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Features to look for in appointment management software
How to compare software options
Appointment management software helps businesses manage appointments and employee schedules more efficiently. The centralized platform allows businesses to schedule appointments, send automated reminders, take payments, coordinate service providers, and manage customer data in one place.
Appointment management software also helps business owners to track and analyze data on everything from sales figures to employee performance, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and optimize business processes.
The software offers a flexible tech solution for appointment-based businesses in every industry. It is the key to building an efficient, scalable business while keeping customers happy and reducing employee workload.
To avoid running additional software, look for appointment management software with in-built employee scheduling capabilities. Mobile businesses have more complex scheduling requirements than traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, so you need software that can handle in-home and mobile appointments, like MarketBox.
Travel zones are one of the features that makes it possible to coordinate and schedule mobile employees easily. Travel zones enable you to establish service areas and assign availability to locations to control when and where your team operates.
They also make assigning jobs to providers more efficient and speed up the booking process because you can easily filter providers according to the client’s location. For maximum convenience (and to reduce your office team’s workload), look for appointment management software that allows providers to create and manage their travel zones in addition to the master admin.
Perhaps the most obvious feature to look for is online booking options. But for mobile businesses, you need online booking with advanced filtering options unless you want your customers to sort through every employee on your payroll to find the one operating in their area.
MarketBox is the only appointment management software specifically designed for businesses offering in-home and mobile appointments. The software’s online booking flow uses SmartConnect to filter providers, only showing customers options that match their criteria (skills, location, availability, and service type). This ensures customers get the perfect match every time, and you only need one booking link to get booked by customers all over the world.
This feature doesn't matter as much for provider-agnostic businesses, like plumbing companies or landscapers; generally speaking, customers don’t mind who performs these services as long as they get done. But for businesses where a customer wants to choose who conducts the service and be able to book with the same person repeatedly, provider profiles are practically non-negotiable.
For mobile businesses, it’s particularly important that the provider profiles support photos so customers know who to expect when it’s time for their appointment. Alongside photos, profiles should display provider skills, experience, services, and a short bio to help customers choose the right service provider without assistance.
Another vital feature appointment management software for mobile businesses needs is online payment processing. 75% of customers want to pay online, and the ability to collect payments online makes it easier for your employees to do their job too.
Look for appointment management software that supports
Businesses should be able to customize their chosen mobile appointment management software to meet their needs. Depending on how your mobile business operates, look for the following
Every good mobile appointment management software should let you store client information securely, easily access their booking history and update payment information.
Mobile business scheduling software that lets customers create accounts and save billing information, payment methods, etc., also helps to speed up the booking process and makes it easy for customers to book again.
To provide a seamless experience for your customers, look for mobile booking software that lets you add custom logos, fonts, and other design elements so your booking flow matches your business’s branding.
One of the many benefits of using software to handle your bookings, payments, and scheduling is the easy access to data and business insights. Having access to reliable data conveniently packed into reports allows you to make data-driven decisions and guide your business in the right direction.
If you’re storing sensitive data like customer payment details, employee payroll information, etc., you need software with in-built security safeguards to protect it. For businesses operating in industries with strict privacy laws, e.g., the home healthcare industry, ensure your chosen appointment management software is compliant with industry regulations.
82% of clients use mobile devices to book appointments, so you need to use online booking software compatible with all devices.
If it doesn’t come with a companion app, the provider portals should also be mobile-compatible to ensure employees can easily access information while on the go.
In addition to being optimized for mobile devices, your chosen appointment management software should have a user-friendly interface that’s designed to capture sales.
The customer-facing side should be easy and intuitive to navigate, give clear information about the services their bookings, and allow customers to book and pay for services without needing to go to another website or phone your business.
Other things to look for include the option to checkout as a guest and the login/create an account prompt appearing at the end of the booking process (so customers are already invested in the transaction) to reduce abandoned orders.
The admin/provider-facing side should make it easy for your team to access the information they need to keep the business running smoothly. Updating travel zones or availability should be easy, and admins should be able to manually add bookings to a provider's schedule if necessary.
To reduce the number of cancellations your business receives, the appointment management software you choose should have rescheduling functionality.
To avoid inundating your office with requests, customers and providers should be able to reschedule or cancel appointments themselves, and those involved should receive booking updates automatically.
Automated reminders have been shown to reduce no-shows by up to 85%, making them an essential feature to look for in appointment management software for mobile businesses. They save hours of admin and ensure customers always receive notifications of upcoming appointments on time.
Lastly, the appointment software you choose should fit within your budget. Software with flexible pricing tiers lets you choose which features to pay for to keep costs down.
If you’re ready to implement appointment management software in your mobile business, here are a few tips to help you find the right software for your needs.
MarketBox is the only appointment management software specifically designed for businesses offering in-home and mobile appointments. The all-in-one platform makes it easy to schedule appointments, coordinate service providers, and process payments online. MarketBox streamlines and automates your entire business, freeing up time for you to focus on your customers.
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