Manual Scheduling VS. Online Appointment Scheduling

For most working professionals, scheduling is everything. From meetings with the boss to appointments with clients, there is always something on the books. While scheduling is a universal need in most industries, how businesses approach scheduling can vary dramatically. To make the best choice for any given business, it is important to understand the differences between manual scheduling and online scheduling.

Manual Scheduling

Manual scheduling is a more old fashioned approach to keeping an appointment book. In some cases, these schedules may still be managed with a pen and paper, making it easy for each employee to jot down the times of their meetings. However, it is much harder to coordinate schedules between numerous people within the business, requiring additional checking. In fact, in many manual schedule systems, people rely on a secretary or administrative aid to keep a comprehensive schedule to make sure appointments do not overlap.

Another reason some business owners keep a manual schedule is control. It can be hard to let a system handle all of your appointment scheduling. A lot of organizations save between 10-20 in time by booking a majority of appointments automatically. So why do some businesses stick with pen and paper. It is a habit of being able to try to think of what is the best schedule. A computer can do most of that for you and also helps prevent playing favorites. Customers view online scheduling as more fair because anyone can book that spot and it wasn’t the owner or scheduler who picked it for them. This helps improve customer retention in the long run.

Online Appointment Scheduling

Online scheduling, by contrast, relies on a computerized system to keep all scheduling linked. In this manner, employees enter appointments into their schedule, which is accessible by all other employees in the group. In fact, most online appointment scheduling software even allows for employees to initiate meetings with others based on open time slots. This minimizes the time and effort that it takes to make meetings, which can streamline business processes for a more effective and cooperative team environment.

For a majority of services that a businesses provide, they can easily be standardized. This could be like a house cleaner taking 4 hours to clean a house of a certain size or an auto mechanic needing 40 minutes to change your oil. Schedule visibility and certainty is very big with customers in today’s day and age. Think about a customer service house call that tells you they will arrive between 8-12! For the customer that is highly inconveneint and leads to a lot of frustration. A cable company may be able to do that as their are limited options. For a HVAC repair company they need to wow the customer to keep them coming back.

So Say No to time taking, frustrating, complex old school manual appointment scheduler and get an online Appointment scheduler for your booking system. It will save you and your clients time, headache, and lot of money in long run.

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