You’ve started your own business and things are going great, but your diary is getting crazy busy and you’re losing track of appointments? Then here’s the low down on all the appointment scheduling tools available to help you find the best one for you.
Keeping on top of all your appointments is essential for your brand and your reputation. Miss too many meetings with clients or potential clients and you’ll get a (bad) rep for being unreliable and uninterested.
But never fear, there’s a simple solution waiting just around the corner! Implementing an appointment scheduling tool into your diary management is the easiest way to have you back on schedule and rocking up to every appointment you’ve set.
So what’s the best option for you? It really depends on how you work, so here’s the low down on the most popular appointment apps going round to help you pick the right one for you.
Full disclosure, I haven’t used all of these apps myself, I’m a Calendly girl, but I have researched these for you and have heard from other VAs about the others on the list.
Calendly
Calendly works by syncing with your existing calendar and checks your availability to help you schedule meetings.
You can organise 1:1 meeting’s, group meetings and events like webinars.
Calendly will: send notification and reminder emails; it can add a buffer before and after your meeting (great if you want to accommodate for travel time); you can lock down how soon in advance someone can book a meeting with you (aka. they can’t book in for a meeting today or tomorrow); you can set a max number of meetings a day (say if you only have the capacity to speak with 4 clients a day) and can even deal with time zone differences.
Calendly also includes a payment platform, so if you have paid appointment times, Calendly can manage the payment of those sessions prior to your meeting with that person.
Don’t take my word for it, watch this video by Calendly on how it all works:
Calendly has a free 14-day trial. 3 pricing structures available: Free, Premium $8USD a month; and Pro $12USD a month.
For more info, visit www.calendly.com
Acuity
Acuity is a great scheduling tool with a heap of integration options.
You can: share your calendar across multiple social media platforms; customize the Acuity interface to include all your own branding; sell gift certificates; embed your calendar on your website and accept payments for appointments.
You receive a notification when a new appointment is booked, you can check your schedule from your smartphone and it sends email or text message confirmation and reminders. It can also manage offices and teams so you can have your staff all using Acuity instead of your mailing programs calendar function.
Acuity has a free 7-day trial. 4 pricing options: a free option; Emerging for $15USD a month; Growing $25USD a month; and Powerhouse $50USD a month.
For more info visit www.acuityscheduling.com
You Can Book Me
You can book me reminds me a lot of Calendly and I really like the look of it. It allows you to customise your availability and control when people can book you for an appointment. Integrates with Zapier, you have complete control over the look and feel of the platform, allows scheduling of 1:1 meetings or team meetings, mobile booking and sends appointment reminders.
Set up a regular weekly schedule of when you’re available, modify the duration of appointment availability and padding for travel time if required. It will also manage time zones for you.
You Can book me will also send follow up emails for you to thank people for meeting with you and can outline the next steps. Also, a nifty feature is that you can decline meetings people book in, so they come in as tentative and you confirm if you’re available (just in case something’s come up that isn’t in your calendar).
You Can Book Me has two options, a free version or a paid version, which is available on a monthly, yearly or 2 yearly plan.
Don’t take my word for it, watch this video by You Can Book me on how it all works:
For more info, visit www.youcanbook.me
Simply Book
An English based booking program, with multiple languages available, Simply A booking system designed to suit a multitude of industries, it’s a great option if you’re looking for a booking system.
Simply Book allows for: re-occurring meeting appointments; reminders via text or email; accept’s payments for appointments; can manage event appointments; membership bookings; and even classes.
Simply Book will integrate with your calendar to ensure that times when you’re not available, will be reflected in your availability for people to book an appointment with you. The booking site is also completely customisable to match your branding.
Simply Book also allows for multiple location sites, so if you’re based from a few offices, people can book in with you at various locations.
A free demo is available by visiting their site.
Pricing structure: a Free plan; a basic for $9.90 a month; Standard at $29.90 a month; and Premium $59.90 a month. A free one month trial of the premium available.
For more info, visit www.simplybook.me/en/
Schedule Once
Built for service based entrepreneurs, Schedule Once is a robust platform which seems to offer all the features you’d want from a scheduling tool, including direct integration with Zoom.
Schedule Once integrates with your existing calendar, can manage time zones and will send reminders. Plus is able to manage multiple event types.
With a customizable theme, payment integration and the ability to handle teams (people can book who they’re booking in with, which is great for offices with multiple practitioners), it’s hard to fault this scheduling platform.
A free 14-day trial is available. 3 pricing structures: Basic $7.50USD a month; Professional $15.80USD a month; and Enterprise $32.50USD a month.
For more info, visit www.scheduleonce.com
Appointment Core
Designed to integrate with InfusionSoft, Appointment Core is a sophisticated scheduling option.
Appointment Core will: add appointment information into InfusionSoft directly; you can generate personalised links for existing InfusionSoft contacts; allows you to select what appointment options people can book from; buffer before and after meetings to allow for travel; and will adjust to show when you’re not available based on your existing calendar appointments. Appointment Core can handle timezones with ease, along with teams. Also integrates well with Zoom and GoToMeeting.
A Free 30-day trial is available. Pricing packages: Personal $27 per month; Team $47 per month; and Professional $87 per month.
For more info, visit www.appointmentcore.com
Have an appointment scheduling app you use and love that isn’t on the list? Leave a comment below and let us know all about it!