How to Spend Less Time Scheduling Appointments, and More Time Keeping Them
By Janet Barclay, MVA
In the past, most offices had a receptionist whose responsibilities included scheduling appointments for clients, customers, or patients, but with the increase in one-person businesses, as well as automated attendants in larger offices, this is seldom the case any more. As a result, if you are working with a client when a call comes in, you have to choose between interrupting your work to deal with the call, or letting the caller leave a voice mail message and hoping you’ll be able to connect with them before they decide to book their appointment with your competitor.
You can save valuable time and reduce the risk of losing business by using an online appointment booking system. Enter your hours of operation and available staff, and clients can visit the site to schedule or cancel their own appointments.
Many companies offer you the ability to set up a scheduling system on their server, which means that you do not need to have your own website to take advantage of the service. If you do have a website, you need only create a “Book an Appointment” link on your site to take customers to the scheduling service. Companies offering this type of service include:
- AppointmentQuest
- Bookingcalendar.com
- Flash Appointments
- Global Appointment Service (Shown below)
- Net Appointment
Pricing for most of these products is based on the number of personnel who will be using the system. All of the services listed above offer an online demo and a 30 day trial, so you will want to explore at least two or three to find one with the features you require and an interface you are comfortable using. Some of the features to consider are:
- Ability to download scheduled appointments to your Outlook calendar and/or PDA
- Ability to accept credit card payments from customers at the time of booking
- Notification by email of scheduled appointments
- Email reminders sent to clients
In addition to the hosted version, Global Appointment Service offers standalone software which may be installed on your own website. There are numerous other companies offering both web calendar hosting and scheduling software which may be installed on your website, and you may locate them by doing an online search.
Of course, if your clients (or you) are not web savvy, online scheduling may not be an appropriate solution. In this case, you may wish to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) who provides telephone answering and appointment scheduling services. To find the perfect VA for your business, visit The Canadian Virtual Assistant Network at or another reputable Virtual Assistant association.
No matter what solution you choose for your business, it will easily pay for itself, as the time you currently spend booking appointments and making reminder calls will be freed up to serve additional clients.
© 2007 Janet Barclay. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Janet Barclay, Organized Assistant, offers a variety of professional quality services to support entrepreneurs and other individuals who are overwhelmed by the demands and technology of the 21st century. For further information, please visit her website at www.organizedassistant.com.
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