Have you ever called up your hairdresser or fitness trainer, got the voice mail, put on hold and wished they could just go online to set up an appointment yourself? You’re not alone. Playing phone tag is a pain and not very efficient. The good news is, there are many, many appointment scheduling systems you can take advantage of, some with very little investment.
My favorite is Genbook. This is a pretty complete system. They offer a free basic account where you can take advantage of most of their features. You can start scheduling appointments online in a matter of minutes. I love the ability to assign staff to certain services. It is super simple to use but not lacking in customization. Just tons of features for free. Premium accounts start at $39.99 a month and you also get the ability to take payments before scheduling the appointment. Perfect for any offline service who doesn’t have an e-commerce component yet.
Other services in this area include
- Acuity who also offer a free account have have two other levels at $10 and $19 a month.
- Schedulicity at $29/month for one user and $49/month for 2-20 users.
- Appointment-plus who has three plans beginning at $39/month.
Prefer to do it yourself? Whenever there are fully hosted software, you will usually find standalone software that you can pay for a one time fee, get it installed on your own web site and managed yourself. Here are a few I came across.
Photo by jenny w.
Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook
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I’d just begun wondering if I should hire a virtual assistant to schedule appointments/meetings when I came across this post. Now I’ll check out these services first. Thank you! (And sorry for the virtual assistants reading this. I may need you anyway…)
Hey Katherine, glad to be of help. VA’s definitely have their place because not everything can be automated.
For example, sometimes you need a VA to oversee the process. If you automate the appointment scheduling, she make sure everyone is getting assigned properly, answer client questions that may arise etc.
I agree that a VA has it’s place, even if you have an online scheduler.
Online scheduling makes you available for appointments 24/7, but can’t answer questions about your services.
Also the VA can accept appointments and enter them into your online scheduler, so it’s a great combination.
Have a great day!
Absolutely Daniel. One of the things I believe in is, VA’s and technology work together. When you have both it makes you more efficient than just one. Saving VA’s time saves you money. They are not always mutually exclusive.