5 tips to clean up your booking schedule
“Hi, it’s Mrs. Smith. I just wanted to let you know I won’t be able to make it tomorrow… Could we move it to Tuesday?”
Clients give our schedules a hard time. Every cancellation and every rescheduled appointment means another crossed-out line on our precious calendar.
Add some team members’ chicken-scratch handwriting, approximate bookings jotted down in a hurry and notes in the margins… and our beloved schedule becomes harder and harder to read. Yet a messy booking schedule frustrates both your clients and your staff.
Here are a few tips for keeping your calendar perfectly organized, no matter what.
1. Use a professional online calendar
Keeping your schedule on an online calendar (like the one from rdv360) is a great way to run your business more efficiently.
With an online calendar, no more crossing out or mistakes when a client cancels or reschedules: just update the calendar.
No more writing tiny to fit in your client’s name, number or address. Enter all the information you need: it will always be there for you later and will build up a rich client file.
Your clients’ history builds itself automatically, appointment after appointment. So you can see at a glance what each client’s habits are and who usually takes care of them.
You can access your professional calendar from anywhere, even from home if you need to.
2. Accept online bookings
With online booking, you can be sure there will never be a mistake on your schedule. Never a wrong appointment time on the calendar, never a mistake in the client’s contact details.
Clients love booking appointments themselves. They know they can book anytime, as soon as it crosses their mind, even when you’re closed. They can see the available slots at a glance. Online booking works well for you and for your clients.
3. Set up a booking process
To make the booking calls you get as efficient and short as possible, it’s important to set up a procedure that you follow every time.
- Define the list of information you need to get when a client calls (e.g. client’s name, appointment time, planned service, special requests, cell number…)
- Plan ahead the phrases you’ll use with the client on the phone
4. Limit access to the schedule
Having just one person in charge of the schedule helps cut down on mistakes. Of course, that’s not always possible, but it’s better to limit access to the schedule to the people who have fully learned the process, to avoid mistakes, misunderstandings and conflicts.
To avoid mistakes, make sure team members who have access to the paper calendar write legibly and put the right information in the right places. Writing in capital letters can be one way to keep things readable.
5. Go digital with your notes
When plans change, you often need to add notes. Notes are often what makes your schedule messy (scribbles in the margin, sticky notes). With a computerized schedule, you can store as many notes as you like without any risk of getting lost.
Think an online schedule is complicated to manage?
On the contrary, an online calendar is a fantastic way to save time and make your life easier. It will quickly prove more efficient for your staff and your clients.
But nothing beats trying it… On rdv360, the online calendar is free to use. Learn more…