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As a busy consultant, your time is valuable. You need to be able to deliver your services in a timely and efficient manner, without compromising on quality. This becomes even more crucial for consultants as your clientele grows.
One way to reduce the cost and time associated with running a consultancy agency is to automate as many processes as possible. This helps you to streamline your processes, freeing up your time to focus on delivering a great service to your clients.
And one way to automate your workflow is to use an appointment scheduling software to do the heavy lifting for you.
A good appointment scheduling tool can accept payments, deal with last-minute cancellations and reschedule requests, and send out notifications on your behalf.
But how do you choose the right tool for your business? Don’t worry, in this post, we’ve listed down the 10 best consultant scheduling apps for you to pick from. Let’s get started!
Since every business operates differently, to choose the best consultant scheduling software, it’s crucial to understand what your needs are.
To help you choose the best one out of this list, we have drawn comparisons using certain criteria, such as:
What’s the use of a scheduling app if your clients don’t have the option to do it themselves? Self-scheduling helps your clients decide on a time that suits them, while still adhering to your current schedule.
Moreover, a good online scheduling app should also let you customize the different kinds of bookings such as 1-on-1 calls, group meetings, etc.
Today, calendar syncing has become a must-have feature in all appointment scheduling apps.
It allows you to integrate your personal calendar(s) with your scheduling app to give an overview of your daily activities. This way, clients get a full picture of your working hours, booked slots, holidays, etc.
You don’t have to worry about double bookings or having meetings when you’re picking up the kids from school.
A top appointment scheduler should come with payment integrations to allow you to take payments right away. In this manner, you can request a down payment to secure a consultation or accept advance payment from clients.
To help automate the appointment scheduling process further, the best scheduler should have the ability to send automated reminders to your clients.
As your clients could have booked consultations with you months in advance, sending reminders will prevent ghosting or no-shows. It’ll be a major plus point if your scheduler has options to send the reminders via messaging platforms like WhatsApp, SMSes, and email.
Oftentimes, your clients are browsing through your website to check out the consultancy services you provide. You’d want to then provide them with an easy way to get in touch and book an appointment so that they don’t bounce off your site.
That said, it’s crucial that the appointment scheduler you choose is embeddable on your website. This can be in multiple ways like a booking CTA button or a standalone booking page.
TimeSync is an online appointment scheduling software that helps to reduce no-shows with WhatsApp, SMS, and email reminders.
Clients can easily book appointments with you through email embedding, a pop-up window, a CTA button, or a standalone booking page.
Additionally, TimeSync’s qualifying tool allows you to create custom questions to filter out unqualified clients. This ensures that you only have meetings with qualified attendees, to improve the productivity and efficiency of your appointments.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes, via WhatsApp, SMS, and email
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free plan, Pro: $7/month
Software reviews:
Amelia is a WordPress appointment and event booking plugin. It is designed for professionals whose business heavily relies on appointments.
Amelia is recognized for being an application that runs without a hitch. Through their WordPress websites, Amelia offers users a simple method to manage their reservations.
The software also gives users the option to accept or reject customers depending on the details they provided throughout the booking process.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free, Basic: $80/yearly, Pro: $121.32/yearly, and Developer: $253.85/yearly
Software reviews:
ScheduleOnce is another scheduling app specifically designed for consultants. It’s a very simple and straightforward app that allows you to create a “meetme page”, which is essentially a virtual appointment book. You can reserve slots in this book and manage the appointment via the program.
The reason ScheduleOnce works so well for consultants is because of the way it handles scheduling. It offers the users two booking options — one that shows only one available time slot to your clients, and the second option shows multiple free time slots to pick the best according to their needs.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free, Growth: $10/month, Enterprise: Custom
Software reviews:
Vectera cloud-based online conferencing platform that makes meetings with small groups of clients incredibly simple.
Not only can you schedule meetings using its simple-to-use interface, but it takes it a step further by providing virtual spaces for conducting meetings.
These rooms provide amenities that make meetings more productive and are accessible around the clock. All clients of the business can utilize it as a communication center.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free, Pro: $8.99/host/month, Business: $18.99/host/month, Enterprise: Custom
Software reviews:
TIMIFY is designed for consultants who want to work from anywhere in the world and still manage client engagements easily.
It provides real-time, end-to-end online booking as well as marketing and promotional tools for consultants.
It is also affordable and easy to use. You can customize your package to meet your needs by adding features like automatic rescheduling of meetings or adding reminders about upcoming changes in schedules.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: No
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Classic: Free, Premium: $25.56/month, Enterprise: $42.94/month, Enterprise Plus: Custom
Software reviews:
This next tool is probably the most famous one on this list and it is Calendly.
Calendly saves you the hassle of sending email after email just to set up a 30-min meeting. With Calendly you can eliminate that hassle. Moreover, you can also use it to make reservations for an individual or even an entire team.
Additionally, new and existing clients can have their reminders and follow-up messages tailored to their needs. You have the choice of sending them through text message or email.
You can integrate it directly to your website or through Zapier.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free, Essentials: $8/month, Professionals: $12/month, Teams: $16/month, Enterprise: Custom
Software reviews:
Booking appointments with SimplyBook.me is a simple and straightforward process. The site has the most thorough and expert scheduling software available, making it possible to schedule appointments across multiple locations and time periods in one place.
With SimplyBook.me, you also can market your goods and services with pre-made booking pages for multiple industries and use cases.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free, Basic: $8.25/month, Standard: $24.90/month, Premium: $49.90/month
Software reviews:
Acuity Scheduling is an app that enables consultants to manage and book appointments on the go. It is ideal for consultants who must rely on mobile devices, and it is especially useful when they are traveling.
Acuity uses two calendars — its own calendar system in addition to syncing with personal calendar applications. This data is used by Acuity to deliver notifications, updates, and reminders for upcoming appointments.
Other than customizing time zones and booking pages based on client requirements, Acuity Scheduling also handles all sorts of payment processes.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes, but only in paid versions
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes.
Pricing: Emerging: $14/month, Growing: $23/month, and Powerhouse: $45/month
Software reviews:
Fons is a great way to make it easy for clients to schedule appointments with you. It’s set up so that customers can reserve times that work best for them, and the system will send reminders to keep them on track.
In addition, only the available times will be visible to the consumer. It adapts itself automatically to different time zones
Fons is designed to cater to both — lone wolves and a full-fledged work team. You can add extra employees and everyone will get their login, timetable, and administrative responsibilities.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes, but only a one-way sync
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free, Up to 5 staff: $37/month, 6 to 20 staff: $98/month, Unlimited staff: $182.90
Software reviews:
Bookafy makes it easy for company owners to organize meetings and coordinate them with employees.
With Bookafy, you can designate the most qualified team member to handle meeting requests. This is especially helpful for anyone who organizes a meeting and will guarantee that they meet in person with the right department.
Linking Bookafy with online programs like Google Calendar allows for easier organizing of meetings, as well as automated payment processing through Authorize.net and Stripe.
It also supports review requests for team members who wish to reschedule a meeting or cancel an appointment at the last minute.
Self-scheduling: Yes
Calendar sync: Yes
Accept payments: Yes
Automated reminders: Yes
Website embed: Yes
Pricing: Free, Pro: $7/month, Pro+: $11/month, Enterprise: Custom
Software reviews:
Finding the right web-based appointment scheduling software for your consulting services can be a daunting task, but it is probably worth the time and effort invested.
From keeping your schedule organized to ensuring your customers get the best possible experience with your business, these tools can help you improve your bottom line. The key is to find the right fit for you and your business.
Although we have drawn a comparison here, it still largely depends on what’s best for your business needs.
If you’re looking for a scheduling app to help promote your consulting services, SimplyBook.me is a great option. Its pre-made booking pages lift the burden of creating yours from scratch.
If you’re looking for a feature-packed scheduling app with an affordable price point, TimeSync would be ideal for you. It has several scheduling features like WhatsApp notifications, custom domain, and automated notifications that help streamline the scheduling process.
What are you waiting for? Try TimeSync for free today to take your appointment scheduling to the next level!
Devesh is a content writer at Novocall.
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