The Importance of Appointment Reminders for Clients

Business owners, and individuals for that matter, considers “time” as the most valuable asset. The time saved by the business is directly proportional to the improvements made in its operations, and growth. In order to save time, businesses need to ensure punctuality, and it can be achieved by sending reminders about meetings or client/customer appointments.

So, how can you remind someone about an appointment and save both time and money? Let us have a look at the common methods used.

Sending reminders via phone calls – Known to be the most traditional method, reminders via phone calls is not only time consuming but requires additional resources as well. Businesses need to hire a dedicated employee to call and remind clients about the appointments, and they need to reschedule or cancel the same if required. There can also be situations when a particular customer is not available to answer the calls, and the administrative staff needs to try calling them again and again. While this way of reminding someone about an appointment is still used in many types of businesses, it is not the right use of time and resources.

Sending reminders via emails – Most of the companies send an email along with giving the customer a call. While some use automated emails that are sent to the customers or clients to remind them about the appointment, others do the same task manually. While sending reminders via email is not as time-consuming as making phone calls, it does have its cons.

Often emails are missed, can be lost in junk mail or the customer might totally forget about the appointment, and it can result in a no show. When a no-show happens, there is no chance to reschedule or fill the available appointment slot at the last minute. This can be a loss for businesses like salons or health practitioners.

Sending reminders via text messages – This is one of the most widely used, and an efficient way to remind someone about an upcoming appointment. The date, time, and loacation of the appointment is shared via a text message. A few businesses also add a link or a call back number to confirm, cancel, or reschedule the appointment.

As text messages are read by almost everyone, this method is used by many businesses. But again, there are situations when the client does not inform the business about any delays or cancellations.

Reminding customers manually can at times lead to errors as well. Customers might be left out of the message list, the appointment times can be relayed wrong and so on. Such issues can end up hurting your brand image and reputation.

The above-mentioned manual methods have been used, and are still in use in today’s tech forward world. Businesses that wish to stay ahead of their competitors’, and focus on customer satisfaction, take that extra step and use a system of automatic reminders.

Sending automatic reminders via online scheduling application/software

If you are looking for the most efficient way to remind someone about an appointment without actually wasting time, resources, or money, automatic reminders are for you.

Online appointment scheduling softwares come as a bundle of excellent features, with automatic reminders being one of them. Using this option, businesses can,

– send automatic reminders to the client about an upcoming appointment, at an interval of your choosing.

– provide an option for the client to confirm their attendance, reschedule, or cancel the appointment.

– provides an option to add a note about the service or changes if any.

– option to make the payment for the appointment online using various payment methods.

A few online appointment scheduling applications also have an option where the customer can chat with the administrative staff to know about the service etc. Some of the noteworthy features of appointment scheduling software are,

– Can be easily accessed from a laptop or a smartphone.

– Classes can be scheduled with different customers at the same time.

– Online payments and storing of client credit card.

– Easy to integrate with your website and various social media platforms.

– An option to set timelines for customers to book an appointment online. The time can be opened or blocked on the fly.

– Keep track of the client records and data, eliminating paper waste.

If you want to ensure your clients receive excellent service, and do not want to miss out on any opportunity, online appointment scheduling software is what you need. The software provides amazing features that can allow users to collect timely customer feedback and make improvements. These softwares can also be used to effortlessly schedule workshops, tours, classes, appointments, and more.

Most of the appointment scheduling softwares available are available for a free trial. Once convinced you can always go for an upgrade and choose from the plans available.

Conclusion

Now that you know the different ways you can remind your clients about an appointment, make sure to pick the right one and invest the saved time and energy more productively.