If you are operating a small business or planning to launch one soon, your first concern should be hiring the best possible team. Moreover, you need to know how to attract more customers to keep your business growing steadily. These two factors are directly related which means you have to book appointments with potential clients at regular intervals.
Your first task, after you’ve launched your business, is to make sure you have enough staff. After all, if you don’t have the resources to cope with busy periods of trade, you could end up losing customers. And that’s bad news for your business. Also, it’s vital to ensure you stay in contact with people who might buy your product or service in the future. Here are Scheduling systems you can take advantage of.
Housecall Pro
Housecall Pro certainly comes close to meeting all the needs of your home service business. HouseCall Pro’s management app is designed specifically with home services in mind—everything from cleaning and plumbing to electrical and HVAC to renovation and repair.
Customizable for any size business, the cloud-based software provides online booking with real-time scheduling for both customers and your team. It also has client messaging and notifications.
Want something even more robust?
The platform accommodates invoicing and payments, estimates, an internal company chat function, and assistance with marketing automation. You may not require the full suite of products immediately, but Housecall Pro provides you peace of mind knowing the functionality is ready when you are.
Pricing includes three tiers based on the number of users & features — $49/month, $109/month, or a MAX plan with advanced features for bigger companies.
10to8
Offering broad appeal for both large and small businesses, 10to8 maintains a simple, productive approach to online scheduling for your clients and the communication between your team members.
10to8’s software lets you dictate how your booking should function, including manual approval. The platform integrates with PayPal and Facebook and website builders Weebly and WordPress. The service also includes a neat feature to identify appointments that may be at risk of no-showing or canceling.
Pricing is as straightforward as the service. There is a free option with 100 appointments per month, but the ability to brand starts with the $9.60 monthly plan that includes 100 appointments. You’ll pay $20 per month for 300 appointments and $40 per month for 600 appointments. There is also an enterprise option for more than 600 bookings.
4. Appointy
Appointy may not specifically identify itself as a home service appointment solution, but its flexibility allows any business to use it. It’s good for companies relying heavily on appointment setting and repeat business, like landscaping, cleaning, pest control, pool maintenance, auto detailing, or pet sitting.
Simplicity is Appointy’s major selling point. Along with online appointments, the service includes client notifications and social media and Google calendar integrations.
Don’t have a website
? No problem. Appointy has a sub-domain option where you can create a booking page for your business.
There are four service tiers, including a free option with a cap of 100 monthly appointments. Unlimited booking starts at $19.99 per month, and increased services are available at tier 3 for $49.99 per month and tier 4 for $79.99 per month.
5. SuperSaaS
The definition of customizable, SuperSaaS accommodates for home service booking needs. Of course, this platform includes the essentials, like real-time booking, automated SMS and email reminders, integration with Facebook, and the ability to accept customer payments. There is even a solution for equipment rental services.
SuperSaaS provides a high comfort level for its users. Everything from your schedule, booking, and registration are customizable to fit your branding. Plus, you can control your sync settings.
Much like the service, pricing is incredibly flexible, with 11 different packages. There is a basic free version with a cap of 50 appointments. The paid tier starts at $8 per month for 100 appointments and increases to $186 per month for 15,000 bookings.
Genbook
We close out our list with the cloud-based Genbook platform, which targets midsize firms looking to better organize their approach to online booking.
Specifically designed to track both customer appointments and the techs that fulfill them, Genbook manages the booking lifecycle from first booking to final payment. The software even allows you to accept payments online or at a stand-alone store—great for pool service or home design and furnishing companies.
Genbook offers a 30-day free trial, and pricing starts at $29 a month for a single staff member. Plans increase to $59 per month for 2 to 5 members and $99 for 6 to 12 users. If you need more than 12 users, they will build a custom plan for your business.
BookedIN
BookedIn is a straightforward, yet feature-rich product. It certainly helps that you have 30 days to test out the software before making a commitment.
Your customers can set appointments from your website (including all major platforms), a promotional email, or social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. Capture as much or as little client data as necessary with custom onboarding forms branded specifically to your business.
Apart from the free option, plan pricing is $24, $39, $54, or $69 per month based on the number of calendars that require management.
YouCanBook.me
What is YouCanBook.me?
YouCanBook.me is a booking platform that allows customer bookings straight into the calendar, and integrates seamlessly with Google and iCloud Calendar. If offers a personalized scheduling-page, allowing customers to easily book their appointments, and be notified upon them when the time arrives. Users can link the software to their Google or iCloud Calendar or even both.
At the same time, this platform is fairly simple to setup: the user needs to connect a Google/iCloud Calendar to the YCBM account, and set the required features. You can then control your availability through your calendar and publish the new booking grid to your website, Facebook page, or send it by email. This allows customers to book an appointment according to their convenience. You’ll automatically get detailed notifications when a customer makes a booking and the booking would also pop straight into the calendar. Customers can also reschedule their bookings, which will update automatically in the calendar.
Overview of YouCanBook.me Features
- Embed bookings on Website, Facebook page and more
- Supports Google and iCloud Calendar
- Connectivity with multiple calendars
- Appointment reminders
- Separate booking profiles
- Appointment padding
- Captcha tests
- Personalization and customization
- Tentative bookings
- Follow up emails
- Markdown HTML/CSS
- Credit card payments
- Multiple-length appointments
- Cancellation and rebooking
Technical details
Devices Supported
- Windows
- Linux
- Mac
- Web-based
Deployment
- Cloud Hosted
Language Support
- English
Pricing Model
- Free
- Monthly payment
- Annual Subscription
Customer Types
- Small Business
- Large Enterprises
- Medium Business
BookSteam
BookSteam is another service that can cater to a number of different business types and needs. The core product includes online appointment setting, SMS and email notifications, and online payment with the ability to keep credit cards on file.
BookSteam’s feature set goes well beyond basic scheduling to include client database and review management, marketing and promotional tools, inventory tracking, and client accounts.
BookSteam does not offer a free option but has a 14-day free trial. Pricing is based on users and runs from $19.95 for one user, $29.95 for 2 to 5 users, $39.95 for 6 to 10 users, and $69.95 per month for 11 to 50 users.
SimplyBook.me
Moving away from platforms designed solely with home services in mind, you’ll find more simple solutions that mainly center around online booking. SimplyBook.me is one of those software providers.
Key features include booking functionality that integrates with Facebook, email and SMS confirmations and reminders, the posting of client reviews, and the acceptance of payments through popular processors like Stripe and PayPal.
SimplyBook.me focuses on marketing and promotion to grow your brand. Promotional features include rewards and referrals, coupons and gift cards, Instagram photo sharing, and the opportunity to sell products or promote service add-ons.
Pricing includes a free plan for up to 50 bookings plus one custom feature; $9.90 per month for 100 bookings plus three custom features; $29.90 per month for 500 bookings plus eight features; and $59.90 per month for 2000 bookings and unlimited custom features. If you pay annually, you will also receive two months free.
Set a Time
Set a Time is a powerful appointment scheduling software for businesses. Some of the features include two-way sync with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook, online payments, employee and staff management, online bookings, ability to add custom services, automatic email and SMS text message reminders, custom forms, and more. With the amazing features and customer support, it makes scheduling fast and easy. Companies can easily customize their business profile to make it look and feel exactly like their business. Set a Time is the ultimate online scheduling app.
Businesses that use Set a Time enjoy the features and convenience it provides for them, and their customers/clients. Set a Time works for all types of businesses that accept appointments. Businesses rely on Set a Time for maximum efficiency, better productivity, and amazing customer experience.
Square Appointments
If the name sounds familiar, Square Appointments is the online booking tool of the payment processing giant Square. The same innovation that users love with the payments goes into their scheduling software, which features a free booking website, automated reminders, and, of course, payment integration.
Square Appointments also emphasizes robust prepayment and cancellation fee options to help you guard against no-shows. Pricing is as simple as the solution itself with a free option for single users, a $50 per month tier for 2 to 5 users, and $90 for 6 to 10 users. If you need more users, you can contact their sales team for an enterprise-level package.
Conclusion
It is no secret that people want to complete tasks quickly and move on with their lives. Why else would we have the saying “time is money”? Time spent in bookings and scheduling is time wasted, and businesses can never afford to waste time.