Tips on How to Get The Most Out of an Online Appointment Scheduling System

Here are some tips for integrating the online appointment scheduling service into your website, and getting a higher % of your clients switched over to your new online appointment scheduler, because every appointment that books online is a phone call you don’t have to mess with. Bookmark this page for future reference!

Add links to your website- Link to your online appointment scheduling service from strategically located spots on your website. The higher the link is on the page, the better it works. If you really want this to work, give the link a prime web page location where everybody sees it. If you bury the appointment scheduler link at the bottom of your website, it could too easily be overlooked.

Link Location – The location of the link to your online appointment scheduler is very important. The more prominently you display the link the better results your likely to get. Keep in mind that placing the appointment scheduler link location in a consistent spot on every page throughout your site, makes it easier for clients to find, regardless of which page of your website they’re on, they get to know “it’s always in upper left corner” or where-ever, so when they’re finally ready to book, it’s right where they remembered it.

Banner Links – You can install banner links on your website. Banner links are hard to miss unless the page has a bunch of them.

Text Links – Put text links on your website. Use words or phrases like “Book Now“, “Make an appointment online“, “Appointment Scheduler“, “Appointments” for your link text (the words people actually click on).

No Website? No Problem! How do you use web-based appointment scheduling systems with out a website you ask? The Genbook appointment booking service is a hosted solution, so you’ll get your own unique URL. If you want to get a little fancy and use your own domain name, you can go to a domain registrar like GODaddy and purchase your very own domain and simply forward or redirect it to your unique GenBook URL.

Email your link to clients- Be careful here, everybody hates unsolicited email spam, and you don’t want to be a spammer. But properly done with clients on your opt-in email list, it can be an effective way to get the word out about your new online appointment feature, and to fill in the calendar with bookings.

Direct mailing – If you maintain a customer mailing list, you can send out a post card to each client featuring the new service.

Get more clients to schedule appointments online – The more customers you get scheduling on line the better it is for everybody. The younger generation seems to adapt quite willingly while it can take some coaxing to switch over the more mature clientèle, however once they see just how easy and convenient it really is, they’re all for it!  Word of mouth is priceless here, tell everybody about and spread the word. If you get excited, they’ll get excited! So, have a big, publicized a “book online” promotion, and offer a special price, or discount for scheduling appointments online, it’s just for a limited time to encourage the switch over. This is a keen tactic, and when combined with some of your marketing tools, such as your newsletter, blogging, press release, direct mail etc… it can fill up the appointment calendar up in a hurry!

Have some new business cards printed up with your website address on them, and include something like “NEW!!! schedule appointments online” on the card.

Change the message on your telephone answering machine to let callers know about the new service.

Put a nice sign up in the waiting room, so everybody sees it while waiting for their appointment.

Place a special message announcing the new feature on customer bills, invoices and receipts.

Blog it! – If you have a blog, then by all means talk it up on your blog.

Newsletter – If you do a newsletter related to your business, write an article featuring the new service.

Write an online press release, and announce your businesses new feature to the world.

Optimize your website – The online appointment scheduler is really good at converting search engines website traffic from into bookings, so the more website visitors you get, the more appointments you will book that way. Website SEO is a whole other topic however, so we won’t go into that today. Let’s just say the rewards are excellent for a high ranking website.

PPC Ads – You can always buy your way to the top with Google Adwords, or other pay per click campaigns. PPC advertising suddenly becomes much more attractive when your converting those paid clicks into solid appointment bookings!

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