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If you run an online business and meet with coaching clients, students, customers, or prospects, you’re going to need an online scheduling tool.
Doing business online means having to employ different technology and software platforms to help you automate your business for efficiency, and the choices can be overwhelming!
As online education businesses are generally run virtually, automating your online call bookings means you can focus your time on your students, marketing your business, and creating more content.
Having a robust, but easy to use, appointment scheduling software is vital for an online education business.
You may want to use this for:
- Upselling an e-book or physical product from within your course or on your website
- Upselling coaching services within your course or membership
- Allowing students/learners to book calls with you
- Reducing the manual scheduling of virtual calls with your team, clients, or others
What Is An Appointment Scheduling Tool?
Appointment scheduling tools, or appointment scheduling apps, are software which allows others to book time with you via your online booking calendar.
The software is generally connected to your own digital calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.) and syncs so that only times that you specify as being available show up on your appointment calendar software.
What Makes A Great Online Appointment Scheduling Tool?
There are many factors to consider when choosing which software you’re going to use including:
Price
Most online appointment scheduling tools have a free starter plan, but in order to truly automate and customize you’ll likely need to upgrade to a paid plan. Monthly/annual pricing varies by provider.
Customer support
If you struggle with technology, then it’ll be important that you find out whether the provider has a live chat option or is available 24/7 to answer questions or help you get set up. Also, check on their website or search Youtube to see if they have a channel and how helpful their tutorial videos are.
Ease of use
It’s always a good idea to register for a free trial or a free plan to get your feet wet. Go into the software once you register for a free plan and try it out. How intuitive is it to use? Set up an appointment and try it out from a customer or client perspective. How easy is it for them to book appointments with you?
Ability to customize
Look for whether you can brand your appointment calendar with your own colours, fonts, and logo, or whether you’re stuck with their colours and branding.
Calendar syncing
Does the software allow you to choose global time periods for appointments to be booked as well as syncing to the digital calendar you use? How challenging is that to set up?
Payment processing
Some appointment scheduling software allows you to take payment for products and/or services (woo hoo!). Which payment processors does it work with? Are those payment methods that your clients and customers use?
In 20 years of running an online business, the last 6 years specifically focused on helping novice course creators get their courses online and into the hands of their buyers, you can imagine the number of online scheduling tools and apps I’ve used.
Yes, they were able to help me automate somewhat but all were lacking in features I needed as an online business.
That is until… I came across Book Like a Boss.
Book Like a Boss was a relative newcomer when I became one of their first customers in the Spring 2017.
Since then, they’ve come out with a ton of features that I love and utilize that have allowed me to streamline my processes, generate revenue, and further automate my business while still feeling very personal to the end users. It’s why I recommend Book Like a Boss to my clients and students.
Watch this video to learn about some of the features that I love and why I don’t ever see myself moving to a different appointment scheduling tool.
