If you want to grow your business (and we all do), you’ll have to accept numerous meetings and appointments on top of your already overbooked schedule. This isn’t an issue if you have the resources to hire an assistant — even a virtual assistant will sometimes suffice. After all, one of the virtual assistant’s responsibilities is to schedule important meetings and appointments for you.
But what if your resources are limited? You may not have the option to hire someone to manage your calendar. I mean, really — bootstrapping and hiring a virtual assistant don’t really go together. This means instead of focusing on activities that can grow your business, you’re busy exchanging phone calls and emails to book an appointment.
Even worse? What if your sales team is running well, but coordinating everyone’s calendars has become too complex for one person to manage? And then there’s the overlapping of appointments and the inevitable double bookings.
The answer to both of these problems is appointment scheduling software. In this way, a client, customer, colleague, vendor, or investor can book an appointment with you online instead of exchanging emails or making phone calls.
But, since there are hundreds of options out there, what appointment scheduling software should you use?
For starters, it should integrate with your existing online calendar, such as Google Calendar or Office 365. It should also allow others to request a time to book an appointment with you and automatically share it via email or on your website.
Beyond the minimum basics, look for features that fit your specific needs. If you need a place to start, compare these 10 appointment-scheduling software tools.
1. Calendar
Calendar is a straightforward scheduling and time-management app. Simply share your calendar via an embedded link or email. The other party will then select the best date and time for the appointment. Once an appointment is scheduled, the event is automatically added to everyone’s calendars.
Calendar can harness the power of machine learning. This means that it can also recommend when and where to meet based on past activity and your locations. Everything auto-updates for your convenience.
In map view, you can glance at your upcoming week to plan events in the most convenient locations. If you need to manually add an event, you can do so by clicking into the app, talking through your phone, or any number of ways that you choose to communicate.
2. Appointment Plus
Appointment Plus is a cloud-based scheduling tool for businesses of all sizes. That’s because it can grow with your business thanks to a variety of plans and a robust API.
Appointment Plus automates the booking process, allowing people to schedule appointments with your organization online or via mobile 24/7. The meeting syncs with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to ensure no one misses the event. But if they do, Appointment Plus will also send out text and email reminders.
Pricing plans start at $49/month.
3. SimplyBook.me
With SimplyBook.me, you can create a customized booking page that can be placed on your website or even your Facebook page. Whenever an appointment is booked, all invited attendees will receive SMS and email reminders. If you prefer, you can hire your own personal phone assistant, iBob.
SimplyBook.me is scalable and includes features for scheduling and managing classes and membership subscriptions.
You can use SimplyBook.me for free, but premium plans are available if you have more than 50 bookings per month.
4. Acuity Scheduling
Like most other scheduling tools, Acuity allows people to view your availability in real time and book their own appointments. Again, this eliminates those time-consuming back-and-forth communications. When a new appointment is booked, you’ll receive SMS and test reminders, and it will automatically update your Google, Outlook, iCloud, or Office 365 calendar.
If you’re in the service industry, you can also use Acuity to accept payments and tips through Stripe, Square, PayPal, Braintree, and Authorize.net.
For those working solo, the free plan should suffice. But if you need the advanced features, you’ll have to select a paid plan starting at $15/month.
5. 10to8
10to8 comes with the basics, such as allowing people to book, reschedule, and cancel appointments online, sending automated reminders, and syncing with your calendar.
However, it also comes with some additional features that make it an impressive scheduling software tool, such as:
- Book meeting rooms.
- 2-way chat with clients.
- Automated questionnaires so that you can capture data prior to an appointment.
- Accept online payments.
- View your daily itinerary.
10to8 is free for small businesses, with monthly plans starting at $9.6/month.
6. Appointy
Appointy is a strong option if your business relies more on social media channels than on your company website. That’s because it easily allows people to book appointments directly from networks like Facebook
Furthermore, you can use Appointy for back-to-back service booking, create recurring events, browse through client histories, and accept payments.
Appointy’s free plan permits unlimited bookings for five services, with added email marketing integrations available for $19.99/month.
7. FlexBooker
Here’s another tool that lets your customers schedule appointments on their smartphones or desktops and receive automated reminders.
What makes FlexBooker unique is its easy-to-install booking widget, which can be placed on any website in seconds. There’s also a color-coded calendar so that you can quickly view the schedule. Another useful feature is the daily recap, which summarizes all your bookings and cancellations from the past 24 hours.
FlexBooker is also fully customizable and integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, Office 365, or Apple Calendar.
After a 30-day free trial, pricing starts at $29/month.
8. vCita
On top of the standard appointment scheduling features, vCita allows your website visitors to request a call, demo or make an appointment with your reps. Other functions include calendar and contact management, email marketing, and online payment processing.
The basic version is free, but for more features, you’ll have to select a plan starting at $29/month.
9. Setmore
Setmore is a popular scheduling tool. And, for good reason. It’s simple, straightforward, and free. Just sign up, and you’ll have a public booking page, along with automated alerts and reminders. If that’s all you need, you’re set.
If you need more robust features, you may want to upgrade to a premium plan for $25/month, which allows you to accept more appointments and process payments through Square. There’s even a live booking option at $89/month.
10. TimeTrade
TimeTrade lets your customers book appointments via mobile, voice, text, web, or your customer-facing app, 24/7. However, with the tool’s patented Smart Matching technology, each and every appointment is matched with the right person and resources based on skill, topic, time, and location.
Another unique feature is that TimeTrade gives your organization an omnichannel presence. This means it can capture people’s interest on social channels and persuade them to schedule an appointment with you.
Image Credit: Barbara Olsen; Pexels
Deanna Ritchie
Editor-in-Chief at Calendar. Former Editor-in-Chief, ReadWrite, Editor-in-Chief and writer at Startup Grind. Freelance editor at Entrepreneur.com. Deanna loves to help build startups, and guide them to discover the business value of their online content and social media marketing.