Managing your customers can be quite a challenge, especially if you run a business where they need to book appointments in advance. If you want to go digital and say goodbye to pen and paper when it comes to setting appointments, Book The City brings you 6 ways to manage online booking calendars, completely free of charge.
What is an online booking calendar?
An online booking calendar is a system through which you can manage your business appointments virtually. In a practical way, these systems would be like traditional booking calendars, where the person in charge of managing bookings would write them down in a notebook, a calendar or on appointment cards.
With the advent of the Internet and the digital transformation of establishments, the way in which these businesses manage their appointments has become more precise, as it can be done in various apps designed for this purpose.
6 applications to manage your online bookings
There are many mobile apps on the market that allow you to manage your appointments, but at Book The City we wanted to tell you about 6 that you may already use for other activities.
Book The City
This tool combines booking and queue management, significantly improving the customer experience. By using Book The City, you can simplify the scheduling of appointments and keep your customers informed about waiting times. This will allow you to optimise both queues and bookings, ensuring an orderly and agile service that increases customer satisfaction from the very first moment.
Google Calendar
This is the Google calendar tool that we are all familiar with and that you may have already used at some point. With Google Calendar you can programme events and appointments in which you schedule your users through their email. In addition, you can send reminders and share your calendar with them. It can be a useful tool, for example, for a gym that wants to set their classes’ schedules.
Calendly
Another popular free booking manager is Calendly. Although its more advanced features are available in the paid version, its free option is very complete and allows you to create a calendar in which customers can book their appointments. With Calendly, you will be able to set the hours in which you will attend to the public, as well as being able to include an address or a video call via Google Meet (thanks to its integration with Google Calendar).
Setmore
This free online booking app is one of the most popular and widely used by businesses. In just a few clicks you can open your shop’s account and start scheduling the appointments, events or meetings you need. It can also be integrated with other tools such as Google Calendar, Zoom, Stripe or Facebook.
SimplyBook
Another tool that offers a basic online booking system in its free version. In addition to being able to create an appointment calendar, it can also be integrated with Paypal and other payment methods (just like Setmore).
Bookitit
This versatile tool has its origins in Spain and can be used for any kind of booking, from reservations at a gym or hairdresser’s to attending a company event. The main advantage is that your customers will be able to make the booking directly through your Instagram profile.
How can a queue management help you to book appointments?
Online appointment booking is one of the services in your shop that can be improved through digital transformation, but are there any others that are just as effective? The answer is yes, for instance, a queue manager.
This type of software allows you to keep track of the queues that may form in your establishment when it comes to customer service. By combining it with an online booking system, businesses will be able to manage not only the hours at which customers are scheduled to be assisted, but also the queues that may form while they are waiting for their turn.