending a single reminder the day before an appointment date is a useful rule of thumb. This one reminder will do its job and be a helpful addition to the appointment process without bothering the customer in the slightest.

It’s also a good idea to send your appointment reminders within normal business hours or at other reasonable times of day. If a customer wakes up to an appointment reminder that was sent at midnight, they’re bound to be irritated. Unless a customer states otherwise, keep reminders to waking hours only.

4. Watch Your Wording

Take a moment to read your appointment reminder template. How does it come across? How your reminders are worded is just as important as sending them in the first place. Use the wrong tone or language, and your reminders might end up rubbing your customers the wrong way.

For example, reminders should be clear and concise. Put the focus on the appointment information, perhaps by putting it in bold lettering or a font that stands out from the rest of the message. That’s what the reminder is for anyway, so don’t waste your effort typing up a long notification that customers have to dig through.

Next, take a look at any wording that’s included besides the appointment information. Is there a way to personalize the message? Is there a call to action? Should you lighten the tone a little bit? You want to sound helpful, not hectoring. Ask these sorts of questions and put yourself in your customers’ shoes as you make adjustments to your reminder messages.

Happy customers will keep coming back, giving you a constant revenue stream upon which to grow your business. Appointment reminders will help you serve every customer with precision as long as you continue to use them wisely and effectively.

7 Things to Have in Your Waiting Room This Winter

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Things to Have in Your Waiting Room This Winter

No one enjoys waiting. But the reality is, everyone has to wait from time to time. Even if an individual made an appointment and arrived on time, they’ll probably end up spending a few minutes in the waiting room filling out paperwork or waiting to be seen. This can be frustrating and might even cause anxiety.

While integrating some type of appointment software to reduce their wait times and streamline productivity is important, it shouldn’t be your only priority. Making the waiting room as comfortable as possible is a great way to make customers and clients feel at ease. In this article, we share what appointment-based businesses can provide to improve their waiting rooms and the customer experience:

1. Clean Waiting Room

Now more than ever, people want to feel safe while out in public. This is especially true when patients visit a healthcare or service provider. If your waiting room looks dirty, it’s going to deter patients and customers. On the other hand, if the waiting room is clean, people will probably feel less anxious. Make sure you’re regularly cleaning your waiting room throughout the day.

You should also have cleaning products and PPE in place like hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves. Due to COVID-19, masks are mandated in many localities. It’s a good idea to have them available for patients or customers in case they forget.

Your waiting room shouldn’t be the only area you keep spic and span. Make sure your entire office is clean and sanitized, from the interior offices to the bathrooms. If you own a salon, encourage stylists to keep their areas tidy and free of excess tools and equipment. Do you run an oil-change service center? Keeping the garage bays organized will make a good impression on guests.

2. Entertainment While Waiting

While people don’t go to doctor’s offices or service businesses to watch movies or play games, having entertainment options available can improve their experience. With that said, you don’t want to go overboard or over budget. You also want to make sure the entertainment is calming and not distracting. A few options include:

  • Soft music/nature sounds
  • TV turned to an arts and craft channel
  • Magazines and self-help books

3. Comfortable Furniture

Have you ever visited an office, only to spend what seemed like an hour sitting in a hard, plastic chair? After being uncomfortable for so long, you probably weren’t in a good mood for your appointment.

Comfortable seating can significantly improve the waiting experience. That doesn’t mean you need to spend a great deal of money on your seating, but keep patients and guests in mind. After all, some people might suffer from back pain or another condition that could be made worse with uncomfortable seating. Look for furnishings with soft but supportive cushions and fabrics that are easy to keep clean.

4. Personal Amenities

Waiting room amenities are a great way to improve the patient or customer experience. Think about it. When you go to a hotel, the first thing you probably look for are amenities like access to a gym, fancy shampoo and lotion, a fluffy robe, etc. While you wouldn’t be miserable without these things, they definitely add a nice touch.

Consider bringing personal amenities to your waiting room like snacks, coffee or tea, hand lotion, wrapped candy, etc. Many appointment-based businesses also provide small items like pens or sticky notes with their logo for customers to take home.

5. Wi-Fi

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine categorized Wi-Fi in hospitals and waiting rooms as a “developmental” standard. And while Wi-Fi in waiting rooms might not be mandatory, it’s something you should consider adding if you haven’t already.

If you decide to offer patients or customers Wi-Fi, opt for a public network (for security reasons) as opposed to giving people access to what your office uses. Display the Wi-Fi name and password somewhere they can be easily seen by guests, like by the sign-in sheet at the front desk.

Having access to the internet ensures visitors are able to go about their day as normal, even while waiting for an appointment. They can email their colleagues, work on cloud-based documents, scroll social media, and text with family or friends.

6. Food and Water

You might be hesitant to offer refreshments in the waiting room. And while there’s always the possibility something will spill, providing food and water can be helpful. This is especially true for healthcare provider waiting rooms, where patients may have to spend hours in the office between procedures or tests.

Keep in mind, we’re not suggesting you cater food every day. Instead, you could have a coffee station, a vending machine with snacks, or a refrigerator filled with water.

7. Real-Time Mobile Alerts

There are plenty of ways you can enhance the waiting room experience. But maybe one of the best ways is to integrate more technology.

For instance, you could have a digital board in the waiting room that shows the order of when people will be seen. This way, if there are four people in the waiting room, each person can clearly see their position without having to ask the receptionist.

Another option is to use real-time mobile alerts that tell patients when they’ll be seen. This is similar to the digital board, but it’ll be automatically sent to the patient’s phone. Some online appointment software offers this feature, so you don’t have to do it manually. This also allows people to wait outside or in their cars.

Providing excellent care should be the No. 1 priority for appointment-based businesses and service providers. That said, they should also consider the patient or customer experience. After all, if a patient or client doesn’t feel comfortable, they might not return for their next appointment. The tips above can help improve the waiting room experience so guests feel cared for and welcomed, no matter what kind of business they visit.

Why Allowing Customers to Schedule Appointments Too Far in Advance Might Be Counterproductive

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Why Allowing Customers to Schedule Appointments Too Far in Advance Might Be Counterproductive

The beauty of online appointment software is that customers can book appointments on their own time. This option is so much more convenient for customers and businesses alike. However, this tool presents a new dilemma that your business should address as soon as possible. How far in advance should you allow customers to book their appointments?

This is a valid question that all business owners who use scheduling software should ask themselves. Plans change for both businesses and customers, so setting a limit on how far in advance customers can schedule appointments is a good idea to consider.

So, what is a reasonable amount of time for appointment scheduling? You want to make sure you’re allowing customers to adequately plan ahead without creating additional roadblocks. Here are some possible scenarios and consequences to consider that will help you decide:

1. Plans May Change

You simply can’t predict the future with certainty, no matter how many data trend lines you draw or crystal balls you place in your office. It’s certainly nice to allow scheduling into the distant future, but there are just too many variables that you just can’t plan for that far in advance.

For example, you might allow customers to schedule appointments up to three months in advance. A lot can happen in those three months that may cause appointments to be canceled or postponed. Calendars are hardly set in stone at that point, so you’re creating an inefficient scheduling landscape that leads to a lot of preventable movement or an increased amount of no-shows and cancelations.

Customers can also have major life changes that are nearly impossible to anticipate. If one of your regular customers has to move out of state, what are the chances they would remember to cancel their appointment if it’s months away? While this is an honest mistake, it’s a miscommunication that can happen because you allowed appointments to be set too far into the future.

2. Economics Are Unpredictable

Ask anyone who was running an appointment-based business when COVID-19 hit and you’ll hear some crazy stories about staying open. While this shift in the economy was due to a pandemic, it paints a vivid picture of some of the economic troubles that might affect businesses and their appointment-setting.

Let’s say you operate a small garage where you provide oil changes and tire rotations by appointment. You can get by with a few regular customers every month, but what happens when the rent you pay for your garage space shoots up? You might have to move to a new location, change your prices, or even sell the garage entirely.

All of these possible scenarios will directly impact future appointments. The further out your appointments are booked, the more difficult it will be to come up with a good solution to move them.

3. Customer Relationships Fluctuate

For many appointment-based businesses, customers develop strong relationships with individual members of your organization. This could be a particular stylist who gets the customer’s hair done just right, a favorite massage therapist, or a personal trainer who is familiar with their workout plan and goals. This relationship is part of a winning formula that your business should cultivate carefully.

Unfortunately, lots of things can change here. You can’t always count on everyone you work with. Employees might take up new job offers, decide to change careers, or simply retire. A situation like this means that some customers will no longer be able to rely on the one member of your organization they’ve grown closest to. Breaking the news to customers with extended appointment dates might be a tough assignment.

4. Human Error Will Persist

At the end of the day, the No. 1 reason why scheduling appointments too far in advance is a bad idea is because people are imperfect. Appointments can be easily forgotten when booked that far in the future. Even if they’re not forgotten completely, the passage of time can cause details to become blurry and other scheduling conflicts to arise. The resulting missed appointment is money your business loses.

Luckily, online appointment software can help your business keep customers accountable for the appointments they set with helpful reminders and automatic calendar syncing. However, there’s still a wide margin for error that is much more easily avoided by placing a limit to how far down the road customers can make appointments.

Sit down with your team and discuss how far in advance customers should be able to book appointments. Align this with your business goals and practices, such as cancellation policies and revenue goals. When the new policy is set, be sure to keep track of important appointment metrics such as no-show rates and customer retention to see how they’re affected by the changes you implement.

3 Reasons Scheduling Software Can Help Businesses Build Camaraderie With Customers

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3 Reasons Scheduling Software Can Help Businesses Build Camaraderie With Customers

There isn’t a single business on earth that can survive without customers. Even business-to-business companies need a reliable client base in order to stay afloat. While your products and services are extremely important, your highest priority should always be to take care of your customers.

One of the best ways to develop a strong relationship with your customer base is to value and respect their time. Each interaction with a customer is a chance for your brand to express that respect for customer time and attention. This will in turn foster camaraderie and loyalty over an extended period. 

To provide more value to your customers and honor their time, scheduling software is your go-to solution. Here are three reasons why implementing a scheduling software solution is the right choice for your business:

1. Customers Appreciate a Straightforward Experience

Clients will appreciate that you’ve prioritized making scheduling easy for them. It’s a simple gesture that shows that you care about their experience and want to make it better. Improving appointment scheduling doesn’t have to be difficult, either. All you need to do is enable online appointment software, and you’ll have already made a dramatic improvement. 

Being able to book appointments online opens up so many doors for customers. They no longer have to stay on hold to inquire about availability or wait until 9 a.m. to book the next available slot. Online appointment software is functional 24/7, meaning customers can always check or adjust appointment times based on their personal schedules. 

Scheduling software also speeds up the check-in process at the beginning of an appointment. When all of their appointment information is already booted up online, customers can show up mere minutes before their appointment starts and be welcomed in promptly. 

Leaving an appointment is also more straightforward. Customers can pay in advance through the scheduling software itself and book a return visit on their own time. Clients will never have a quicker or more painless appointment experience. 

2. Customers Will Know They Can Rely on You

Online appointment software makes your business seem reliable. When customers feel like they can depend on your system of operations, they’ll be more inclined to stick around for the long haul. Customer retention is one of the most valuable metrics your business will ever track, and the improvements you’ll make in that area alone make scheduling software worth every penny.  

If your company is constantly messing up appointment times and leaving callers on hold for lengthy stretches, you aren’t developing a reputation as a very reliable brand. Customers will view your business as a last resort rather than a superior option.

When you build in buffer time, scheduling software can also help your business prevent appointments from running long. Its automated notifications will likewise discourage late arrivals. These two actions will lead to a more fluid appointment experience for everyone. Customers will be more willing to book multiple appointments if they’re confident that your business will work with their schedule and make sure they get in and out on time. 

3. Analytics Enables Loyalty Programs

Membership programs that offer special benefits and rewards are a surefire way to build camaraderie between your business and its customers. Rewards foster a desire to book multiple appointments over an extended period, boosting your retention rates and yielding more revenue. A good rewards program can also set you apart from your competitors, even if they offer similar services (as is inevitable in every industry).

With online appointment software enabled, businesses can look at past scheduling analytics to put together a proper rewards program and follow through with it. For example, one of your promotions might be that members get a free day of service on their tenth visit. Thanks to scheduling software, you’ll know exactly when that tenth visit is for each customer even if they happen to forget. Discounts can be automatically applied online as a welcome surprise for your loyal patrons. 

Since scheduling software is accessed online, you can attach any deals or promotions you have going on to the booking area of the software. New customers can enjoy an ongoing sale even if they weren’t aware of it previously, and they will be thankful that your business included them in the deal instead of making them pay full price. 

Remember to be transparent when collecting data. Many consumers have grown wary of companies using their information for financial gain. Be open about what data you collect and exactly how it’s being used. Make it easy for customers to change data settings if they don’t want to share certain information. This transparency alone will build a strong bond between your customers and your business. 

Online appointment software is useful for so many other things. The only mistake you can make is taking any longer to implement scheduling software into your business. Your customers will be even more grateful than you will be for the changes you make with this technology. 

Why Syncing Your Work and Personal Calendars Simplifies Appointment Scheduling

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Why Syncing Your Work and Personal Calendars Simplifies Appointment Scheduling

If you’re a busy individual, you probably have a separate calendar for work and for your personal life. This helps you divide up your different commitments so that a single calendar doesn’t get overcrowded. However, managing two separate calendars comes with different challenges you need to take into account. 

No matter what kind of error you want to avoid when juggling dual calendars, syncing will be your best solution. This will make your appointment-scheduling process so much easier whether you’re planning activities with your family and friends or organizing a new entrepreneurial venture. Here’s how calendar syncing is going to help you:

Improves Planning

When your work and personal calendars are intertwined, both calendars can be reviewed simultaneously. This allows your online appointment scheduling software to show you all available time slots that work for you. Otherwise, you might book a meeting that fits into your work calendar while overlooking a family commitment you had made for the same time. You don’t want to miss your daughter’s soccer game because you arranged a simultaneous client coffee date. 

With both calendars linked together, you’ll have a better idea of what you have to plan for in the upcoming days. Improved planning leads to increased efficiency, fewer mixups, and ultimately better results as your schedule falls into place.

Helps Manage Your Life Balance

With both calendars synced up, you can also improve that much-needed work-life balance. If you’re noticing that your work calendar far outweighs your personal calendar, maybe it’s time to schedule some more activities with your family. This can also be done in reverse. You might realize you’ve been taking a lot of time off recently and recognize the need to get back to the old grindstone, refilling that work calendar once again. 

Syncing your work and personal calendars will also help you learn the difficult art of saying no. Some appointments you’re just going to have to decline in the name of life balance. Turning down a single work appointment won’t be the end of the world for your career, especially if it contributes to a better family life. 

Stops You From Overbooking

Appointment software will not allow you to schedule over other events, even if you try. You’ll get a nice, big alert warning you that the time slot you’ve selected has already been filled. This will help with tricky situations like the one mentioned previously, where you create a work event without realizing there’s been a personal event scheduled there already. 

This will also prevent others from trying to overbook your time. Many managers use appointment software to make their time available to employees needing to ask questions or report on a project in progress. You don’t have to list out any specifics, but having both of your calendars covered in your available time slots will stop an employee from trying to bother you while you’re at a family gathering. Emergencies are always an exception, of course. 

Automates Schedule Additions and Changes in Both Places

After any appointment is scheduled, it’s automatically added to both of your calendars. This is one less thing you have to do, saving you a little bit of time and hassle when scheduling. Manual syncing is tedious, and also leaves more room for human error than any of us would like. You could accidentally input the wrong time in one calendar or simply forget to include the commitment when taking your other calendar into consideration. 

Automatic syncing will also come in handy when you share your calendars with other people. For example, you might share a personal calendar with your significant other. If they plan an event in your shared calendar, you’ll want that to pop up automatically. This will enable greater communication between you two and prevent conflicts from arising because of a lack thereof. 

The syncing of calendars with appointment software is great if you use these tools to better coordinate with your team as well. Sending an appointment invitation for an upcoming meeting will give employees the time to arrange their personal schedules accordingly. 

Enables Easier Transitioning

It can be difficult to shift your thought process from your work life to your personal life. By syncing their two respective calendars together, you’ll be able to make easier transitions throughout the day. 

For example, a major perk of using appointment software is to send and receive reminders and notifications. This can help cut down on tardiness and no-shows. However, you can find yourself feeling flustered if your notifications seem to be competing instead of coming in a linear fashion. Synchronized calendars will reduce this effect. 

There’s no time like the present to begin syncing up your work and personal calendars. It will make your appointment scheduling so much easier and improve your time management as you head into 2022.

How to Get Your Schedule Organized With Appointment Software

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How to Get Your Schedule Organized With Appointment Software

If getting organized was an easy task, we would all have immaculate homes, keep perfect desktop folders, and manage our time with ease. Unfortunately, getting and staying organized takes a lot more conscious effort, and it’s easy to slip up and get a little messy.

Nobody’s perfect, and nobody has to be. However, organizing your schedule even a little bit better can improve your life dramatically. How can you do this? The secret ingredient is online appointment software. Here are a few things scheduling software can help you do: 

Write It Down

Good organization must be tangible. You can’t always rely on your memory to navigate your schedule. There’s too much room for error when you don’t write down key appointment times and dates. By subconsciously moving a meeting time by an hour, you could miss the entire thing.

Using online appointment software, you can lay out at minimum the basics of your daily schedule. You should include important meetings and deadlines. You can also add any other key parts of your schedule to help you visualize your day. 

Not only will online software help you check your upcoming schedule, but it will also send you automated reminders to ensure you’re prepared. You can even add reminders for simple tasks such as picking up the dry-cleaning on your way home. 

Coordinate With Others

As an adult, your schedule will often coincide with what your co-workers, family, or friends have going on, too. Whether it’s managing a project at work or coordinating a carpool schedule, you’ll need to balance your schedule with other people. Luckily, appointment software excels in collaboration as well. 

Sharing events with others is a great way to start. Teams can get their calendars in sync so that each of their responsibilities will be completed by the same target date. Creating a schedule with other parents will help you communicate who is picking the kids up from soccer practice. You can also coordinate with a partner or spouse to make sure those date nights are locked in. 

Display Your Availability

Managers and team leaders have different needs when coordinating and managing their availability. If you’re in a leadership position, people will be vying for your attention even while you’re tackling your own busy schedule. 

When you activate appointment software, you can create a personal ID with your schedule. You can then share a scheduling link with others so they have complete access to your availability. You don’t have to share specifics of your schedule; you can simply block out time as “busy.” Then others will know when not to bother you with phone calls and surprise visits. 

Give Yourself Some Wiggle Room

There’s always a chance of overscheduling when you’re trying your best to be productive every day. Having too much on your plate can be incredibly stressful and derail your productivity. In creating your ideal schedule, be sure to give yourself a little wiggle room.

Use your online appointment software to add some buffer time in between larger commitments. This could be as simple as creating a five- to 10-minute window to check your email. Maybe you can block out time in shorter intervals to give you extra time in case a meeting runs long. Even just a little bit of wiggle room can prevent a whole lot of stressful scenarios throughout the day. 

Balance Every Responsibility

If you’re struggling with your work-life balance, you need some scheduling software in your life. Appointment software is for so much more than being punctual for all of your business meetings. It will also help you make time for the things that matter most, such as family, friends, and your mental health. 

Make an appointment for each of your son’s football games, and you’ll never miss another touchdown. Another appointment can remind you to take a day off to de-stress from a busy work week. More than anything, appointment software helps you be proactive and intentional when balancing your life. 

Learn to Batch Tasks

One way to keep your schedule on track while getting everything you need done is to batch your tasks. This method consists of taking tasks with similar properties and combining them together in your schedule or to-do list. This makes your schedule appear less cluttered while still covering all of your required tasks. Use your appointment software to set up similar tasks together in blocks of time. 

For example, you can organize your day’s task list based on when you are most productive. Then batch similar tasks together around those times. Say you have a big project due next week, and you feel sharpest in the morning. Work on high-level tasks like creating your slide deck and writing your presentation notes in the morning. Then batch your smaller to-do items like scheduling meetings, running reports, or answering emails together to tackle in the afternoon. 

Learning how to organize your life takes practice. Individual preferences and lifestyles will require different approaches. Online appointment software can help you make organization a habit and add more structure to your daily life than ever before. 

How to Make Your Business More Customer-Accessible

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How to Make Your Business More Customer-Accessible

Customer-accessible business services are rapidly changing, but it remains a critical aspect of customer service. While the customer-accessible business sphere is increasingly moving toward automation, sometimes those voice message prompts can be more frustrating than they are helpful. 

People tend to choose businesses that are more customer-accessible and efficient. Implementing customer service hacks can help businesses achieve both.

Here are a few customer-accessibility tips you can start addressing today:

1. Implement Online Appointment Software

If the service you provide is appointment-based, then you need to implement online appointment software as soon as possible. This single piece of software will completely transform your business in the best ways possible. Not only will it make your business more customer-accessible, but it will also automate and streamline a lot of the time-consuming tasks that can bog appointment-based businesses down. 

For starters, your phone lines won’t be ringing off the hook anymore with customers looking to book appointments or inquire about availability. They can do that themselves with the help of appointment software. This model of self-service is often preferred by customers who want to limit unnecessary interactions, and it allows businesses to focus their energy on other tasks.

Another great aspect of online appointment software is that it can work around the clock. If a customer is interested in booking an appointment, they can do so at any time of day or night. No longer will they have to wait until business hours open to call and hope for an opening. 

2. Add a Customer-Accessible Chatbot 

For businesses that don’t operate through appointments, a website chatbot can provide similar results. Chatbots can answer frequently asked questions and direct internet visitors to key resources without the need of a human agent. Because it runs itself, a chatbot can assist everyone from the night owls to the early birds searching the internet outside of operating hours.

Unfortunately, chatbots are limited. Artificial intelligence is growing and improving rapidly, but there will still be unique questions and problems that can only be resolved by an employee. Nevertheless, a chatbot can help with a lot of basic needs and even provide a quick and direct way for customers to send inquiries that require the assistance of a live agent. 

3. Optimize Customer-Accessibility for Every Device

Not everyone does their online shopping and internet research on a desktop computer anymore. Browsing with a mobile device is increasingly common. Businesses that optimize their websites for smartphones and tablets make their products and services more customer-accessible to users of all devices.

Due to different screen proportions, mobile web pages require different dimensions and formatting in order to remain user-friendly. The theme can remain the same, but changing the mobile layout to be more scrollable will enable mobile users to ingest information more easily.

Many businesses have found success by developing mobile apps instead of focusing on optimizing their browser capabilities. Developing an app requires a little more work, but it can boost retention rates by making it easier to receive notifications and access your business’s services. 

4. Try New Types of Customer-Accessible Communication

Phone lines and online chat boxes aren’t the only ways to communicate with customers. In fact, your customers might prefer something more direct than an email but less formal than filling out a request form on a website. Opening up new lines of communication caters to the communication needs and desires of every customer you have.

A growing trend in customer communication is social media. Businesses can use a Twitter thread, for example, to diagnose a customer’s problem and provide them with a solution. Opening up direct messaging from Facebook and Instagram will also enable customers who see your content online to send a quick message before the moment passes.

Another great reason to communicate through social media is to better take advantage of these platforms’ other resources. For example, numerous social media sites have built-in shop links where you can post your products for quicker and more customer-accessible sales. Social media browsers interested in buying can send a message on the platform to solidify their intent to buy in a matter of moments. 

5. Outsource Customer Service

Is your business scaling faster than you thought? As a short-term solution, consider outsourcing your customer service until you can gain control of your rapidly growing organization. Enlisting a call center to help take care of customers is better than letting your voicemail fill up and leaving potential buyers hanging. 

Customer service solutions such as call centers are still quite common, but they don’t tend to resonate well with customers. Customers appreciate self-service and want quick solutions, so prioritize your other customer service methods even if you implement this one. And if you do choose to go the call center route, vet your provider carefully. 

6. Develop Quality Content

As noted above, customers sometimes have complex questions that can’t be answered by a virtual assistant. Still, those same customers expect quick results even if their problem is one you haven’t had to deal with before. One way to address even the most obscure of customer concerns is through content development.

Maintaining a blog might not be what’s on your mind as an entrepreneur, but a blog can really expand what your brand is capable of. Blog posts can contain information on the most niche of topics, making them more customer-accessible. Customers can search for answers to their unanswered questions within your blog, finding solutions on their own.

A blog will also increase your brand’s visibility over the internet. Consumers who aren’t part of your customer base can ask the same sorts of questions. They can do so on search engines, such as Google, which will then lead them to your blog. This gets them one step closer to making a purchase. 

By making your business more customer-accessible, you encourage loyalty and retention by always being there for your customers. With new customers, you often only get one shot, so start upping your accessibility game today. 

7 Tips for Making the Best Use of Your Resources

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7 Tips for Making the Best Use of Your Resources

Just as there aren’t a lot of shortcuts to success, there’s no foolproof formula for driving your particular business ahead. Establishing your brand and business presence will take time.

This is especially the case when you’re up against established competitors. Business growth and development will be an ongoing process. To succeed, you must consistently put in your best effort and remain focused on your business goals.

While there’s no secret path for surpassing other businesses, there are several proven methods for reaching growth milestones and moving on to your next level of success. One of the best ways of achieving this is to make optimal use of all your existing resources. Listed below are seven strategies that can help.

1. Put the right people in the right places.

Connecting the right person to the right position can have many positive outcomes. It can boost performance, enhance employee value, and ensure consistent, high-quality output.

Far too many companies don’t do a great job with this simple process. To determine the right person for the right job, managers must accurately assess employee skills and compare them to overall company goals. They must then make the best possible use of those skills by placing that employee in a position where opportunities to excel exist.

It’s important to maintain focus on your company’s goals as you seek to achieve better productivity throughout the organization. Before that can happen, you must put together a solid team with the necessary skills to help you achieve those long-term goals.

2. Focus available resources on customer experience.

Every now and then, we all need a reminder that our customers are the reason why we’re in business. The way they perceive your business can make or break your hoped-for future. Customer experience is one area where you must maximize your focus.

Marshall the resources you do have to remain committed to delivering great experiences in terms of quality and service. Over time, your customers will place your brand on a social media pedestal. Falter in this critical area, and they can pull down your brand in no time.

A quick look at the strategies of the most successful businesses will reveal that they all have customer service as the topmost priority. They keep customers happy by offering new and innovative products and services. They make sure customer complaints are addressed quickly and satisfactorily. This helps achieve brand loyalty and long-term customer relationships.

Going one step further, engaging with your social media audience is also helpful. Personalizing their brand experience can ensure a strong bond and repeat business.

3. Avoid waste by developing your ability to adapt quickly.

Successful companies typically embrace the trait of adapting quickly to market demands and responding to change successfully. The ability to switch directions without missing a beat — or losing a customer — represents a huge win. Assuming anyone ever was skeptical of the value of a quick pivot, 2020 served to erase those doubts entirely.

Test different approaches to your audience and then compare various efforts to the resulting analytics. Put numbers to all of your campaigns. Give your team freedom to explore new ideas as a way to discover what works best for your market. At times, you may fail. However, an agile approach will help you pick yourself back up again and keep going.

4. Conduct adequate research on your competition.

Competitor research is one resource you must leverage with a high degree of accuracy. You absolutely must know what your primary competitors are up to. Failing that, it will be incredibly difficult to create a clear marketing strategy for your business.

Identify your competitors. Seek to find what has worked for them. After that, work out how your business can chart a different course. Doing so will help you identify, develop, and implement a different strategy. Competitor research typically leads to a more productive business strategy which, in turn, can lead to better sales and profitability.

5. Practice corporate social responsibility.

Consumers today not only look at businesses as commercial enterprises but often as social platforms as well. They are demonstrating an increased preference for businesses that are passionate about social causes. This frequently goes way beyond “reduce, reuse, recycle.”

Make a habit of practicing corporate social responsibility. Making meaningful contributions to your local community and lending support to causes that make the world a better place are good for your bottom line. They improve your image and earn customer respect.

Express your support publicly. Seek out underserved communities, retirement homes, the physically challenged, environmental causes, and others. You can find many ways of being a socially responsible business. Find and focus on a few that all your employees can affirm.

6. Host community events.

Attending and actively participating in local events can be a great way of growing your network. However, hosting your own events within the community can have a more profound impact on your reputation and brand visibility.

Whether managing a fundraiser or sponsoring a local event, put your best foot forward in an agenda-free fashion. Doing so will help create a better awareness of your business. More importantly, it can create a unique and personalized experience for your customers. The likely outcome will be fostering more personal relationships with your target audience.

7. Participate in (and host) networking events.

Nowadays, networking is one of the most important and influential methods for driving your business prospects. You’ll need to do it regularly to build long-term relationships with customers, vendors, and experts. Your presence at industry-specific events can not only help you learn new things but can also prove to be fertile ground for generating new ideas.

Networking provides the perfect platform for learning from others and sharing your views with industry leaders. Every business needs a solid support system to help sustain and surpass benchmarks. Networking can help you build and maintain that support system.

Summing Up

Businesses must constantly innovate and improve their processes to remain relevant and competitive in their niche. While you might wish you had an unlimited budget for pursuing all these tips with abandon, you live in the real world. You can start small with these ideas and then expand on them as your efforts gain traction.

Making the best use of your available resources is vital for maximizing your ROI. There are many other ways of improving your business prospects, but you have to work with what you have. Keep looking for opportunities, then act on them quickly … before your competitors do.

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