12 reasons to start using an online Appointment Scheduling Tool
Pulling your hair out manually trying to find time with clients or investors to have a meeting?
Are you double booking yourself?
Stressed out looking at your calendar and have lots of slots marked out as TBC until people come back to confirm appointments with you?
Lost all boundaries and answering calls all over the place?
Is it time to make life much easier for yourself (and others!) and set up an automated online appointment scheduling tool like Calendly to take all that hassle away? I have been using since it 2020 and importantly find it very intuitive and easy to use both for me the user and the end client. (You can read G2 reviews on different products such as Acuity, Tidycal etc here https://www.g2.com/categories/online-appointment-scheduling)
Online appointment scheduling tools are particularly good for those in the service industry who are the owners of their company and don’t have a team license for products such as Microsoft or Google calendars. The functionality is great in that you can:
Set up different appointment types as per service(s) you offer (discovery call/client catch up/investor call/breakthrough call etc). See how my different appointment types look here: https://calendly.com/virtuali?
Dictate when you are available for appointments (particular days/times) so you have quality focussed time for your call and also for other work.
Decide how far in advance clients can see your availability and book (2 weeks/30 days) etc so you have great flexibility.
Integrate it with your Zoom/Google Meet/Microsoft Teams account so that the appointment link is automatically sent out once people confirm and you have nothing further to do than open your tool of choice at the dedicated time.
Send a simple link with your availability so clients can choose an available slot
(Here is an example of my discovery call link for example: https://calendly.com/virtuali?month=2022-03
Share the url of each appointment type (Each appointment type has a specific url which you shorten) in emails, on your social media channels or embed on your website.
Schedule reminders via email or text (depending on the pricing option you go for) which reduces the chance of clients missing appointments and also reminds them (and you!) to do any pre call preparation.
Link to your business calendar so the available time slots are always live (as long as you have updated your calendar!).
Gather specific information from your client before your call so you are better prepared (what is their particular pain point/have they worked with a coach before etc.) and you can also insert notes to prepare for the meeting that only you can see.
Charge in advance for different services you offer as it also links seamlessly with Stripe/PayPal accounts.
Integrate with your email marketing platform so you can add people to your email list and send them targeted messages depending on what type of appointment they initially booked.
Working with clients in different type zones? Don’t worry if they click on your appointment page, they can choose their own time zone, so they are picking the correct availability.
Are you convinced? So far this year, I have set up booking scheduling tools (Calendly and Microsoft) for a business coach, lifestyle coach and an accountant and would agree it has saved them countless hours and headaches and it also looks much more professional! You can see in my video here how https://youtu.be/M61B6ElAXiA
If this a tool that you think could radically change the way you are working in your business but just don’t have the time /inclination or tech know-how to set it up yourself don’t worry! I’m offering this as a new service and all you need to do to get started is to book a Strategy call with me via Calendly of course!
I promise also that in March and April 2022, 10% of the profits of anyone who books this service or my Organisational hour will go to Concern Worldwide who are running campaigns for both Ukraine and Afghanistan (which is out of the news but still a massive issue). Concern are a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) which has brought together 12 different UK charities to work more efficiently and you know that's what I'm all about!
Please reach out if you have any questions alison@virtuali.uk
