Appointment booking requirements differ across business sectors

Appointment booking requirements differ across business sectors

bookitlive an expert in online appointment booking software solutions has announced the findings of a recently-released analysis that shows over 20 different time slot durations utilised by its client base. This fact demonstrates the complexity of booking appointments and affirms the need for service providers to adopt a configurable appointment booking software  solution that lets them determine their own booking time-slot increments, not just select them from a small offering of pre-determined times.

bookitlive analysed the following business sectors to determine their booking time slots requirements:

Accountants,  Acupuncturists,  Astrology Readings, Barista Training Course  Beauty Salons,    Bicycle Servicing Workshops,  Bowling Clubs, Car Servicing, Car wash,  Career Coaching, Charities, Children Entertainers, Chiropractors  Day Spas, Dentists,  Dive Instructors, Doctors, Driving Schools, Environmental Auditors, First Aid Training, Fishing Charters, Fitness Centres, Jet Flight Simulators,    Go Karting Centres, Golf Instructors, Gyms, Beauty Salons, Hypnotists, Language  Classes Laser Clinics, Lawn and Garden Maintenance,  Makeup Artists, Maintenance Services, Massage Therapists, Myotherapists, Nail Salons, Naturopaths, Osteopaths, Paintball Centres, Personnel Trainers, Photographer, Physiotherapists, Pilot Training Podiatrists, Real Estate Agents, Recording Studios, Reflexologists, Restaurants,  Surfing School, Tanning Salons, Tattoo Studios,  Tax Agents, Teeth Whitening Clinics, Trampoline Centres Tour Operators, Tutoring Services, Vaccination Services, Uniform Fitting, Veterinarian, Waxing Salon, Weight Loss Centres

“Not every business schedules 15-minute or 30-minute appointments,” says David Godbold, CTO of bookitlive. “Some may schedule two-minute appointments, while others may have a need to schedule 90-minute blocks of time.

The findings show that 15-minute time slots are utilised the most, followed by 30-minute, 60-minute, 10-minute and five-minute. The length of time slots utilised by bookitlive’s clients ranges from one minute all the way up to 360 minutes, showcasing the need businesses and organisations have for appointment booking software.

“The ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ model simply does not work when it comes to appointment booking, as these stats clearly show.”

bookitlive online appointment booking software gives service providers the ability to tailor the perfect booking solution by enabling them to select the exact, specific booking time-slot interval for their appointments bookings. This option allows them to keep existing appointment booking procedures in place without having to change or comprise them when implementing an online appointment booking solution.

Additionally, service providers benefit from the software’s instant accessibility from any Internet-connected smartphone, tablet, laptop or other device, which enables them to view and manage their appointment bookings while “on the go”, on-site with their clients, or from any other locations outside their business.

As a leading online appointment booking software supplier for all-sized businesses from retail to enterprise, bookitlive provides the appointment booking industry’s most proven and dependable features and functionality to automate, streamline and simplify the entire appointment booking process from start to finish. This includes online self-booking, whereby clients can book their own appointment bookings from any Internet connection—including mobile booking on smartphones and tablets such as the iPad, Android—at any hour of the day; automated e-mail and SMS text message reminders sent 24 hours prior to a scheduled appointment time.

Especially well-suited for enterprises, franchises, corporations and large and medium-sized businesses, bookitlive offers the most advanced suite of services designed to enhance the unique online appointment booking needs of these groups. Service offerings include:

• Setup Services
• Training Services
• Premium Support
• Customisation Services

Learn how bookitlive online appointment booking software can work for your business.

About bookitlive: bookitlive provides easy and efficient online appointment booking software for small medium  and enterprise businesses. 

book, booking, booked.

Automated SMS & email appointment reminders for healthcare practices

Automated SMS & email appointment reminders

Use automated SMS & email reminders to reduce “no-shows” and keep your appointment slots full.

Much has changed in healthcare practices over the years, as technological advancements have improved and automated even the simplest of tasks.

From payment processing and managing employee data, to scheduling appointments and storing client information, administrators at practices around the world now have an array of affordable, easy-to-use software tools to help make their jobs easier. This, in turn, can transform practices into well-run and inviting places for both clients and staff.

As with most technologies, some standard functions are sometimes left at the wayside in favour of new options.

In some instances, this is for the better. In others, however, it can be a mistake with unexpected consequences. A good example of this is client appointment reminders.

Appointment reminders are the norm at any service-oriented healthcare practice, business, or organisation whether in the form of a phone call from the receptionist or an appointment card in the mail, these friendly reminders serve two purposes: they are a courtesy to the client and they reduce the number of “no-shows” who miss a scheduled session. They work, as shown by the number of years this process has been around.

While contacting clients to remind them of their upcoming appointments is a simple matter, it can require significant time and expense, depending on the type of reminder sent. The most common manner of reminding clients is by phone, which may at first glance seem to be efficient. However, depending on the size of the practice and number of daily clients, this method can be anything but.

The time spent on making reminder phone calls could be focused on more pressing office needs. In instances where a receptionist is unable to adequately handle this task due to his or her workload, the office may need to hire another receptionist or administrative staffer, thereby increasing salary expense.

Sending a appointment card by mail is another common method for reminding clients of their upcoming appointments. But considering the time and costs that can go into sending customer appointment reminders, it’s no wonder that some healthcare providers have let this tedious — yet important — process go quietly into the night. But they may not realise just how much of an impact reminders can have on the success of a practice.

In fact, numerous studies show that reminders of any kind can help reduce a business’s no-show rate by more than 50 percent. With that figure in mind, practices should look for ways to continue this important task in the most efficient manner possible.

Online booking software to the rescue

The Internet and wireless technology now play an important role in life, and this is key to transforming the appointment-reminder task from a burden to a completely automated and streamlined process. And, unlike older, more traditional computer software programs used by offices on the administrative end, the new online appointment booking software  are interactive and offer services to clients already accustomed to conducting transactions over the Web.

Email is one solution that fits perfectly in a reminder process, given the number of people who now use it as a primary means of communication. The rising number of smartphone users reinforces this option, as many clients can now view their reminders while “on the go” and away from their home or office computer.

iPhone & Android smartphone users are also perfect candidates for automated SMS reminders. These can be even more effective than email, as they are available to clients through their smartphones.

Besides being easier to manage than phone reminders and appointment cards, online and wireless communications are typically more appreciated by clients. They usually prefer to receive an email or SMS text message reminding them of tomorrow’s appointment instead of a phone call or a appointment card in the mail a week or more before their scheduled visit. This is especially true among the younger generation, who’ve always received appointment reminders in this fashion and expect them to be sent this way.

Automating the process

Email and SMS text message reminders are a surefire way to improve your appointment-reminder processes, but there’s one factor missing in this equation: the process by which your practice sends them out.

Although it will decrease the number of no-shows, manually sending email or SMS text message reminders can be just as tedious as contacting clients by phone or through the mail.

This is why many practices turn to online appointment booking software and services that take the hassle out of contacting clients. They will automatically send out an email or SMS text message — or both — 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment time. All that’s required is the client’s email or mobile number, along with the day and time of his or her appointment.

As with any kind of software, there’s a variety of client-contact programs available, from the very simple to advanced packages that offer additional functionality to the user.

For example: Online appointment booking software that allows clients to schedule their appointments online can automatically schedule their appointment reminder at the same time.

This kind of software can become an integral part of your practice’s processes, so it’s important to do your homework and research numerous programs before selecting one. A growing trend is toward cloud-based services that only require an Internet connection — no downloads or installations required. These generally mesh well with email and SMS  text message reminders. As a bonus, they’re usually affordable, too.

A little effort can go a long way in finding a solution that benefits both your clients and your practice. With regard to automated appointment reminders, you now have the tools to simplify and automate this tedious and time- consuming task.

Find out more about automated SMS Text message & email reminders at bookitlive.

Online appointment notes for health care providers

Online appointment notes for health care providers

 Launching as an online appointment scheduler and catering to the health care industry with such features as automated patient reminders, bookitlive takes a unique approach to appointment notes.

With bookitlive your booking notes are created using the online booking software, so a simple glance at your schedule provides you quick access to your patient's profile and their treatment notes.

"We recently dedicated our time to listening to areas of frustration for various sectors of health care providers. Through feedback from our clients, attending conferences and connecting with industry associations, we found that moving treatment notes from the filing cabinet to online was a priority for most practices".

Identifying that existing software packages aren't realistically priced for small health care practices and online schedulers alone aren't enough to help run a business, bookitlive has seen quick adoption from massage therapists, chiropractors, physical therapists, psychiatrists and opticians.

"Our plan is simply to build features that solve problems that are unique to health care providers. Appointment notes is the first of several feature additions to come in 2013. Our goal is to be the go-to software to help small health care practices run their businesses efficiently.”

Online scheduling and online appointment notes are included in all bookitlive packages.

The Top 15 Reasons Why Enterprise organisations should Implement Online Booking Software

The Top 15 Reasons Why Enterprise Organisations Should Implement Online Booking Software

Enterprise-level organisations and large and medium-sized businesses that need to schedule appointments and reservations can improve and simplify their booking processes by incorporating online booking software into their operations. bookitlive has just released its top 15 reasons why these groups can benefit from this online software as a Service (SaaS) technology.

Scheduling and managing appointments bookings is an important task for enterprise-level organisations and large and medium-sized businesses throughout the globe, regardless of their scope or the type of services being booked. Greater efficiency is a goal for many of these organisations, which is why a scheduling solution for automating, simplifying and streamlining this oftentimes tedious and time-consuming task has become a top priority. 

Recognising this need for information, bookitlive, experts in online booking scheduling solutions and creators of one of the  scheduling industry’s most feature-rich and flexible online booking software, has created a list of the 15 top reasons why companies, organisations and businesses should consider implementing online booking & scheduling software into their operations.

Although scheduling and managing appointments bookings may seem simple on the surface, it can require significant time, staff resources and other commitments that businesses and organisations may not initially be aware of.

“The true impact of appointment booking & scheduling in a more traditional and inefficient fashion may not always be apparent,” says David Godbold, Online Booking Specialist at bookitlive. “That’s why we compiled this list of the benefits of incorporating online appointment booking & scheduling software into your operations.”

The top 15 reasons why companies should implement online appointment booking & scheduling software like bookitlive are:

1. It saves staff time and resources
2. It saves money
3. It’s scalable to accommodate a large number of employees, clients and appointment bookings
4. It’s highly configurable to meet your specific scheduling needs
5. It can completely automate the appointment scheduling process
6. It’s easy for staff to use (anywhere/anytime)
7. It’s more convenient for customers, clients, students and patients
8. It’s accessible from any Internet connection (PC, Tablet, Smartphone)
9. It comes with dedicated business and support contacts
10. It’ll help you reduce the “no-show” rate by sending automated reminders
11. It keeps your enterprise operation open 24 hours a day 7 days a week
12. It’s easier to manage staff schedules and future appointments
13. It instantly informs you and your staff of new, cancelled and changed appointments bookings
14. It makes reporting and record-keeping simple
15. You won’t have to worry about over-bookings or mistakes

 

bookitlive provides easy and efficient online appointment booking software for Councils, Hospitals,
all levels of Governments, Corporate Health and Commerce.