Why Smart Consulting Businesses Offer Online Appointments With Lead Scheduling?
We compare what’s the best method and what are the best schedule maker tools in 2022.
A successful business involves many tasks, like planning, creating, and executing projects. For these tasks, you can have different teams. But there is another essential task: schedule making.
A typical business can attend at least 70 meetings in a month. Each session has a different purpose, client, and timings. How can you keep track of them? Which tool can you use as a schedule maker to make this process easier?
The first thing people think about schedule making is hiring an assistant. This assistant will help you to keep track of all upcoming meetings. But what if you don’t have an assistant? In this scenario, you can use one of the traditional or digital schedule-making tools to create a schedule.
So if you need a tool for appointment booking, keep reading this article as we will discuss the best solutions for making schedules.
OLD SCHOOL: Pen & diary
A pen and diary are the most basic and traditional schedule makers. Before the digital age, they were the only option to create schedules.
However, they are not automated. You will have to put effort into inserting information in a diary. And you will have to do that frequently whenever a change is required. But how often will your employees look at it to ensure that there are no conflicts?
Pen & diary are good daily or weekly schedule makers for individuals. However, you cannot rely on them to arrange the schedules of large teams. Thus you can keep a pen & diary around to keep track of your routine.
Performance Score: D
BAD PRACTICES: Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are more reliable as compared to pen & paper. In a spreadsheet, you will get ready-made rows and columns. Here you can easily insert all meeting types, dates, and which person will attend them. Sounds good.
If you make a mistake, you will not recreate the document. You can correct the mistake, and your schedule will be good to go. So yes, it is a better option if you are uncomfortable with pen and paper, but there are still compromises.
In spreadsheets, you have two options: offline and cloud-based. You can use either of them, but cloud-based is more sensible. Why? You can access it anywhere! It’s always backed up, and you can share it with ease!
Get Started freeAlso, allow trusted team members to make changes on the fly and track who does what without any conflicts. Just don’t expect much security unless you take the proper steps.
Sadly, a spreadsheet is not an all-in-one solution for tracking your leads. You can’t set reminders or link them easily to your website, and if you have more than 20 or 30 leads, it becomes cumbersome. So it can work as a daily schedule maker for a small team, but for a business, a spreadsheet is not a good schedule maker.
Performance Score: C-
GET SMART: Cloud-based automated appointment scheduling software
Calendar software like Microsoft Outlook is better than pen & paper and spreadsheet. Here the months, days, dates, and times are already present. You need to create a schedule according to the requirement. Thus you will need less time to make a schedule via calendar software.
However, you cannot use it as a schedule maker for your whole team. It is a free appointment booking app, but it is not reliable. Microsoft Outlook or other similar calendar software are designed for individual users. If you want to have a better solution for your whole team, you can start using online calendar software like google calendar.
Like other google software, you can allow your employees to view or edit the calendar. Thus making and changing schedules via google calendar will be easier. Also, it is cheaper because google calendar is a free online appointment scheduling software. But you will have to pay for the internet.
However, limitations will still exist because this solution is not entirely automated. So if you want better results, don’t rely on free schedule makers.
Performance Score: A
AND THE WINNER IS Cloud-based automated appointment scheduling software!
12 Best Schedule Maker Tools 2022
Let’s compare the BEST of THE BEST in Cloud-based automated appointment scheduling software on the market in 2022.
MIYN
MIYN is an easy schedule maker. It will handle all of your manual work for booking meetings. You will not even have to call your prospects to confirm the booking. Just place the booking link in your email or set it on your landing page. Using that link, your clients can book quickly.
But you will have to provide the time you will be available to attend the meeting. This time will be shown to your clients. It will help them to choose the best time according to their convenience.
MIYN shares a confirmation message with you when a client books a meeting. Moreover, it also keeps you updated about future meetings. Thus there will be no conflicts, and you will not miss any meeting. So we can say that MIYN is one of the best appointment scheduling apps.
Furthermore, MIYN is an ideal schedule maker online because it has many other tools that can help you boost productivity and revenue. It has amazing CRM software, and it also provides landing pages to increase the conversion rate.
Get Started freeMIYN can also help you with lead generation. If you use this tool, you will no longer need to work with a lead generation agency. Thus you can say that it is an all in one package software.
PRICE: 19 / 39 (USE AUD PRICES)
TERM: MONTHLY / YEARLY
FEATURES: <add checks>
INSTALLATION: SIMPLE
OVERALL SCORE: 4.8/5
<do above research on rest of tools or add any other compare nodes>
Setmore
Setmore is another business scheduling software. It is similar to MIYN. But its primary purpose is limited to scheduling. In case you need more tools, you will need to integrate them.
Also, it allows you to customize the booking page according to your website. Its code works on all major platforms like Wix, Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal. And you can easily use it on different social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Moreover, you can show a part of your calendar to your clients. It will make the scheduling more flexible. And setmore also allows you to receive timely payments via Square.
Do you know? Setmore allows you to create accounts for four members in the free version. It is a good deal, but you will face certain limitations in the free version.
Appointy
You can seamlessly integrate appointy into your website. You can complete this procedure just by clicking a few times. But if you don’t have a website appointy gives you the option to use a separate booking page. You can also add a booking tab on your Facebook. It will help the customers to book meetings at their convenience.
You can enjoy the following features if you use appointy:
- Arrange working hours of staff
- Edit time slot interval
- Simplify recurring booking
Appointy is an excellent tool if you are managing a small team. You can use it to create multiple schedules for your team. Each employee will see his plan, but he will not be able to see the schedule of other teammates. So if you need the same schedule for multiple employees, appointy will not be helpful.
10 to 8
10 to 8 is another reliable schedule maker. It can sync with all calendars, including Outlook, Google, and iCloud. Just like MIYN, it can send automated email and text reminders so you will not miss any meetings.
10 to 8 allows users to cancel or reschedule meetings quickly. Also, you can add multiple calendars if you need to. And, you can add notes and questionnaires according to the client data.
Get Started freeMoreover, it can integrate with multiple third-party apps. For instance, you can integrate Google Analytics, Mail Chimp, and Slack with 10 to 8.
Just like setmore, you can use it to receive payments as well. It is ideal for you if you are a small or a large business. But it can get expensive for you as it charges higher fees for more users.
FantastiCal
FantastiCal will be your ideal schedule maker if you love Apple products since This app is designed specifically for Apple products. You can use this online appointment management software on all Apple gadgets: Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
This calendar organizer allows you to integrate task management apps like Todist and Google Tasks. It will help you to boost productivity. Moreover, FantastiCal makes it easy to manage different time zones. So if you are working with people in different time zones, you will not have to worry about customizing the meeting time.
But you cannot add FantastiCal to your website. So it will not automate the bookings for you. If you want to robotize this task, you need a better solution like MIYN. However, if you love to use Apple products, you can enjoy this app.
Calendly
Calendly is another schedule maker which is widely used in different industries. Its working is similar to many other schedule-making tools. First, you will create a timeline of your availability. Once you have completed this task, your clients can book meetings easily.
You can merge calendly with Google Calendar, Outlook, Microsoft 364, and calendar. You can add calendly on your website, and you can also send booking links through the mail.
You can also construct a variety of meeting types. In free mode, though, you can only choose one. However, under the premium deal, you have the option of selecting as many as you like.
Calendly will email you reminders of all upcoming activities at the appropriate times. You can also combine it with GotoMeeting, Zoom, HubSpot, and Zapier if you want to. You’ll need to sign up for a premium account to utilize these tools.
Acuity
Acuity is another cloud-based office scheduling software. Just like MIYN, it has an easy-to-use interface that can save you time. The procedure is still the same. You will create a schedule, and your customers will book accordingly. It will inform you via SMS or email whenever a meeting is scheduled.
Acuity also has a good CRM system. It allows you to send follow-ups, confirmation messages, and reminders. And you can connect it with different calendars like Outlook and Google calendar.
Furthermore, if you need to receive online payments, you can do it from the same interface. Acuity can use Stripe, Square, Braintree, PayPal, and Authorize.net for online payment transfer. And for improving productivity, you can also integrate Quickbooks and Mailchimp.
However, if you use MIYN, you will not have to use external apps for productivity and marketing.
Bookafy
Bookafy has a different method of managing calendars between people. This is the only feature that separates it from other schedule makers.
For example, you can share your complete schedule with your clients by just activating the two-way synchronization. And when you don’t want to share the schedule with your clients, you can switch to one-way synchronization.
Bookafy also allows you to change the scheduling page. To adjust the booking according to your need, you can customize its colour, font, and messaging options.
Get Started freeYou can also schedule meeting lead times and availability times and dates. You can also set meeting booking limitations for distinct individuals. You may become fatigued if you attend meetings regularly, which is why Bookafy allows you to select the duration between appointments.
Simplybook.me
Simplybook.me is an ideal business scheduling software for international businesses. If your business spreads across borders, you will love this tool. The best feature of this appointment booking app is that you can use it in nine languages which are
- English
- German
- French
- Spanish
- Russian
- Simplified traditional Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
- Korean
Like many other schedule makers, simplybook.me is not limited to your website. You can use its link to book meetings from Facebook and Instagram. Your clients can also use different features on the booking page, like paying fees or purchasing additional products. For online payments, it uses PayPal, Stripe, Alipay, and Skrill.
Moreover, to improve productivity, you can integrate it with different third-party apps, like Mailchimp, Zenkit, and Slack.
Squareup
It is the official schedule maker app of Square. Since Square created it, it has built-in features of online transactions. And it does have a pre-built inventory management system.
Squareup provides all of the company management and meeting scheduling capabilities you’d expect. They also give you the option of creating your free booking site, which might help you attract more customers. The square is perfect for those small enterprises who need to schedule meetings outside of the office.
The square app is available for both desktop and Mac. As a result, you may check your meetings anytime and from anywhere. You can also combine Quickbooks, Xero, Shipstation, Commerce Sync, and other applications with Squareup.
Appointlet
Appointlet is another online schedule maker that you can use in multiple languages. You can use it in Spanish, German, Italian, English, and other languages. And it gives the advantage of arranging endless meetings for free.
Similar to other booking software, you have the authority to set the available times. You have complete control to set gaps between meetings and vacation days. Even if the prospect clicks on unavailable slots, he will not schedule an appointment.
You can share the booking link with your clients via emails or integrate it on your website. Whenever the client books a meeting, you will receive an update. You can notice that many of these booking software have similar characteristics.
Get Started freeHowever, you can use appointlet on all devices. So, whether you are using Windows or Mac, you can access it without any worry. And it can integrate with all significant management and scheduling apps like Google calendar and MailChimp.
HubSpot Meetings
HubSpot is a well-known marketing brand in the United States. It offers marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) software. If you don’t know, it also provides online scheduling software.
You can easily integrate HubSpot meetings into your website. And you can also change it according to your needs.
It would help if you integrated it with other HubSpot technologies for the best use of this tool. For example, you can generate personalized email templates if you use its marketing tools. And you can also set the time to send these emails and track their success rate.
Moreover, you can also integrate other business tools with HubSpot meetings. So you can gather all your business tools under one dashboard.
WINNER: MIYN
A couple of decades ago, we relied on pen & paper or assistants for managing the meeting schedules. Now we have the latest technologies that have automated all tasks related to appointment booking. Once you have an online appointment booking app on your website, you will not arrange meetings.
So you should not waste any of your time and start using online scheduling apps. For this purpose, MIYN can become your perfect partner.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to download a schedule maker?
You will have to download a schedule maker if you are not using cloud-based software. And it is better to use an online schedule organizer as it is not limited to a single device.
Can I use MIYN if my business is working from more than one location?
This can be done by building separate appointment pages for each location, personalizing the services you offer, and assigning team members accordingly. Each site will have its booking page URL, which you can send to consumers or embed on your website. Different workplaces can be added as ‘workspaces,’ and the services provided can be listed.
Does MIYN allow you to customize the booking page?
MIYN allows you to customize the booking page to match your brand. Our customers can customize their scheduling page by changing the layouts and colours. You can contact our support staff if your firm wants a lot of customization.
What type of landing pages can MIYN provide?
MIYN provides landing pages that can improve your sales. And it provides landing pages for all technologies. So whether you need a WordPress landing page or a simple website landing page, MIYN has got you covered.
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