Smart technologies like AI and ML have the potential and power to help organizations focus on working faster and be more productive by scheduling and automating rote tasks. Despite so many benefits of automated scheduling, surprisingly, many companies are still using manual registers and paper-based systems to schedule their appointments, employees, and tasks, which are highly prone to human errors and can yield inefficiencies.
On the contrary, the use of automated scheduling software can help managers and employees to perform flawlessly and manage resources in the most efficient manner. This ultimately allows employees to focus on more revenue-generating tasks and improve their productivity.
Now, when we have stepped into the post-pandemic era where hybrid work models and online appointments have become the “New Normal,” automated scheduling has become much more critical to achieving business goals.
This article offers some tips and initial processes to get started with automated scheduling within your business.
What is Automated Scheduling?
Automated scheduling is a method that uses data from your company, user-defined parameters, and artificial intelligence to automate repetitive tasks that are otherwise done or scheduled manually.
For instance, automated employee scheduling software can be used to select the best employee for a particular shift. Artificial intelligence (AI) filters through the essential information in the blink of an eye, selects a candidate, and adds them to the calendar, saving your time and effort of doing it all yourself.
Let’s take another case where you run a service-based, SaaS, or one-on-one coaching business, where keeping your appointment calendar full is preeminent for your success. This is again where online scheduling software can help. Automated scheduling software is a low-cost, highly-scalable solution for expediting appointment follow-ups and reducing the loss of clients and leads.
The concept is that your leads set an appointment through an online form (which can be for a product demo, consultation, service call, etc.) and then receive automatic email or SMS reminders leading up to the scheduled appointment, encouraging them to attend the event.
Manual Scheduling vs. Automated Scheduling: Know the Difference
For many organizations, appointment scheduling is a complex process. Managing client calendars successfully is often regarded as a difficult task that necessitates a great deal of time and resources. It also has a negative impact on operations and inhibits the company from reaching its full potential. Thus, your company needs to rethink its current appointment management tactics and address the following challenges produced by the manual process.
Pains of Manual Scheduling
- The manual scheduling process needs a significant amount of investment in terms of time, staff, and money.
- Scheduling manually may take only a few minutes, but over extended periods, it takes increasingly more time to do tasks.
- Manual scheduling is only available to customers when the organization’s physical office is open, putting restrictions on when they can book appointments.
- Customers will be unable to book appointments at their leisure due to the limited hours of operation.
Benefits of Automated Scheduling
- Automated scheduling enables customers to self-schedule sessions around their daily personal and work obligations using available slots on the appointment calendar.
- On their mobile devices, both customers and the company receive timely reminders of appointments. And in case a customer can’t make it to the appointment, they can cancel it so the organization can find another client to fill the vacancy.
- It’s super easy to manage customers’ information as all of the appointments are scheduled online using the software. It also removes the need for extra spreadsheets, customer files, contact forms, or any other paperwork related to scheduling.
- Payment gateways can be linked to a scheduling software, allowing you to receive fees through online payment methods.
Now that you know how automated scheduling is better than manual scheduling let's dive deeper into how automated scheduling works and how it is beneficial for businesses.
How Does Automated Scheduling Work?
To understand how automated scheduling works, let’s take into consideration the working mechanism of employee scheduling software and appointment scheduling software in detail.
Employee Scheduling Software
While using employee scheduling software, you can command the AI to take into account a variety of factors while creating the schedule, including employee availability, overtime limits, sales data, budget, skills, ability, part-time/full-time status, absenteeism rates, etc.
Assume that you’ve established your overtime limits and budget. You’ve assigned tags to every team member based on their employee status, skills, and job roles. And you’ve also gathered everyone’s availability for the rest of the month.
Then, the final step would be to command the software on how to assign names to shifts based on staff availability, overtime limits, and job roles. The AI will then ignore all the other variables, identify the best match for each shift, and adjust the schedule accordingly.
Thus, an employee scheduling software helps you to -
- Analyze scheduling needs ahead of time
- Evaluate staffing levels and availability
- Determine the right use cases
- Create a list of employees preferring overtime
- Follow local rules and regulations
- Pilot test
- Publish schedules and share that information with employees
- Make last-minute changes in schedules
- Allow employees to access and change their schedules
- Review employees’ schedules on a real-time basis
Appointment Scheduling Software
Advanced appointment scheduling systems can work without any human intervention while carrying out the scheduling process. In other words, your customers can schedule appointments on their own without having to contact you or your staff.
Using a web portal, you can set business hours, service time periods, and the times when your team is available. Customers will have to schedule appointments online within these parameters. Client appointments, holidays, and staff availability are all displayed in one place that syncs with your calendar.
You can embed the calendar code on your website, create a custom URL, or integrate it with your social media handles to make the online calendar accessible to your customers.
Thus, appointment scheduling software helps you to -
- Provide a smooth customer journey with online appointment scheduling
- Allow customers to self-schedule appointments
- Increase employee productivity
- Give appointment reminders through texts and emails
- Reduce no-shows and cancellations
- Eliminate paperwork and documentation process
- Offer a 24-hour booking service ensuring that no chance of a sale is missed
- Increase conversions and revenue
Below is a list of business categories that can employ automated scheduling software and change their business procedures.
Businesses Who Can Benefit from Automated Scheduling Software are...
Some of the most commonly used types of scheduling software used by these businesses are:
Most Commonly Used Types of Scheduling Software
- Employee Scheduling software allows you to manage and track employees’ time, create and maintain schedules, balance workloads, book events, reserve rooms, and track projects in real-time.
- Resource management software, often known as resource planning software, assists in the assignment and allocation of resources to various tasks and projects based on their abilities and specifications. It enables you to manage resource schedules and optimize their utilization in order to achieve optimum productivity at lower costs.
- Social media marketing software will provide you with features like collaboration, content curation, boosting, engagement, listening, monitoring, publishing management, scheduling posts, social analytics, and team management.
- Marketing automation software improves lead scoring by automatically identifying and qualifying new and potential leads based on existing data. They come with features like A/B testing, email marketing, lead management, sales intelligence, search marketing, segmentation, campaign management, and more.
- Salesforce Automation Software is a digital tool that helps a company achieve operational excellence in managing the sales apparatus. The primary benefit of a sales force automation software is its effectiveness in monitoring, enhancing, and troubleshooting the sales function.
- Appointment Scheduling Software helps schedule all types of appointments and meetings, including client meetings, and saves time.
- Medical Scheduling Software helps in scheduling and patient tracking, patient record management, billing and invoicing, patient self-service, employee management, and doctor management.
- Production Scheduling Software helps in meeting customer demands with shorter lead times and also allows you to respond promptly to unexpected changes intelligently.
- Project Scheduling Software lets you integrate plans, timelines, budgets, communication, and more to give you greater control over your project schedule.
10 Reasons Why Automated Scheduling is Important For Your Business
The type of automated scheduling software you choose depends on your business type and goals. Regardless of the type of scheduling software you select, there are some of its commonly listed benefits are given below -
#1 Simplified Scheduling and Increased Convenience
The traditional way of booking appointments requires clients to call the business and schedule an appointment. This strategy capitalized on the previously available technology, and it functioned well for years. However, new technology has emerged that offers a far superior solution.
An online scheduling system enables customers to access a business calendar and schedule appointments online on their own, which eliminates the need for a back-and-forth discussion. The online calendar displays the services available as well as the empty time slots. As a result, customers can quickly schedule an appointment at their convenience.
#2 Save Truck Loads of Time
Automated scheduling opens doors to a number of benefits, but one of the biggest reasons you should opt for it is its ability to save time - lots of it. As mentioned earlier, automated scheduling software can help you dehumanize a plethora of tasks, including employee scheduling, social media post scheduling, appointment booking, etc. You can focus on other decisive activities, such as growing your business with the time you save by employing automated solutions.
#3 Improves Customer Satisfaction and Builds Relationships
How can automated scheduling software help provide customer satisfaction and build long-lasting relationships? It's by providing an excellent customer experience and facilitating customer meetings. A smooth booking process reinforces the appearance of efficient business operations.
Booking software also keeps a record of customer information so that exceptional customer care may be provided in accordance with their needs. Quality customer service and seamless communication improve satisfaction, which ultimately leads to customer loyalty and more profits.
#4 Boosts Productivity and Efficiency
78% of business leaders say that automating tasks results in increased productivity.
(Source: adpinfo)
Scheduling software frees up your employees’ time by taking care of scheduling their tasks and handling customer appointments. It also helps identify gaps in your workflows. You can allow for walk-ins or set up internal meetings if you have time between scheduled appointments. By removing repetitive tasks from the workflow, the productivity of the entire team will improve.
You can also save time on the customer’s end, as the communication for scheduling appointments will be eliminated. With the simplicity and ease of just logging onto your website and creating a booking, customers won’t have to commit a part of their day to carry out the task.
#5 Smooth Tracking
By using automated scheduling, employees are scheduled for specific tasks, time is tracked, and other criteria are taken care of down to the employee or client level. Often, on-the-spot demands and impromptu arrangements result in a significant discrepancy between planned tasks and actual tasks completed.
Automated scheduling keeps a detailed record of exact happenings and allows for easy tracking. Managers can quickly generate reports that compare the schedule to the actuals, enabling them to identify any gaps or deviations. The software can even provide reasons for the variances.
#6 Better Resource Management
Manual procedures necessitate more resources; however, with automation, your overall procedures will be shorter. In order to get things done, you won’t require all the bells and whistles, such as time, money, and physical supplies. When businesses automate repetitive tasks, their overall costs reduce.
While organizing appointments becomes difficult, a scheduling system might help you avoid employing extra staff or working overtime. Without the need for back-and-forth communication, your employees’ capacity for other tasks increases, enabling you to do a better distribution of your resources.
#7 Evaluates Progress and Offers Useful Insights
Careful planning, long-term goals, and progress evaluation assist a company in moving in the correct direction at the right time. A majority of automated scheduling software provides a business analysis section. This feature assists owners in keeping track of their progress, identifying weak areas, and increasing operational efficiency. It doesn't matter what the size of your company or the number of employees working there is, the scheduling software can measure the following criteria:
#8 Integrates All Online Marketing Channels
In today’s tech-driven market, good scheduling software helps firms stay competitive. It unifies all marketing channels, allowing customers to book whenever and wherever they want to. Customers can now be reached through a variety of channels, that include Google searches, social media platforms, emails, and more.
Automated scheduling software allows users to link their appointment booking page to emails, websites, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. They can be used by customers to book an appointment using computers or mobile devices, regardless of where they are or what technology they are using.
#9 Multi-Channel Appointments
The modern customer shifts between channels and gadgets on a regular basis. Customers swap channels all the time, whether it is to investigate and buy things from one online sales channel to the next or to locate an appointment that works for them between physical shops and websites.
Thus, having an appointment calendar that works online and on mobile devices is essential in today’s environment. As mobile accounts for 54.4% of global web traffic, integrating your scheduling software with smartphones is crucial.
#10 Eliminates Human Errors
Human errors are common while scheduling appointments manually. In such cases, customers may become enraged, and you might end up losing their business. A scheduling system can eliminate human errors, such as accidentally booking an appointment when no one is available or making errors in the details of the customer.
Automated scheduling software will schedule appointments according to the employees’ available hours and buffer times, making sure there are no overlaps. It also automates the recording of customer information and configures time zone differences.
Before you begin your hunt for the perfect automation solutions for your business that enables you to achieve all of the listed benefits, keep in mind the below features that automated scheduling software must have.
Features of Automated Scheduling Software
Benefits of Automated Scheduling Software for Mobile Workforces
#1 Real-Time Recommendations
Unless you have an automated scheduling tool, it’s nearly impossible to know where every remote-working employee is, where they are expected to be next, who has what skills, and all of the other details you need at your fingertips when an appointment needs to be booked.
#2 Rule Specification Abilities
When you have a mobile workforce, you need automated scheduling software that corresponds with your business requirements as well as your clients and employees. It is flexible enough to allow you to set characteristics like job location, employees’ skill set, and so on so that schedules may be generated automatically.
#3 Batch Optimization
For a variety of jobs and deskless employees, batch optimization develops schedules for huge data sets of work, taking into account work location, routing, employee skill needs, and other aspects. To construct schedules in advance, schedulers can avoid repetitive tasks by simply scheduling the same optimization query to execute at the same time daily, weekly, or monthly.
#4 Intelligent Job Matching
The correct employee must be allocated to the right job to deliver exceptional customer service and to get the tasks completed right the first time, every time. Intelligent job matching not only reduces errors that often occur with manual scheduling but also helps save service costs, ensures that all resources are used to the optimum, and improves customer satisfaction.
Latest Trends in Scheduling Software
The global workload scheduling and automation market size is expected to reach USD 3.65 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 6.5%, according to a new study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc.
COVID-19 has a huge role to play in the increase in the use of scheduling software. During the pandemic, nearly all of the day-to-day tasks were switched to an online format. Since we were compelled to switch online, people have become more agile using technologies. Owing to technological advancements, businesses started using online scheduling software and slowly phased out phone calls.
With such significant expected growth in the coming years, it is a good idea to stay ahead in terms of the latest trends in the market. Below are some of the latest trends in online booking systems that you should be aware of.
#1 Customizable Chatbots for Enterprise Automation
As businesses expand upon the hundreds of apps already in their stack, the requirement for a unified point of communication across workflow automation via Slack or Microsoft Teams will only grow. Businesses will increasingly embrace bots that enable employees to access data and actions in their apps within the platform.
#2 Rise of Ops Roles
As a rising number of roles use automation to improve their processes, they’ll collaborate even more closely with other departments. For instance, for marketing and sales ops, it could mean coming together to build additional automation around nurturing leads; or for product and data ops, this can mean looking for ways to automatically add product usage data to analytics and BI platforms.
#3 Robotic Process Automation for Customers
One of the most important popular trends in online scheduling software is robotic process automation or RPA. It bridges the gap between customized customer service and the ease of automated scheduling. Customers will be able to get customized answers to questions, assistance with arranging appointments, and other information from a chatbot or other RPA, allowing them to get the help or information they need right away.
#4 Mobile-Friendly Booking Interfaces
Smartphones have already replaced desktops which is why mobile-friendly interfaces are a huge trend for online scheduling software. Clients should be able to book appointments, get reminder texts, and solve all their queries through their phones itself.
#5 Cloud-based Management System
Businesses that operate in multiple locations with remotely working employees can access all the information they need using a cloud-based management system. It is free of bugs, more reliable than an on-location server, and allows for storing data securely.
#6 Increased Personalization
Thanks to the rapidly growing smart technology, customers now expect a higher degree of personalization and a streamlined experience while interacting with a business. Automated scheduling software will help meet their expectations by providing personalized reminders, assisting them with scheduling, and following up later to receive feedback.
In a nutshell,
You can sit back and monitor how your automated scheduling software performs and transforms your business once it has been implemented. You will save time, funds, and resources by eliminating the back and forth of the conventional manual booking process. The best scheduling software will keep you, your team, and your customers on the same page at all times.
Your calendars will sync, and clients will be informed to be on time for their appointments. With every minute of your day planned out and scheduled, you’ll have more time to focus on many overlooked but crucial business activities. In today’s competitive world, automation technology plays a major role, and scheduling software can help you deliver excellent experiences at scale.
